#439: Nirvana's In Utero

Looking for a move away from Butch Vig's slick production of Nevermind, Nirvana enlisted Steve Albini to twiddle the knobs on their follow up. Reportedly, both the band and their label, DGC, were less than 100% satisfied with the results, and brought in Scott Litt to fix a few things. It's perhaps a bit of a disjointed and schizophrenic record, but how much of that is Albini's fault is disputable (I'd be interested in hearing what it sounded like before they brought Litt in). With just a casual examination of the material itself, it's not difficult to suss out which songs were written before Nirvanamania broke, and which were written after. While "Heart Shaped Box," "Rape Me" and "All Apologies" could be out-takes from Nevermind, "Scentless Apprentice," "Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle," "Radio Friendly Unit Shifter" and "Tourettes" pretty clearly display a songwriter and his band having difficulty with the pressures of sudden fame.

#438, Big Star's #1 Record: Alex Chilton is slowly winning me over. With Chris Bell's help, of course... My friend Ray, who's something of a Big Star evangelist, calls this record a "pretty much flawless listen," and he may well be right. I can't really find a track on #1 Record that I don't like. Who can argue with the opening riff of "Don't Lie to Me"? "In the Street" is another great number which, of course, we all recognize as the theme song to That 70s Show.

#437, George Harrison's All Things Must Pass: Harrison's first post-Beatles solo release is an expansive affair, in fact the first triple album ever released by a solo artist. In Harrison's own words: "I didn't have many tunes on Beatles records, so doing an album like All Things Must Pass was like going to the bathroom and letting it out." "It's Johnny's Birthday" kinda sounds that way, yes, but much of the rest of the record is quite good. "What is Life," "If Not For You," "Isn't It a Pity" and the title track are stand-outs for me.