In Utero

Infobox Album
Name = In Utero
Type = studio
Artist = Nirvana


Released = September 21, 1993
Recorded = February 12, 1993 – February 26, 1993 at Pachyderm Studio in Cannon Falls, Minnesota
Genre = Grunge
Length = 41:11 (U.S.), 68:58 (Europe)
Label = DGC
Producer = Steve Albini & Scott Litt
Reviews =
* Allmusic Rating|5|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=Aqv59kectjq79 link]
* Robert Christgau (A) [http://www.robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?name=Nirvana link]
* "Entertainment Weekly" (B+) [http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,308095,00.html link]
* "NME" (8/10) [http://www.nme.com/reviews/nirvana/7373 link]
* "Q" Rating|4|5 [http://www.q4music.com/nav?page=q4music.review.redirect&fixture_review=122742&resource=122742&fixture_artist=146000 link]
* "Rolling Stone" Rating|4.5|5 [http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/nirvana/albums/album/256512/review/6211727/in_utero link]
Last album = "Incesticide"
(1992)
This album = "In Utero"
(1993)
Next album = Extra album cover 2
Upper caption = Back cover
Type = studio


Lower caption = Featuring a collage created by Kurt Cobain

"In Utero" is the third and final studio album by the American grunge band Nirvana, released on September 21, 1993 by DGC Records. The album's abrasive and aggressive sound was a departure from the polished production of the band's breakthrough second album, "Nevermind" (1991), due in part to the selection of recording engineer Steve Albini. The subject matters of the songs included dysfunctional family, cancer, issues of privacy, and abortion.

"Heart-Shaped Box" was the first single released from the album, followed by "All Apologies/Rape Me", which was released as a double A-side single due to the explicit nature of the latter song. Both singles topped the "Billboard" Modern Rock Tracks chart in the United States. "Pennyroyal Tea" was intended to be released as the third single in April 1994, but was cancelled after the death of the band's frontman, Kurt Cobain.

While "In Utero" did not sell as well as "Nevermind", it was a commercial and critical success. The album was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America by the end of 1993; it was most recently certified 5x platinum, and now ranks in the top 100 bestselling albums in the US.

Background

Nirvana, an Aberdeen, Washington band formed in 1987, had found surprise commercial success with their major label debut, "Nevermind". Despite modest sales estimates—the band's record company, DGC Records, forecast that 50,000 copies would be sold (roughly half of Sonic Youth's DGC debut "Goo") [Cross, 2001. p. 193] —"Nevermind" became a huge commercial success. The album popularized both Seattle grunge and alternative rock in general. [cite web | url=http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4652653/| title=10 years later, Cobain lives on in his music | author=Olsen, Eric| publisher=MSNBC.com|date=2004-04-09| accessdate=2007-07-05]

Recording

Nirvana chose Steve Albini, known as former frontman of the noise rock band Big Black and producer for various indie releases, to record its much-anticipated follow-up to "Nevermind". Albini had a reputation as a principled and opinionated individual in the American independent music scene. While there was speculation that Albini was chosen to record the album due to his underground credentials, Cobain told "Request" magazine in 1993, "For the most part I wanted to work with him because he happened to produce two of my favorite records, which were "Surfer Rosa" [by the Pixies] and "Pod" [by the Breeders] ." Inspired by those albums, Cobain wanted to utilize Albini's technique of capturing the natural ambiance of a room via the usage and placement of several microphones, something previous Nirvana producers had been averse to trying. [DeRogratis 2003, p. 5-6] Months before the band had even approached Albini about the recording, rumors had been circulating that he was slated to record the next Nirvana album. Albini eventually sent a disclaimer to the British music press refuting the allegations, only to get the call from Nirvana's management a few days later. [Azerrad 1994, p. 313] Although Albini considered Nirvana to be "R.E.M. with a fuzzbox" and "an unremarkable version of the Seattle sound," he told Nirvana biographer Michael Azerrad he accepted because he felt sorry for the band, whom he perceived to be "the same sort of people as all the small-fry bands I deal with" at the mercy of their record company.Azerrad 1994, p. 314]

