Classic Album Cover Art- Nivana In Utero

Nirvana In Utero

In Utero is the third and final studio album by the American grunge band Nirvana and was released on September 21, 1993 by DGC Records. The album's abrasive and aggressive sound was a departure from the polished production of the band's breakthrough second album, Nevermind (1991), due in part to the selection of recording engineer Steve Albini. The subject matters of the songs included dysfunctional family, cancer, issues of privacy, and abortion.

The music was recorded quickly (two weeks) with very few studio embellishments, and the song lyrics and album packaging incorporated medical imagery that conveyed frontman Kurt Cobain's outlook on his publicized personal life and his band's newfound fame. In fact, soon after the recording was completed, rumors circulated in the press that DGC might not release the album in its original state, as the record label felt that it would not be a commercial success. Nirvana publicly denied the statement, instaed stating that they were not fully satisfied with the sound Albini had captured. But, Albini declined to alter the album any further so Nirvana hired Scott Litt to make minor changes to the album's sound and remix the singles "Heart-Shaped Box" and "All Apologies".

Upon release, In Utero entered the Billboard 200 chart at #1 and received critical acclaim as a drastic departure from Nevermind. The record has been certified five times platinum by the RIAA, and has sold more than four million copies in the United States alone.

The art director for In Utero was Robert Fisher, who had designed all of Nirvana's releases on DGC Records. Most of the ideas for the artwork for the album and related singles came from Cobain. Fisher stated that "[Cobain] would just give me some loose odds and ends and say 'Do something with it.'

The cover of the album is an image of a Transparent Anatomical Mannikin, with angel wings superimposed. Cobain created the collage on the back cover, referred to as "Sex and woman and In Utero and vaginas and birth and death," which includes fetuses and body parts lying in a bed of orchids and lilies. The collage had been set up on the floor of Cobain's living room and was photographed by Charles Peterson after an unexpected call from Cobain. According to Peterson, "one Sunday afternoon, Kurt calls me up, and is like 'Hey, I want you to take that picture now.' I rummaged for whatever film I had in the fridge, and went over." The album's track listing and re-illustrated symbols from Barbara G. Walker's The Woman's Dictionary of Symbols and Sacred Objects were then positioned around the edge of the collage.

Retail chain stores Wal-Mart and Kmart refused to sell the album. The New York Times reported that Wal-Mart claimed it did not carry the album due to lack of consumer demand, while Kmart representatives explained that the album "didn't fit within our merchandise mix". Truth be told, both the retail giants feared that customers would be offended by the artwork on the album's back cover. DGC issued a new version of the album with reworked packaging to the stores in March 1994. This version featured edited album artwork, and listed the name of "Rape Me" as "Waif Me."


Notes:

Interestingly, the original title for "In Utero" was supposed to be "I Hate Myself And Want to Die," sharing its title with a song that was planned for the album. The phrase had originated in mid-1992 from one of Cobain's journal entries, and was meant as humor. It was Cobain's response whenever someone would ask him "how are you?" The tentative album title would be changed after band mate Novoselic convinced Cobain that "I Hate Myself And Want to Die" could potentially result in a lawsuit. The band considered the title "Verse Chorus Verse," a title shared with "Verse Chorus Verse" and an earlier working title of "Sappy". The final title was taken from one of Courtney Love's poems and is a Latin term meaning "in the uterus." Nice one Courtney.

After the recording sessions were completed, Nirvana sent unmastered tapes of the album to several individuals, including the president of DGC's parent company Geffen Records Ed Rosenblatt and the group's management company Gold Mountain. When asked about the feedback he received, Cobain told Michael Azerrad, "The grown-ups don't like it." He said he was told his songwriting was "not up to par", the sound was "unlistenable" and that there was uncertainty that mainstream radio would welcome the sound of Albini's production.

In Utero was released on September 13, 1993 in the United Kingdom, and on September 14 in the United States; it was initially only available in vinyl record and cassette tape formats, with the American vinyl pressing limited to 25,000 copies

Time's Christopher John Farley stated in his review of the album, "Despite the fears of some alternative-music fans, Nirvana hasn't gone mainstream, though this potent new album may once again force the mainstream to go Nirvana."

Rolling Stone reviewer David Fricke wrote, "In Utero is a lot of things – brilliant, corrosive, enraged and thoughtful, most of them all at once. But more than anything, it's a triumph of the will."

Ben Thompson of The Independent commented that in spite of the album's more abrasive songs, "In Utero is beautiful far more often than it is ugly", and added, "Nirvana have wisely neglected to make the unlistenable punk-rock nightmare they threatened us with"

Rolling Stone ranked it at number 439 on its list "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time."

The album was nominated for Best Alternative Music Album at the 1994 Grammy Awards.

In 2004 Blender ranked it at number 94 in its "100 Greatest American Albums of All Time" list and in 2005, Spin placed it at number 51 on its "100 Greatest Albums 1985-2005" retrospective.