You can almost taste the mixed emotions in Kurt Cobain's mouth on 'In Utero,' spat out as if he were trying to expel his tongue along with the lyrics.
This article originally appeared in the October 1993 issue ofYou can almost taste the mixed emotions in Kurt Cobain’s mouth on, spat out as if the singer were trying to expel his tongue along with the lyrics. The more extreme that voice gets , the more music rises to the bait: grinning slash-and-yearn feedback that’s half drunken game of chicken, half accident scene postmortem.
collected, only now the scaled-down contradictions of “School” and “Aneurysm” have been blown up . “Smells Like Teen Spirit” taught how much revulsion and excitement Nirvana could cram into that four-minute format, but it left the rest oflooking like stock gestures, flimsy excuses, a failure of nerve.
In “Penny Royal Tea,” as bitter and empathetic a song as Nirvana has attempted, the nominal subject is abortion. The title refers to a homemade recipe for inducing one, but it’s not a song likely to comfort people on either side of that issue. With a nod to the Beatles’ “I’m So Tired” , it’s about the ugly scars any difficult choice leaves. Officially sanctioned guilt bleeds into private despair, false consciousness merges with real pain.
Listening to “Penny Royal Tea” and the rest of the album, I thought of a nearly forgotten punk masterpiece of 15 years ago. Magazine’s hopeless, exhilarating. That’s Nirvana’s motto here: surrounded, lost in a hostile crowd, gagged but trying to talk back anyway. With, I suspect Nirvana intended on some level to summon up the specter of punk in order to give it a proper burial — drive the final nail in the heart-shaped box and leave behind a fitting tombstone.
United States Latest News, United States Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
Living in the Shadow of Death and Listening to In UteroOn the 30th anniversary of Nirvana’s beloved third album In Utero, Paste editor Matt Mitchell reflects on the ways it’s defined his personal relationship with chronic illness.
Read more »
Nirvana’s 10 Best Cover SongsMarking the 30th anniversary of In Utero, here are Nirvana's 10 best cover songs—from the Beatles to Led Zeppelin to Meat Puppets.
Read more »