Nirvana, under the guise "The Simon Ritchie Bluesgrass Ensemble", entered Pachyderm Studio in February 1993 to record "In Utero". [Gaar, 2006, p. 40] Albini did not meet the band until the first day of recording, though he had spoken to the band beforehand about the type of album they wanted to make. Albini observed that "they wanted to make precisely the sort of record that I'm comfortable doing." [Gaar, 2006. p. 36–37] Before embarking on the sessions, Albini was sent a tape of demos the band had cut in Brazil in January 1993. The only others present for the duration of the session were Robert S Weston IV (studio maintenance technician), Carter Nicole Launt (chef) and her dog, Z. During the sessions Albini instituted a strict policy of ignoring everyone except for the band in order to prevent the band's managers and label from interfering. [DeRogatis 2003, p. 16-17]

The band recorded the tracks live and kept virtually everything they recorded. [Azerrad 1994, p. 315] Albini and Weston estimate that it took four or maybe five days to record the basic tracks, a couple of days for overdubbing and a final few days mixing. They finished slightly ahead of the two-week deadline, and the album was mixed in under a week; Cobain added additional guitar tracks to about half the songs, then added guitar solos, and finally vocals. The total recording costs for "In Utero" were $24,000, and on top of that, Albini took a flat fee of $100,000. Albini refused points on record sales since he considers the practice to be immoral.

Albini commented that, "On a couple of songs [Cobain] used this broken guitar amplifier that had a really brutal sound and he was talking about how he had to keep it away from the technicians that they toured with because he was afraid that they were going fix it and then the sound would go away."Fact|date=July 2007 Cobain is believed to have employed his Sunburst Univox Custom on most of the guitar parts. On one song he played a rare all-aluminium guitar called a Veleno, which Albini had brought along specifically. According to Albini the "strained, distorted guitar sounds" came from the use of a Fender Twin Reverb amp, with three of its four power tubes broken or missing.Fact|date=July 2007 Everything was recorded on a vintage 24-track analog board (Neve console). For the most part there was no studio trickery utilized during recording; the only "special effect" Albini could recall was a vocal effect on "Milk It" and "Rape Me", "There's a really dry, really loud voice at the end of 'Milk It' [. . .] that was also done at the end of 'Rape Me,' where [Cobain] wanted the sound of him screaming to just overtake the whole band." [Gaar, 2006. p. 45]

Cobain later claimed in "Ooz" magazine that lyrics finished for only half the songs and the rest came from messing around in the studio. [Gaar, 2006. p. 41–42] Yet in the biography, "Come as You Are: The Story of Nirvana", he claimed he again finished writing most of the lyrics within days of recording the vocals, culling most of them from notebooks full of poetry. This assertion (that Cobain wrote a considerable portion of "In Utero" lyrics in the studio), is readily refuted. All album tracks except "Serve the Servants", "Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle" and "Very Ape" had been played live prior to recording the album, in most cases with identical lyrics, and minor additions or changes to "Rape Me" and "All Apologies".Fact|date=July 2007

Pre-release controversy

After the recording sessions were completed, Nirvana sent [http://rapidshare.com/files/12171554/In_Utero_Demos.rar.html unmastered tapes] of the album to various people at Geffen and at its management company Gold Mountain. Cobain described their reactions to the album as "The grown-ups don't like it." Cobain said he was told that the songwriting was "not up to par", and that the sound was "unlistenable". [Azerrad, p. 331] Few at Gold Mountain or Geffen had wanted the band to record with Albini to begin with, and Cobain felt he was receiving an understated message to scrap the sessions and start all over again. Cobain was upset; he told biographer Michael Azerrad, "I should just re-record this album and do the same thing we did last year because we sold out last year—there's no reason to try and redeem ourselves as artists at this point. I can't help myself—I'm just putting out a record I would like to listen to at home." However, various friends of the group loved the album. By early April 1993, Nirvana was intent on releasing the album as it was. Cobain said, "Of course, they want another "Nevermind", but I'd rather die than do that. This is exactly the kind of record I would buy as a fan, that I would enjoy owning." [Azerrad, p. 332]

