A YouTube unboxing/review by Chris Collins of Nirvana's In Utero 30th Anniversary Box Set (published Nov 15, 2023). Collins inspects the physical packaging (an acrylic/Plexiglas display piece), an eight-LP vinyl set, and an accompanying book of photos and reproduced letters. He shares personal anecdotes about Nirvana practicing in Seattle, highlights a reproduced letter from producer Steve Albini and notes that the full letter also appears in the Letters of Note book series, and comments on the set's execution and presentation.
If we were in London, it'd be like, excuse me, sir, where did you get your puffer? But we're not.
Today we are talking about adding this to the library. It is Nirvana's In Utero 30th Anniversary Box Set. This is eight vinyl LPs celebrating one album. I remember being in Seattle at this time practicing at nap, where Nirvana also practiced. And then you could hear Nirvana sometimes practicing through the walls. They were all super, super nice. The first thing that I was impressed with this is the execution of this. You have this like piece of. It feels like glass, but it's Plexiglas. Just look at how cool this is. She's beautiful. Like you could frame this on its own. Then you have this book. There's lots of great pictures in here, but there's one part of this book that was the most interesting to me is they have a picture of the letter that Steve Albini wrote the band Kurt, Dave and Chris talking about his kind of requirements to produce the album and his thoughts on it. It's not like a take it or leave it, but he, he, he explains his philosophy. I've seen this letter before. So they're not. They're just showing you a picture in the front of the letter that it exists, but the letter is acting printed in another book that we have here in the library, which is these.
In a series though. They're called Letters of Note. And I want to say this is. I've had these for 20 years. Maybe. Let me see, what.
13. Yeah, I've been a big fan of these books because there's just incredible. Then we have this swag backstage pass. Stuff like that. Kind of from the time flyers also. They'd have some pretty cool artists make their flyers, right? It looks kind of like Andy Warhol meets Lichtenstein. Thought that was pretty cool. Then the kind of final thing and the most important part of this is the vinyl. So you have two unreleased live concerts in here. December 30, 1993 in Los Angeles at the Forum and Seattle Center Arena, January 7, 1994. Really well pressed, by the way. Like these. These are well done. Well, well pressed, this album. When. When you just talk about the best rock drummer of this time for sure. Like to me, you have John Bonham and you have David Grohl. And that's kind of where rock drumming starts. In the verses. He's. He's holding back and then when the chorus is coming, he's right on top. And then Chris's bass and Kurt's songwriting and Singing and, you know, this album is great. You have Serve the Servants right off at the top. Then the four songs, Rape Me. It's apart from Nevermind in the sense that his production style is a little more aggressive. Like, he isn't putting a lot of sugar on anything. It's very much like what it is in the room. And so the drums, the guitar, everything is. Is very aggressive. And for a band like Nirvana, where Kurt style was, you know, very aggressive and he's, you know, he's screaming his heart out, really, it comes off very punk rock. It is a piece of art that stands on its own. I prefer the production style of Butch, Big and Nevermind in the sense that the one thing I do think that's lost in this album is that the production isn't dynamic. That can be fatiguing after a while, after you listen to it over and over again. It's a little. It's a little fatiguing, especially through the sound system that we. That we have in here. But it's well pressed. By no means would I not want this because of that. It's just if I had one critique or if I. If I was sharing my preference in production. I prefer the other Nirvana album when it comes to those sort of dynamics. You know, we've all had our Nirvana moments. It's incredible. I don't know how many people will spend this sort of money for this box set. I certainly did, and I am, you know, excited to add this to the library. It is a celebration of it that the design of this box set is so well executed and so well done. I wish more bands kind of took this approach. Honestly, it's very, very well done from a, you know, from a fan's point of view. So thank you, Nirvana, for this. Dave and Chris and Steve Albini. We are adding it to the library. Remember, at the end of the day, he who dies with the most books win.
