Nirvana Music:

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In Utero - Virgin Vinyl Reviews:
classic
2009-12-12 - People freaked in 1993 when Rolling Stone critic, David Frike drew comparisons between [ASIN:B00004WGEL John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band]] and In Utero when he reveiwed the album. How dare he compare this young punk to a mighty Beatle.

But Frike made a valid point. Both Lennon and Kurt Cobain came from poor families, broken homes, and used their music to express their experiance, their rage, with brutal honesty.

The music was different as were the eras--different entirely. But the same brutal honesty is the thread between Lennon and Cobain. It was not just that the music was autobiographical--it had the fullness of rock, the brutallity of punk, and the ugly beatuy of the worlds most famous artist ripping his guts out and handing them to you. "Wanna make me a commodity?" they might have said, "take a f-u------c-----ing look at THIS!"

THIS! is rock from the deepest inside out. Ok, soon after Kurt died, grunge became a brand name and copy bands were selling rage like Arid Extra Dry.

But I recently listened to Plastic Ono and In Utero back to back, and I came to tell you, the Nirvana album is the real deal. (The Lennon goes without saying.) Listen to, say or "Heart Shaped Box," "All Apologies," or "Penny Royal Tea." Penny Royal Tea was what Cobain had to drink to soothe a stomach ailment he had that kept him in horrible pain much of the time. It probably factored into his drug use.

Then listen to "I Found Out," "Well Well Well," or "Hold On, John."
The same emotional brutallity is expressed through the raw guitars, the dark energy of the hard rock. This is not guitar playing as muscianship, but guitar playing as pure espressionism. Listen to Cobain on "Senseless Apperntice," and almost screams like Lennon on
"Well Well Well," or even his experimental primal albums with Yoko

Of course there are differences. Massive ones. John says "Hold On." Kurt says "Rape Me." John finds out. Kurt appoligizes. John is trying to conquor his pain. Kurt is caving into it. Lennon came from peace and love. Cobain came from punk rock and pure rage. The times were different

Plastic Ono is a therapy session. In Utero is a suicide note.

But in terms of pure emotional exprssion, no albums do it like these two, and both are essential to any understanding of rock history.




In Utero
2009-12-10 - In Utero is a great CD. from the opening of "Serve the servents" to the mellow "all apologies". highlights are the metal friendly "scentless apprentice", the fast punk-like "Radio friendly Unit shifter",the fast and slow melancholy of "rape me" and the depressed ballads "heart-shaped box" and "pennyroyal tea".

Recorded in 2 weeks
2009-10-23 - Note the whole medical vibe of the cover art and song lyrics - like Kurt felt the record industry was dissecting him and exposing his life for everyone to see. Dave Grohl really gives John Bohnam a run on this record - his bass drumming sounds like Thor's hammer hitting a drum the size of a refrigerator. This really is in a lot of ways Bleach II not in the sense of rehashed material but a returning to their harder and darker roots.

Nirvana's last studio record.
2009-09-25 - A short while after this record came out, Kurt Cobain died. In any case, this record was a departure from their previous record, but perhaps wasn't quite as good as Nevermind, which sold more records. All in all, a good record, but it would have been interesting to hear what came out next.

At first I didn't like the second side of this
2009-08-31 - I used to have this on cassette, and the first side of this album is perfect. It sounds like they wanted to take grunge to the next level, and make this one even more lo-fi sounding than "Nevermind". "Serve The Servants" is an underrated song that should've gotten some airplay on the radio. I only heard it once on 98 Rock a Tampa station, then a song I originally thought as a weak song "Scentless Apprentice" shows it's a competent song. "Heart Shaped Box" was the big hit on the radio down here in Central Florida, but the song that got it pulled from Walmart has also been getting airplay down here called "Rape Me". Then comes my favorite song on the album "Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge On Seattle" Cobain's favorite actress was Frances Farmer who was wild lady of the late 30's-early 40's, and when she couldn't control her partying she was committed to a asylum where she wound up getting a lobotomy which changed her forever, and she died in 1970 at the age of 56. "Dumb" is just there. Side 2 I originally thought that this was where the album fell apart as it was nothing but noise with Cobain shrieking, and it was drenched in feedback and distortion. However, after sampling the second side I found it to actually be a good side. "Going Ape" kicks off side 2, and then follows with