In Utero is the third studio album by the Grunge band Nirvana, released on September 21, 1993 by DGC Records and produced by Steve Albini. Recording for In Utero took place over two weeks in February 1993 at Pachyderm Studio in Cannon Falls, Minnesota.
Producer Scott Litt was hired to remix the singles All Apologies, Heart-Shaped Box, and Pennyroyal Tea. Nirvana and Albini set a two-week deadline for the recording. Nirvana paid for the sessions with their own money. Studio fees totaled US$24,000, while Albini took a flat fee of $100,000. In February 1993, Nirvana traveled to Pachyderm Studio in Cannon Falls, Minnesota.
The group stayed in a house on the studio grounds. At most sessions, only the band, Albini, and manager Bob Weston were present. Nirvana made it clear to DGC and their management company Gold Mountain that they wanted no intrusions and not to play their work-in-progress for their A&R representative.
For most of the songs, Cobain, Novoselic, and Grohl recorded their basic instrumental tracks together as a band. For faster songs, such as Very Ape and Tourette‘s, the drums were recorded separately in a kitchen for their natural reverberation. Albini surrounded Grohl‘s drum kit with about 30 microphones. Cobain added additional guitar tracks to about half the songs, then guitar solos, and finally vocals.
The band did not discard takes and kept virtually everything they recorded.
Cobain reportedly recorded all of his vocal tracks in six hours. Albini said Cobain, who had battled drug addiction, was focused and sober in the studio, with the sessions ending on February 26.
Tracklist:
- Serve the Servants
- Scentless Apprentice
- Heart-Shaped Box
- Rape Me
- Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle
- Dumb
- Very Ape
- Milk It
- Pennyroyal Tea
- Radio Friendly Unit Shifter
- Tourette’s
- All Apologies
Bonus track on non-US CD pressings
- Gallons of Rubbing Alcohol Flow Through the Strip
Original non-US CD pressings of the album include Gallons of Rubbing Alcohol Flow Through the Strip as a hidden track. It is listed on the back cover as track 13, but is heard after approximately 20 minutes of silence on track 12 following All Apologies, beginning at 24:00.
The art director for In Utero was Robert Fisher, who designed all of Nirvana‘s DGC releases. Most of the ideas for the album’s artwork and related singles came from Cobain. Fisher recalled that “Cobain would just give me some loose things and say ‘Do something with them.'” The album cover is an image of a transparent anatomical mannequin, with superimposed angel wings.
Cobain created the collage on the back cover, which he described as “Sex and Woman and In Utero and Vaginas and Birth and Death“, consisting of models of fetuses, a tortoise shell and tortoise models, and body parts on a bed of orchids. and lilies.
The collage had been installed on the floor of Cobain‘s living room and was photographed by Charles Peterson. The album’s track listing and re-illustrated symbols from Barbara G. Walker‘s The Woman’s Dictionary of Symbols and Sacred Objects were placed around the edge of the collage.
Anatomical figure mannequins with angel wings were used as stage props on Nirvana‘s concert tour in support of In Utero. One such mannequin later appeared in the Experience Music Project museum‘s exhibition “Nirvana: Taking Punk to the Masses,” which ran from April 2011 to 2013 and displayed memorabilia celebrating the band’s music and history.
In Utero was released on September 13, 1993 on vinyl records and cassette tapes in the United Kingdom, and on vinyl in the United States on September 14, with the US vinyl pressing limited to 25,000 copies. It was released on CD in the UK on September 14, and on other formats on September 21. The European and Australian versions of In Utero released that same month featured Gallons of Rubbing Alcohol Flow Through the Strip as a hidden bonus track.
In Utero debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200, selling 180,000 copies. DGC released a new version to stores in March 1994, featuring the edited album art, Rape Me retitled Waif Me and the Scott Litt remix of Pennyroyal Tea. In Utero also debuted at number one in the UK.
In October 1993, Nirvana began their first US tour in two years to promote the album. A second single, a split release including All Apologies and Rape Me, was issued in December in the UK. The band began a six-week European leg in February 1994, but it was canceled after Cobain suffered a drug overdose in Rome on March 6. Cobain agreed to go into drug rehab, but disappeared soon after. On April 8, he was found dead in his Seattle home.
A third single from In Utero, Pennyroyal Tea, was canceled following Cobain‘s death and Nirvana‘s subsequent disbandment; Limited promotional copies were released in Great Britain. Three days after Cobain‘s body was discovered, In Utero went from number 72 to number 27 on the Billboard charts, with a sales increase of 122% of 40,000 copies sold compared to 18,000 the previous week.
In Utero has been certified five times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America for shipments of more than five million units and has sold 4,258,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan. For the album’s 20th anniversary, DGC reissued In Utero in various formats in September 2013.
Nirvana
Kurt Cobain: vocals, guitars, art direction, design, photography
Krist Novoselic: bass guitar
Dave Grohl: drums, percussion, backing vocals
Other musicians
Kera Schaley: cello on All Apologies and Dumb
Technical
Steve Albini: producer, engineer, mixing
Robert Fisher: art direction, design, photography
Alex Grey: illustrations
Michael Lavine: photography
Scott Litt: mixing on Heart-Shaped Box and All Apologies on original release plus Pennyroyal Tea on deluxe edition
Adam Kasper: second engineer to Scott Litt
Bob Ludwig: audio mastering
Karen Mason: photography
Charles Peterson: photography
Neil Wallace: photography
Bob Weston: technician
Kurt Cobain (February 20, 1967 – April 5, 1994).
