In Utero - Nirvana

'Teenage angst has paid off well, and now I'm bored and old' proclaims Kurt Cobain - and in fact his final album with Dave and Krist drops most (but not all) of the angst from Nevermind. In Utero is a far more abrasive, angry and far less hooky album than Nevermind - in part fueled by Cobain's increasing frustration with fame. No doubt nobody else in the history of music itself has been so thoroughly traumatised by fame as Cobain was, and on this album, it shows terrifically - in Cobain's terrified shrieking on 'Tourette's', his glue-sniffing persona on 'Dumb', his repeated scream 'GET AWAY' on 'Scentless Apprentice'. 

This is an album permeated with horror, and the effect must have been immense when it came out in the 90s because prior to this rock and roll was very much a macho affair - all big hair, poncy arrangements and misogyny. Nirvana castrated rock and replaced the big hair macho men with angry, scared shitless teenagers. The world would never trust the music industry quite the same way again when Cobain shot himself, and legions of imitators would go on to spawn alternative rock, for better or for worse. 

In Utero ends on a slower, softer note with 'All Apologies', a song widely considered to be Cobain's masterpiece. Hinting at REM and Sonic Youth, Cobain opens with a snaky, sad guitar riff. 'What else should I be? All apologies' he sings, 'Everything's my fault' and when he hits the crashing chorus it is with self-destructive abandon and an almost prophetic premonition of doom.

More than 10 years ago Frank Black of the Pixies sang 'If all in all is true, won't you please run over me' on his song 'Levitate Me'. On this album, Cobain's last release, on the last bit of the last song, he sings, almost as if answering Frank Black - 'All in all is all we are.'

adam