NIRVANA In Utero UK Vinyl LP Albini Mix STILL SEALED

$

76

NIRVANA - In Utero (Geffen/Universal)

RARE reissue of 1993 stereo LP from Nirvana. This is most likely the much sought after "Steve Albini mix," with matrix numbers matrix codes A33 9124 536 S1 320 and A33 9124 536 S2 320 stamped into the deadwax. I know this because I purchased two copies from the same dealer and opened one for myself. Confusingly, this copy doesn't have the the 424 536-1 catalog number, but since the stamper is identical it obviously contains the Albini mix. According to various online sources, this release was cut from a different set of master tapes with a significantly different mix of the album (especially "Heart Shaped Box" and "All Apologies"). The record is still housed in its original factory seal, and the shrink wrap contains no tears whatsoever. Beneath the shrink, the bottom-right corner has a very slight "push", but that is the only visual flaw on this item.

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CONDITION: SS (still-sealed)

As a collector and hobbyist, I know the importance of grading records, and I grade conservatively and honestly. SS (still-sealed), M, M- (NM), VG++, VG+, VG, VG-, G, Poor. Many dealers' NM would be my VG+.

All Music Guide says:

Nirvana probably hired Steve Albini to produce In Utero with the hopes of creating their own Surfer Rosa, or at least shoring up their indie cred after becoming a pop phenomenon with a glossy punk record. In Utero, of course, turned out to be their last record, and it's hard not to hear it as Kurt Cobain's suicide note, since Albini's stark, uncompromising sound provides the perfect setting for Cobain's bleak, even nihilistic, lyrics. Even if the album wasn't a literal suicide note, it was certainly a conscious attempt to shed their audience — an attempt that worked, by the way, since the record had lost its momentum when Cobain died in the spring of 1994. Even though the band tempered some of Albini's extreme tactics in a remix, the record remains a deliberately alienating experience, front-loaded with many of its strongest songs, then descending into a series of brief, dissonant squalls before concluding with "All Apologies," which only gets sadder with each passing year. Throughout it all, Cobain's songwriting is typically haunting, and its best moments rank among his finest work, but the over-amped dynamicism of the recording seems like a way to camouflage his dispiritedness — as does the fact that he consigned such great songs as "Verse Chorus Verse" and "I Hate Myself and Want to Die" to compilations, when they would have fit, even illuminated the themes of In Utero. Even without those songs, In Utero remains a shattering listen, whether it's viewed as Cobain's farewell letter or self-styled audience alienation. Few other records are as willfully difficult as this.