While not a fan of what the music of Nirvana did to my favorite era of music, the 80s hard rock/metal scene, there's no denying that they were indeed a great, legendary band who's style, angst and disdain for everything the 80s represented was genuine.
And while Kurt Cobain's ultimate decision to end his life was pathetic and a totally lame way out of dealing with his problems, you have to admire the fact that he was completely against the success his music brought him and did everything he could to end it. In Utero took all the building blocks achieved from the unbelievable success of their Nevermind album and pushed it all away. At the time of it's release in 1993, people were completely put off by the stark sound, the punk themes, and the absolute defiance of success the band decided to take. In Utero: Classic Album Under Review revisits not only the recording of this release, but the transition of this band from a garage entity to superstars to, ultimately, legends through disaster.
Most interesting in this DVD is the constant, seemingly endless footage of Cobain simply pissing on the success the band achieved with Nevermind. With almost every interview, Cobain is highlighted showing his disgust for the fame, the fortune, and the intrusion it took into his life. As the DVD shows, this completely infiltrated the band's writing and recording sessions for In Utero. Instead of making another album full of slick, radio ready hits, the band hired legendary punk producer Steve Albini to record a thinned down, stark release that did everything it could to avoid being a radio success.
When the music was radio-ready, the themes were outside the scope of traditional airplay. Songs like “Rape Me” actually had decent runs at radio in spite of their message. The album took shots at their success (“All Apologies”), the record industry (“Serve The Servants”, “Milk It”, “Radio Friendly Unit Shifter”) and even Cobain's wife Courtney Love (“Heart Shaped Box”). Throughout the disc, you got the sense this was a band that was ready to implode. It's just too bad no one fully understood what that meant.
Article comments
1 - Mark Saleski
this was the first Nirvana record that i bought. Nevermind was all over the place and i just didn't really care for it all that much. but then i read a feature on Cobain and some of the truly weird ideas behind some of the tunes on this one ("Scentless Apprentice" comes to mind) and picked it up. harsh, is what it is.
2 - Vern Halen
I've always appreciated Cobain's talent for great melodies over slammin' chords, but his lyrics were never my bag. Still, I'm continually surprised by how good this band was - their rehearsal take which became a hit single from their hits album, their unpluggged collection - I'm sure if I had all of Nirvana's albums I'd develop a better appreciation for them.
My strongest memory of his suicide was all the teenagers whom I talked to immediately afterwards who were shocked at his death, but didn't really own many of the band's albums or know much about the band at all. A few years later, a similar experience happened when Princess Diana died - all the kids who had nothing whatsoever to say about the monarchy were in tears over her passing. And in both cases, I wondered how much influence the media had in promoting the tragic nature of celebrity deaths. I dunno - maybe it was just coincidence, but in both cases there seemed to be a need to have a celebrity to mourn.
3 - Buzz
In Utero was the best tour concert I' ever saw! Thanks Kurdt!