However, the band members began to have doubts about the record's sound; Cobain remarked "The first time I played it at home, I knew there was something wrong. The whole first week I wasn’t really interested in listening to it at all, and that usually doesn’t happen. I got no emotion from it, I was just numb." [Mothersole, Ben. "Nirvana's Kurt Cobain: Getting to know Utero". "Circus", November 30, 1993.] The group concluded that the problem was that the bass and lyrics were inaudible, and approached Albini to remix the album. Albini declined, saying " [Cobain] wanted to make a record that he could slam down on the table and say, 'Listen, I know this is good, and I know your concerns about it are meaningless, so go with it.' And I don't think he felt he had that yet. .... My problem was that I feared a slippery slope." [Gaar, p. 69] The band attempted to fix its concerns with the record during the mastering process with Bob Ludwig at his studio in Portland, Maine. Novoselic was pleased with the results, but Cobain still didn't feel the sound was perfect. [Azerrad, p. 336]

Soon afterward, in April 1993 Albini remarked to the "Chicago Tribune" that he doubted Geffen would release the completed album. [Kot, Greg. "Record Label Finds Little Bliss in Nirvana's Latest". "Chicago Tribune", April 19, 2003.] While there was no immediate reply to his remarks from the group or the label, "Newsweek" ran a similar article soon after that focused wider attention on the story. [Goodman, Fred. " [http://www.rollingstone.com/artists/nirvana/articles/story/5934595/nirvana_to_newsweek_drop_dead Nirvana to "Newsweek": Drop dead] ". "Rolling Stone". June 24, 1993. Retrieved on February 10, 2008.] Nirvana denied any pressure from its label to change the album's sound. The band sent a letter to "Newsweek" that said that the article's author "ridiculed our relationship with our label based on totally erronous ["sic"] information"; the band also reprinted the letter in a full-page ad in "Billboard". Geffen president Ed Rosenblatt insisted in a press release that Geffen would release anything the band submitted, and label founder David Geffen made the unusual move of personally calling "Newsweek" to complain about the article. [Azerrad, p. 336-37]

Nirvana wanted to do further work on the recorded tracks, and considered working with producer Scott Litt and remixing some tracks with Andy Wallace (who had mixed "Nevermind"). Albini vehemently disagreed, and claimed he had an agreement with the band that it would not modify the tracks without his involvement. Albini initially refused to give the album master tapes to Gold Mountain, but relented after a phone call from Novoselic. The band decided against working with Wallace and chose to remix and augment the songs "Heart-Shaped Box" and "All Apologies" with Litt in May 1993. [Azerrad, p. 337-38] One song, "I Hate Myself and Want to Die", was dropped from the tracklisting because Cobain felt there were too many "noise" songs on the album. [DeRogatis, p. 6] The rest of the album was left unaltered aside from a remastering which sharpened the bass guitar sound and increased the volume of the vocals by approximately three decibels. [Azerrad, p. 338]

Release

Nirvana was convinced that "In Utero" would not be as successful as "Nevermind". Cobain told music critic Jim DeRogatis, "We're certain that we won't sell a quarter as much, and we're totally comfortable with that because we like this record so much." [DeRogatis 2003, p. 4]

