In Utero

从既有的硬式庞克、重金属摇滚、独立摇滚等类型音乐元素中汲取灵感，搭配失真的电吉他弹奏风格以及满布着冷淡、焦虑情绪的歌词，这大概就是乐坛所谓的grunge摇滚乐的雏形，如果你觉得这样的形容很抽象，听听超脱合唱团的专辑就对了，这支来自西雅图的乐团在90年代初期窜红后，他们的音乐、穿着与态度甚至让grunge展现了超越音乐本身的影响力，让grunge成为一种时尚风格与主流文化。

超脱合唱团的最后一张录音室专辑【In Utero】，是乐团在1993年2月与制作人Steve Albini[*The Breeders]花了两个星期的录音时间所完成的作品，乐团随后邀请另一名制作人Scott Litt[*R.E.M.]担任后期制作。专辑封面特地以Kurt Cobian的人体剖析图呼应专辑中描述他个人成名后的心情的创作歌曲。此张专辑发行首周就入主英、美排行榜冠军，专辑在柔顺的流行摇滚与狂放的庞克摇滚类型音乐风格中自然的展现出乐团的真实性格，专辑里的畅销曲包括了勇夺全美现代摇滚榜冠军的"Heart-Shaped Box"，获得葛莱美奖最佳摇滚乐团演唱与最佳摇滚歌曲两项提名的现代摇滚榜冠军大作"All Apologies"。滚石杂志乐评人David Frickle在评论中写道：「【In Utero】呈现了许多东西--杰出的、侵蚀的、受到激怒的以及深思的特质，其中的很多特质都是一瞬间全部爆发，不过，更重要的，这是意志力的一次大胜利。」

by Stephen Thomas Erlewine

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.