In Utero (30th Anniversary Deluxe Edition 2CD)

Nirvana was my favorite band growing up and I would have initially had a copy of this album in the mid 90’s when they were at the peak of their contemporary fame. As with several of my other albums, I carelessly lost it when I transitioned out of my old vehicle and into my new one since I kept a large portion of my music in my vehicle back then for use in it’s CD player. Several years later I found myself finally wanting to get a replacement of it partly because I still like Nirvana but also because I felt I owed an amends to the band for losing my first copy of the album.Recently I got an email from the band indicating that that they are getting ready to release a Super Deluxe Edition reissue to commemorate In Utero’s 30th anniversary. Personally, I continue to have mixed opinions on rereleases such as these as they tend to dramatically alter the album. Personally, I feel that when I have an album from a band I like in my music collection I want it to be as accurate of a rendition as possible of what the artistic vision for the album truly was. For example, I altered my long-time copy of Bleach to more accurately depict how the album was presented during it’s initial release by removing the last two tracks (“Big Cheese” and “Downer”) from my digital copy of the recording. I have also attempted to add tracks to other albums as well under the notion that they were intended to be included in the album during it’s release but for some reason were omitted (here I remain on the fence if Nirvana and Kurt actually wanted to end Nevermind on “Endless, Nameless”). Thus, adding (and potentially removing) tracks to an album is something that I have concern over since it tends to significantly alter the structure and sound of an album. Adding and removing tracks alters the flow of an album which in turn can make for an inaccurate representation of how the album actually was supposed to sound. Of course, effectively separating extra content from the stand-alone album minimizes this problem greatly.Remastering/reissuing albums does tend to offer several benefits, though, including breathing new life back into a classic piece of music and putting it back into circulation for a wider audience to appreciate. I feel it also, quite often, provides fans a higher quality listening experience depending on where the remaster comes from. I think it is generally accepted that it’s best to use a master tape for such a process, if it is still available, since it seems to provide the benefit of making the reissue sound as close to the original as possible with the added benefit of providing a higher quality listening experience that is more in line with where the specifications of today’s technology are currently at. Sometimes reissues do seem to dramatically alter how the album sounds and I feel that the Devonshire Mixes of Nevermind are examples of that. When I say that I am not implying that the Devonshire Mixes sound bad only that they sound dramatically different from the album’s initial presses. I suspect that some fans might actually even like something like that while a good portion of listeners would probably be indifferent. With all that being said, I ultimately settled on the base album over the deluxe edition for this particular purchase as I wanted something that was more reflective of how I remembered the album when I was growing up. Plus, I have access to a significant amount of the songs that were included in the deluxe edition as a result of a friend giving me a copy of With the Lights Out for Christmas several years back. Although my tracks may not be the exact same that would be in the deluxe edition per se I didn’t see the need to get duplicate copies of many of the songs that I already had access to.Something that I really appreciated about getting the reissue of this particular album, though, was that under the CD there was a copy of the collage that Cobain made for the album. This same collage is featured on the back of the album but I could never appreciate what it was on my initial copy of the album. Certainly, having a full color picture of it enlightened me to what it was I had been looking at on the back of this album for all those years. Had I not picked up a reissue of this album it would have been something that I just would have continued to fail to appreciate.Finally, the service from Amazon should be commented on. Overall, I am satisfied with it but this album showed up with a fine crack in the jewel case too. It’s a small complaint when I consider that the album worked fine and I was able to use it in the manner that I saw fit and that it’s liner notes showed up intact as well. I don’t think that these jewel cases are made as sturdy as they used to be and that too is probably part of the problem here. That being said, I am glad to have this album back in my music collection and thank Amazon for helping me secure a new copy of it.