"In Utero" was released on September 24, 1993. DGC Records took a low-key approach to promoting the album in order to avoid hype. Geffen/DGC's head of marketing explained to "Billboard" prior to the album's release that the label was taking a similar approach to promoting "Nevermind", explaining that the label "will set things up, duck, and get out of the way". The label aimed its promotion at alternative markets and press, and released the album on the vinyl record as part of this strategy. [Rosen, Craig. "Nirvana Set has Smell of Success". "Billboard". September 25, 1993.] Upon its release, "In Utero" debuted at number one on the "Billboard 200" album chart. [" [http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,308282,00.html In Numero Uno] ." "Entertainment Weekly". October 8, 1993.] At the time of its release, retail chain stores Wal-Mart and Kmart refused to sell the album. According to "The New York Times", Wal-Mart claimed the album was not carried due to lack of consumer demand, while Kmart representatives explained that the album "didn't fit within our merchandise mix." [Pareles, Jon. " [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE5DE103DF937A25752C1A965958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=3 Nirvana, the Band That Hates to Be Loved] ". "The New York Times". November 14, 1993. Retrieved on February 25, 2008.]

"Time"'s Christopher John Farley wrote in his review of the album, "Despite the fears of some alternative-music fans, Nirvana hasn't gone mainstream, though this potent new album may once again force the mainstream to go Nirvana." [Farley, Christopher John. " [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,979260,00.html To The End Of Grunge] ." "Time". September 20, 1993. Retrieved on February 25, 2008.] "Rolling Stone" reviewer David Fricke wrote, "In Utero" is a lot of things – brilliant, corrosive, enraged and thoughtful, most of them all at once. But more than anything, it's a triumph of the will." [Fricke, David. [http://www.rollingstone.com/reviews/album/256512/in_utero "In Utero" (review)] . "Rolling Stone". September 16, 1993. Retrieved on February 25, 2008.] "Entertainment Weekly" gave the album a B+. Reviewer David Browne wrote "Kurt Cobain hates it all" and commented that the sentiment pervades the record. Browne argued, "The music is often mesmerizing, cathartic rock & roll, but it is rock & roll without release, because the band is suspicious of the old-school rock cliches such a release would evoke." [Browne, David. [http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0,,308095,00.html "In Utero" (review)] . "Entertainment Weekly". September 24, 1993. Retrieved on February 25, 2008.] "NME" gave the album an eight out of ten rating. Reviewer John Mulvey had doubts about the record; he concluded, "As a document of a mind in flux - dithering, dissatisfied, unable to come to terms with sanity - Kurt [Cobain] should be proud of [the album] . As a follow-up to one of the best records of the past ten years it just isn't quite there." [Mulvey, John. [http://www.nme.com/reviews/nirvana/7373 "In Utero" (review)] . "NME". September 4, 1993. Retrieved on February 25, 2008.] Ben Thompson of "The Independent" commented that in spite of the album's more abrasive songs, "In Utero" is beautiful far more often than it is ugly", and added, "Nirvana have wisely neglected to make the unlistenable punk-rock nightmare they threatened us with." [Thompson, Ben. "In Utero" (review). "Independent on Sunday". September 1993.]

Music

Lyrical content

"In Utero" was the first Nirvana album that included lyrics in its liner notes, partly because Cobain wanted to be taken more seriously as a songwriter, and partly because Cobain's singing style often made it difficult to understand his lyrics. [Gaar, 2006. p. 82]

Though Cobain himself stated that "for the most part ["In Utero"] 's very impersonal," [Savage, Jon. "Sounds Dirty: The Truth About Nirvana". "The Observer", August 15, 1993.] much of the album is related to his personal life. "Serve the Servants" references Cobain's personal experiences, both recent and past. The opening line "Teenage angst has paid off well / Now I'm bored and old" references Nirvana's unexpected success and acclaim. The song also references the treatment of Courtney Love in the press through a metaphor about witch-hunts ("If she floats then she is not a witch like we thought"), and belittles the impact of his parents' divorce ("That legendary divorce is such a bore"). However, most of the song is about Cobain's father; in a rough draft of the album's liner notes, he wrote that "I guess this song is for my father, who is incapable of communicating at the level of affection in which I have always expected." [Cobain, Kurt. "Journals", Riverhead Hardcover, 2002. ISBN 978-1573222327. p. 225–226]

