Legendary American rock band Nirvana, which broke up after the death of lead singer and frontman Kurt Cobain in 1994, will re-release their album ‘In Utero’ for the record’s 30th anniversary, which will include 53 unreleased songs.
Record labels Geffen and UMe yesterday announced the band’s third album’s re-release, for its 30th anniversary, which will include remastered versions, as well as new editions packed with unreleased songs and photos, ‘People’ magazine reported.
‘In Utero’ was the group’s third and final album, and contained some of their biggest classics such as ‘Heart Shaped Box’, ‘All Apologies’ and ‘Scentless Apprentice’.
The album was released back in 1993, and contained 12 tracks.
Cobain died by suicide in 1994 after which the group disbanded.
The re-released version of the LP will be reissued in several formats: 8LP super deluxe box set, 5CD super deluxe box set, 1LP + 10” edition, 2CD edition and digital super deluxe edition.
Each super deluxe version features 72 tracks in total, including 53 unreleased tracks comprising live concerts held around the ‘In Utero’ release — 1993’s Live in Los Angeles and 1994’s Live in Seattle, the band’s final hometown show, and six other live tracks performed around the same time in Rome, Italy; Springfield, Massachusetts; and New York.
The physical super deluxe versions of ‘In Utero: 30th Anniversary’ features the album and live recordings pressed on 180-gram vinyl, as well as an acrylic panel of the cover’s angel, 48-page book with unreleased photos.
Other additions include, new 20-page fanzine, Los Angeles concert lithograph, two ticket stubs, replicas of the promotional Angel mobile, three concert flyers, an all-access tour laminate and four backstage passes.
However, the physical super deluxe versions are limited to 3,000 copies worldwide, and will be a prime collection.
In 2013, Dave Grohl, who was Nirvana’s drummer on their second and third albums and is now frontman of the rock band Foo Fighters, told the Rolling Stone magazine that the album was a difficult listen for him.
“The album should be listened to as it was the day it came out. That’s my problem with the record. I used to like to listen to it. And I don’t anymore, because of that. To me, if you listen to it without thinking of Kurt dying, you might get the original intention of the record.
“Like my kids. They know I was in Nirvana. They know Kurt was killed. I haven’t told them that he killed himself. They’re 4 and 7 years old. So when they listen to ‘In Utero’, they’ll have that fresh perspective — the original intention of the album, as a first-time listener. Someday they will learn what happened. And it’ll change that. It did for me”, he added.
Nirvana was formed in 1987, and incorporated elements of punk rock, hard-core punk, noise rock, heavy metal and thrash metal.
Known for being the leaders of the ‘Grunge’ scene in Seattle in the ‘90s alongside Alice In Chains, Soundgarden and Pearl Jam, the band never really settled for the term.
While they were noted for their inclusion of heavy and hard edged riffs, they became popular due to their punk rock style which was far less polished than the prevailing glam metal scene during the ‘80s.
To date, Nirvana is referred to as the ‘punk’ band of the ‘Grunge’ scene and remains one of the most influential rock bands of all time, inspiring countless bands as well as selling over 75 million albums worldwide.
