Okay, last Steve Albini album for a while. It’s probably the most famous Albini-produced album. It’s probably one the most famous rock albums of the last 30 years. Oops, it’s actually over 30 years old. Albini, Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic sat down with Conan O’Brien to talk about its production last year. That means that now In Utero is as old as The Beatles’s, Barbra Streisand’s and Jorge Ben’s debut albums and James Brown’s Live at the Apollo were then. I think it’s fair to say that music is much less different from 1993 compared to now, than it was in 1993 compared to 1963. I don’t know if 1963 audiences would know what to do with noise freakouts like “Radio Friendly Unit Shifter” or the hardcore parody “Tourette’s.” (Then again, the hippest hepcats were listening to Ornette Coleman smashing two jazz quartets together in 1960, so maybe I’m underrating ol’ timey audiences.) Whereas, I don’t think anything in the rock realm that’s produced today would blow out the ears of someone raised on MTV in 1993.
What is In Utero? It’s Nirvana proving they still have their underground bonafides. It’s a goodbye note from someone who would die by suicide months after its release (“All Apologies” could be about anything, but because of context, now it’s forever about THAT). It’s noisier than their breakthrough Nevermind, but is still melodic. It’s the ideal followup to a world-changing album. And although Nevermind has more of the hits, because of its grimier production, I’ll bet that if you were going to listen to one Nirvana album in 2024, it would be In Utero.