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I listened to the Albini version at work today, and felt, several times, that I was listening to some of the best music ever recorded.
In Utero stands alone in the end. It's the true Nirvana record, and the one pure testament to what the band was all about, without the label pressure and need to deliver (Nevermind) or the piggy backing off of semi-successful peers in an attempt to get noticed (Bleach).
The album makes everything else in the band's discog, except for certain live performances, sound pretty tame. It finally brought them to a place where they could legitimately be compared to the true visionaries of the era, like Slint, Sonic Youth, and early Unwound. If it was the only album they released, it would be held in Spiderland-like regard by indie fans looking back. Nirvana never belonged in mainstream pop, and I often wish they'd never made it there. In Utero is probably the single most unlikely 6x platinum (or is it seven now?), no.1 album in the history of billboard.
What if it's predecessor had been called Sheep, and been released on K or KRS, and been mixed by the band during borrowed studio time? That's what Nirvana should have been, I often think.
But Biff kept the Almanac, and this is an "alternate-1985" timeline we're living in here. So. Y'know.
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