To give a follow-up to an album as unique as "Nevermind", here is the kind of challenge that can make any musician crazy. However, in 2 weeks only, Nirvana will record their new album and manage to merge their rough and brutal side with their fantastic melodic qualities in the same record.
This "In Utero" reconciles indeed the garage band roots of the group with its natural tendency to softness which is expressed as well through a brilliant Pop as through ballads all in emotion. If "In Utero" is slightly more peaceful musically than "Nevermind", it is much more tortured in terms of lyrics. Beside 'Milk It' and the exutory title, 'Tourette's', which release the raw and primary rage of which the band was accustomed, a lot of tracks like 'Dumb' and 'All Apologies', allow us to discover a fragile and moving band.
The global style did not change much and we find this unstoppable sense of composition which makes the strength of Nirvana. The main evolution is certainly due to the sound, "In Utero" being much more raw than its predecessor. Therefore, the polemics born from the production of Steve Albini (Pixies, Page & Plant, Neurosis...) are numerous. One reproaches in particular to the latter to have under mixed the vocals and the bass. However, it must be recognized that it is this slightly dirty sound that has greatly legitimized the artistic integrity of the band. Through this treatment, the intrinsically pop songs gain in flavor and depth. As for the more marginal tracks, which Nirvana felt compelled to include in order to soften their mainstream image, they blend beautifully into this raw cauldron of sound.
The result is a record more uneven and less accessible than "Nevermind" but which contains a considerable number of nuggets transcended by the voice full of emotion of its leader. Among these, we can mention the excellent and unavoidable 'Heart Shaped Box', 'Penny Royal Tea', 'Rape Me' or 'All Apologies' but also some less known but equally enjoyable tracks, like the massive 'Scentless Apprentice' or the punk 'Milk It'.
Some tracks remain rather dispensable like 'Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge On Seattle' or 'Very Ape' and harm the harmony of the whole. This reflects the ambiguities that animated some members of the group, in particular Kurt Cobain who struggled to assume his recent notoriety and who was looking for an artistic virginity through choices a little too fiery.
"In Utero" is an excellent album that has aged very well and that proves that Nirvana was not only a fashion phenomenon but a talented band. About 6 months after the release of this record that he initially wanted to call "I Hate Myself and I Want to Die", Kurt Cobain gave himself up for dead...