[TR24][OF] Nirvana - In Utero (20th Anniversary Super Deluxe) - 1993/2013 (Rock)

To say that Nirvana's third and ultimately final studio album In Utero was 1993's most polarizing record would be the understatement of a decade. The unadorned sonic rawness of Steve Albini's recording laid bare every primal nuance of the most confrontational yet vulnerable material Kurt Cobain, Krist Novoselic and Dave Grohl would ever record. And with its 1991 predecessor Nevermind having sold some 30 million copies, singlehandedly returning honest rock ’n’ roll to the top of the pop charts, In Utero was essentially the first record Nirvana would make with any expectations from the public. So from the opening quasi-shamble melodics of "Serve The Servants" through the bittersweet closing strains of "All Apologies," In Utero was the sound of the most incredible yet conflicted rock ‘n’ roll band of the era at the peak of its powers coming to terms with a generational spokes-band mantle they'd never seen coming—and ultimately surmounting these struggles to make the record they needed to make. As Rolling Stone's David Fricke said in his review at the time, "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."

This Super Deluxe Edition features more than 70 remastered, remixed, rare and unreleased recordings, including B-sides, compilation tracks, never-before-heard demos and live material (including the complete "Live & Loud" show from Seattle's Pier 48 on December 13, 1993) featuring the final touring lineup of Cobain, Novoselic, Grohl, and Pat Smear, plus never-before-released bonus material.

On the remastering of In Utero by Steve Rooke:

•The original mix and the 2013 remix versions were mixed down to 30ips half inch non-Dolby analogue tape, Steve Albini's preferred format.

•When mastering the CD & Digital versions the masters were played from a Studer analogue machine into the EMI TG analogue transfer desk.

•All EQ'ing etc was done using the TG desk and when we had the desired sound the tracks were transferred via a Benchmark A to D converter onto our Sadie workstation.

•Once on the workstation the tracks were listened to and any unwanted artifacts removed. Any clicks such as plectrum noises and guitar switch noises, etc. were left in as these were felt to be part of the performance.

•The final stage of the mastering process for the digital formats was to play the albums through a real time digital limiter to increase volume level.

•As we wanted to keep as much dynamic as possible the limiting was minimal as we felt the album would suffer if heavily limited.