It's very difficult not to view In Utero, Nirvana's third and final studio album, through any lens other than the subsequent suicide of singer, lyricist and guitarist Kurt Cobain's six months after its release.

In Utero is a troubling, abrasive and willfully difficult record, no doubt partly due to the authentically messed-up state of Nirvana's bandleader at the time but also because the trio set out to make a troubling, abrasive and willfully difficult record going in. The band's previous album, 1991's Nevermind, had achieved monstrous and completely unexpected global success by applying a shiny coat of polish to its mercurial punk-rock roots, but not without some resistance and lingering after-the-fact regret on Nirvana's part. It was, thus, time to do it Nirvana's way, which meant bringing in no-fuss indie producer Steve Albini to record Nirvana flailing away in more authentically unvarnished and ill-tempered fashion. 

The band's record label, DGC, was predictably horrified at the results, there was some studio tinkering after the fact to make the thing more palatable to -- as Cobain put it -- "the grownups" and everyone involved braced for the worst. It didn't happen. In Utero was a critical and commercial smash, making it to No. 1 on the Billboard chart and selling six million copies in the U.S. alone. It will forever be remembered as an extended suicide note on Cobain's part ("You can't fire me / Because I quit") but it's every bit as good as Nevermind, even if it's a bit tougher to get through in hindsight.

Original LP

1. Serve the Servants
2. Scentless Apprentice
3. Heart-Shaped Box
4. Rape Me
5. Frances Farmer Will Have Her Revenge on Seattle
6. Dumb
7. Very Ape
8. Milk It
9. Pennyroyal Tea
10. Radio Friendly Unit Shifter
11. Tourette's
12. All Apologies

10" EP

1. Gallons of Rubbing Alcohol Flow Through the Strip
2. Marigold
3. Sappy
4. Moist Vagina
5. I Hate Myself and Want to Die