Similarly, "Rape Me" contains a reference to a "Vanity Fair" article about Courtney Love, that accused her of taking heroin while pregnant and included an anonymous quote from a close friend of the band. [cite web| url=http://homepage.mac.com/kia/magick/courtney.html| title="Strange Love"| author=Hirschberg, Lynn| publisher="Vanity Fair"|date=September 1992| accessdate=2007-06-16] The article was so hurtful to Cobain that he contemplated a double suicide with Love the day after their child, Frances Bean Cobain, was born. [Cross, 2001. p. 247] The line "my favorite inside source" from the bridge of "Rape Me" reflects Cobain's feelings of betrayal at the anonymous source in the article.

Other songs contain thinly-veiled attacks on the media. "Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle" was inspired by actress Frances Farmer, with whom Cobain was fascinated, particularly the fictionalized account of her life presented in the novel "Shadowland". [Gaar, 2006. p. 50–51] Although inspired by an outside influence, Cobain draws a parallel to his own life, and compares the unfair treatment of Farmer to the treatment he received in the press. The song "Radio Friendly Unit Shifter" is an attack on the music industry. In the music industry, the term "radio friendly" refers to a song which radio stations consider "airable", while the term "unit shifter" refers to a song that can sell an album.

Although Cobain had flirted with medical themes in the past, it had never been to the extent as on "In Utero". In addition to the medical-themed artwork, many of the songs contain mentions of or references to semen, hymens, open sores, parasites and abortion.Fact|date=January 2008 "Milk It" and "Pennyroyal Tea" are perhaps the most medical-oriented songs on the album.

The song "Scentless Apprentice" was written about "", a historical horror novel about a perfumer's apprentice born with no body odor of his own but with a highly developed sense of smell, and who attempts to create the "ultimate perfume" for himself by killing virgin women and taking their scent. [Gaar, 2006. p. 43]

Imagery

The art director for "In Utero" was Robert Fisher, who had designed all of Nirvana's releases on DGC Records. Most of the ideas for the artwork for the album and related singles came from Cobain. Fisher recalled that " [Cobain] would just give me some loose odds and ends and say 'Do something with it.'" [Gaar, 2006. p. 79]

The cover of the album is an image of a Transparent Anatomical Mannikin, with angel wings superimposed. Cobain created the collage on the back cover, referred to as "Sex and woman and "In Utero" and vaginas and birth and death", which includes fetuses and body parts lying in a bed of orchids and lilies. The collage had been set up on the floor of Cobain's living room and was photographed by Charles Peterson after an unexpected call from Cobain. According to Peterson, "one Sunday afternoon, Kurt calls me up, and is like 'Hey, I want you to take that picture now.' [...] I rummaged for whatever film I had in the fridge, and went over." [Gaar, 2006. p. 83] The album's track listing and re-illustrated symbols from Barbara G. Walker's "The Woman's Dictionary of Symbols and Sacred Objects" were then positioned around the edge of the collage.

The photograph of the heart-shaped box on the "Heart-Shaped Box" single was taken by Cobain and given to Fisher with the request that he "make something pretty." [Gaar, 2006. p. 85] Though Cobain would be less involved with the creation of the cover for "All Apologies/Rape Me", he had told Fisher to use seahorses giving birth; seahorses would also be on a promotional t-shirt and pin sold on several of Nirvana's tours. Cobain had no input for the artwork accompanying "Pennyroyal Tea".