My favorite nirvana project & for good reason, it starts off with the wonderful lyrics and instrumentals on "Serve the Servants", which I feel gives a good description of society towards his music and his relationship with his father. Next comes the heavy "Scentless apprentice", giving a feeling of abnormality and being judged at birth, which makes the "Hey, Go Away!!!" at the top of his lungs, remincent to what a child would do, especially one who has been abnormal to the world he's been living in. Next comes the song "Heart-Shaped Box", for what I can tell as being one of the most twisted, moody ways to make a love song with lyrics like 'I wish I could eat your cancer when you turn black' but also gets more interested get when the hook comes in, 'Hey, wait, I've got a new complaint; forever in debt to your priceless advice", saying that I constantly complain, and no matter how great things look, I'm just focusing on the negative, this album being the last before Kurt passed, makes a lot of the lyrics of self loathing and pain, more potent. Next of course comes "Rape Me", a song that Kurt contain said in an interview, as wanting to make a song with one solid meaning, that people couldn't confuse for something else; to that I have to say he failed because I've gotten several different meanings from this song alone; (record company, legitimate rape, himself) but regardless of what scenario you come to this song, it's still one of the best songs in the album, with lyrics that will wake anyone up; touching on the stigma that 'she was asking for it' Kurt flips the script and shows the listener what a self loathing victim 'asking for it' really sounds like, and delivers a fantastic performance, one added note, if you look at the sound as a jab at the record companies, he starts of with the riff to "Smells like teen spirit" on this song, and just getting a sense of kurt's character, he wasn't very fond of the media & I assume his life after his most popular song, it could also be a little way to say 'hey listen to this, it's you're favorite song' as a way to get the listeners engaged to the filterless lyrics that were about come up; but I've fan girled about this great song long enough. Next comes "France's farmer will have her revenge on Seattle", starts off with a relationship gone wrong, with the partner only caring about money & only worried about the other spouses well being as long as it benefits her, from here on Kurt doesn't seem surprised about this act, saying 'it's starting to sound the same' and then giving the cryptic lyrics, 'I miss the comfort in feeling sad', saying he no longer feel anything anymore & that sadness may be hell but atlas the felt something. Next comes "Dumb", where he gives a handful of depressing lyrics, with a hint that everything will be okay, then calls himself dumb, then follows up with 'I think I'm just happy'; saying that to be happy in this world you gotta be ignorant or dumb because life ain't always bliss. Next comes "Very Ape", where he acknowledges his controdictions and wears them proudly, also he says the lyrics 'out of the ground, into the sky. Out of the sky into the ground' could be a reference to religion in the first line and a reference to suicide in the next. I also would to acknowledge the hilarious line 'if you ever need anything please don't, hesitate to ask someone else first' gets me everytime. Next comes "Milk it", one of the more dark lyriced gems on the album, he starts off by calling himself a parasite with I prusume his partner, feeding off one another's happiness to stay alive, he then say 'look on the bright side is suicide' which holds a lot of weight because of the events after the album, one thing I've noticed is that when he says 'test meat' & 'doll steak' he's almost saying it as if he is as worthless as test meat and want to relate to the imagery of hanging test meat, but non the less, the song is heavy, dark & just what you expect moving on in the album. Next up comes "Pennyroyal tea" which I read use to be a method of abortion, which make 'come sit and drink my pennyroyal tea, distill the life that's inside of me' pretty clear. Next comes "radio friendly unit shifter" not much to say about this song, it has song great imagery, great instrumentals, some of my favorite lyrics such as 'love you for what I am not' and 'a blanket acned with cigarette burns', can't complain. Next is "Tourette's" and this song can be described exactly as the title suggest, chaotic, all over the place & of course very heavy. Finally come the last song "All apologies" and this song is not only a fantastic closer with an amazing riff, but give you a heart wrenching feeling when he reflects on everything that has been said and done, and just takes a deep breath and sits back on his chair, he could possibly be talking to his child, which would explain the peaceful contrast to a very dark/heavy album and the line 'i wish I was like you, easily amused'; all and all this is a fantastic closer to a phenomenal album, if an instrumental or riff doesn't get you the lyrics will, if the lyrics don't get you the delivery will. Nirvana have definitely made one of the best albums I've heard and to be honest it's hard to dispute that this album is less than phenomenal