Albums I Dig...In Utero

I've decided to try and blog once a day an album that I'm listening too I that I really respect and enjoy...

Ok first album I'm picking is an album that has been in my head, car stereo, ipod, itunes, everywhere since I bought it, and that'd be Nirvana's swan song In Utero.  Good Lord is it an amazing album.  This is an album that I'd throw up there with Pinkerton, In the Aeroplane Over the Seas as one of the greatest albums of the 90's and easily one of my favorite new albums.  Now Nevermind is the album they will always be remembered for, and rightly so...It ushered in a new genre and sound to the teenagers who needed a voice, and had everyone at MTV sigh a collected sigh of relief.  But what In Utero offers is what I think Nirvana wanted us to hear...a raw feedback infused scream.  It is also upsetting because this album could have been the tip of the iceberg of what they truly could have become.  This album gives the impression that they were moving toward something much greater then anything we'd heard from them, and unfortunately never hear.

This album offers everything from 90's era heavy metal (Scentless Apprentice, Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge On Seattle), all out punk (Tourette's), a "classic" Nirvana sound if you will (Heart-Shaped Box, Pennyroyal Tea), some of the best use of feedback I've ever heard (Radio Friendly Unit Shifter) to a song that seemed eerily perfect as their final studio album song (All Apologies).

Now one of the standout tracks on the album is one of their more popular when it comes to box sets and greatest hits, and that is the song Rape Me.  But as much as I love overdubbed over the top music (Dream Theater, Queen, Muse), I also have a deep respect for the wholly simplistic, which this album clearly is, but more importantly so is this song.  The verse and chorus are the same four chords.  The only difference is the fact that during the verse the chords are clean, and at times arrpeggioed, and then the chorus is kicked into a distorted overdrive.  Then comes the bridge out of nowhere and it gets you interested all over again.  But for me it is the razor blade screams he spews forth near the end ( "Rape me!  Rape me!") that are insanely chilling.  I swear there are a couple screams that sound like his soul is going to jump out of his throat.  Maybe my favorite Nirvana song of all time.

One of the reasons I never really got into Nirvana when I was younger was because I never thought Kurt was having fun, it always seemed like one big depressed wail.  But I got on this album that he was enjoying himself, even though he was singing about depressing topics at times, his voice seems more adventurous to roam wherever it wanted to go.  He lets his guitar slide in and out of distortion at will.  He finally seems free to do what he wanted to do on a record, and not be a voice just a singer.  It was almost as if he was starting his band all over again, playing for the first time together in a garage in Seattle.  He seemed for at least a little while...happy.