Album title

The original title for "In Utero" was to be "I Hate Myself And Want to Die", sharing its title with a song that was penned for the album. The phrase had originated in mid-1992 from one of Cobain's journal entries, and was claimed by Cobain to be a sarcastic response to concerned family and friends when they asked Cobain how he was feeling. The album title would soon be changed after Novoselic convinced Cobain that "I Hate Myself And Want to Die" could be misconstrued as an endorsement of suicide, and could therefore potentially result in a lawsuit if a fan were to take the title seriously and actually attempt suicide. After rejecting the controversial album title and song, the band considered the title "Verse Chorus Verse", a title shared with "Verse Chorus Verse" and an earlier working title of "Sappy". The final title was taken from one of Courtney Love's poems, [Cross, 2001. p. 277–278] and is a Latin term meaning "in the uterus".

Track listing

All songs by Kurt Cobain except where noted.

#"Serve the Servants" – 3:36
#"Scentless Apprentice" (Cobain, Dave Grohl, Krist Novoselic) – 3:48
#"Heart-Shaped Box" – 4:41
#"Rape Me" – 2:50
#"Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle" – 4:09
#"Dumb" – 2:32
#"Very Ape" – 1:56
#"Milk It" – 3:55
#"Pennyroyal Tea" – 3:37
#"Radio Friendly Unit Shifter" – 4:51
#"Tourette's" – 1:35
#"All Apologies" – 3:51

"Gallons of Rubbing Alcohol Flow Through the Strip" (Cobain, Grohl, Novoselic) is a bonus track, labeled a "devalued American dollar purchase incentive track", available on European, Mexican and Australian copies of "In Utero", as well as various other non-U.S. pressings. It is a jam recorded in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in January 1993, and does not get a separate track position on the disc, starting at about 23 minutes after the end of "All Apologies".

Chart positions

Album

Personnel

* Kurt Cobain – guitar, Vocals, art direction, design, photography
* Krist Novoselic – bass
* Dave Grohl – drums, backing vocals
* Kera Schaley – cello
* Steve Albini – engineer
* Adam Kasper – assistant engineer
* Bob Weston – technician
* Scott Litt – mixing
* Bob Ludwig – audio mastering
* Robert Fisher – art direction, design, photography
* Karen Mason – photography
* Charles Peterson – photography
* Michael Lavine – photography
* Neil Wallace – photography
* Alex Grey – illustrations

Pressings and reissues

* The first vinyl pressing of "In Utero" came on clear vinyl. There were 15,000 of these records pressed.
* "In Utero" was reissued by British label Simply Vinyl, and as a gold CD by Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab.
* In 1999 "In Utero" was re-released together with Nirvana's previous studio album "Nevermind".
* In 2003 what is believed to be the original Albini mix of In Utero was issued as a vinyl-only release by Universal Records in the UK. This is believed to be the result of a mistake at the factory when the wrong master tapes were used to have the album recut. The discs were manufactured in Germany. They can be identified by the numbers A33 9124 536 S1 320 pressed into the deadwax, or the catalog numbers 424 536-1 on the disc.
* In 2004 "In Utero" was re-released in Europe together with Nirvana's compilation album "Incesticide".

References

* Azerrad, Michael. "Come as You Are: The Story of Nirvana", Doubleday, 1994. ISBN 0-385-47199-8.
* Cross, Charles. "Heavier Than Heaven: A Biography of Kurt Cobain", Hyperion, 2001. ISBN 0-7868-8402-9.
* DeRogatis, Jim. "Milk It!: Collected Musings on the Alternative Music Explosion of the 90's". Da Capo, 2003. ISBN 0-306-81271-1
* Gaar, Gillian G. "In Utero 33⅓", Continuum, 2006. ISBN 0-8264-1776-0.

Notes

External links

* [http://www.livenirvana.com/official/inutero.html Live Nirvana Companion to Official Releases - "In Utero"]
* [http://www.livenirvana.com/sessions/studio/january-1993.php Live Nirvana Sessions Guide - January 1993]
* [http://www.livenirvana.com/sessions/studio/feb-march-1993.php Live Nirvana Sessions Guide - February 1993]
*