To say that Nirvana's third and ultimately final studio album In Utero was 1993's most polarizing record would be the understatement of a decade. The unadorned sonic rawness of Steve Albini's recording laid bare every primal nuance of the most confrontational yet vulnerable material Kurt Cobain, Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl would ever record. And with its 1991 predecessor Nevermind having sold some 30 million copies, singlehandedly returning honest rock ’n’ roll to the top of the pop charts, In Utero was essentially the first record Nirvana would make with any expectations from the public.
So from the opening quasi-shamble melodics of ‘Serve The Servants’ through the bittersweet closing strains of ‘All Apologies’, In Utero was the sound of the most incredible yet conflicted rock ‘n’ roll band of the era at the peak of its powers coming to terms with a generational spokes-band mantle they'd never seen coming—and ultimately surmounting these struggles to make the record they needed to make. As Rolling Stone's David Fricke said in his review at the time, “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.”
Universal Music Group commemorates the 20th anniversary of the unwitting swansong of the single most influential artist of the 1990s with a multi-format release.
This 3LP Edition features the original album remastered at Abbey Road Studios on 2LPs and for the first time available at high fidelity 45 RPM, plus a 33 1/3 RPM LP of all the remastered B-sides, never-before-heard original mixes and bonus tracks from the original album release. All 3LPS are on 180 gram vinyl.