Great article. I always felt like In Utero was too closely coordinated, and too complicated as well. For obvious reasons, I can't help but compare it to Joy Division's Closer. It hints at what is (not) to come, but is wrapped just a bit too tight, definitely in production, but something else. Nirvana had Bleach, and it seems that if Kurt still had the spirit, Rape Me could have been recorded to fit on that album. But, in the interim he did marry, have a kid, and become the face of feeling in the horse latitudes that were the 90's. Fuck.Even if Nirvana’s 1993 album In Utero was much closer in feel to the band’s previous releases than Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band was to “Love Me Do” and “Please, Please Me”, it still came off as a carefully coordinated retreat from the relative accessibility of Nevermind’s hits, darker sounding — in part due to Steve Albini’s production — even if it wasn’t that big a departure lyrically from the already strange and pessimistic word collages of its predecessor.
Funny, In Utero is my favorite album from Nirvana and Closer might be my favorite bit from Joy Division, though that's a harder call.
Have you given Bleach much of a listen? I'm not making the claim that it's their best, but it is a very raw form of the pop punk they perfected. Kurt Cobain really liked the Vaselines, and I think baking in that pop crank nursery rhyme aesthetic was a big part of Nirvana's formula. It's there right in the beginning, but in a uneven and experimental way that is pretty compelling to me.
I have, but not in a long time and I've never given it a very focused listen. I'll have to give it another listen and see if my opinion of it has changed.