Happy 30th birthday to Incesticide - in the words of Brian Coney, "a punchy, messy, giddy reminder that sometimes the growing pains and first-takes are something to cherish" and one of those albums whose stature just increases with time.
As Coney recalls in an astute Quietus tribute published when it hit the quarter-century mark, back in 1992 Incesticide looked like - and indeed was in many respects - a stop-gap release. Caught on the hop by the unexpected runaway success of Nevermind, Geffen eagerly seized upon the suggestion of an odds and sods collection as "a ploy to 'beat the bootleggers' and a means to quell rising demand for new material" - an acknowledgement of the expectant hoardes singing "Here we are now - entertain us". Krist Novoselic may have dressed up the album as "something nice for the fans just to see where we're coming from", but from Geffen's perspective it was evidently a cash-in opportunity not to be missed.
And, yet three decades on, Novoselic's sales pitch seems much more credible, as do Kurt Cobain's liner notes implying that "while Nevermind was what they were capable of, Incesticide was who they truly were". With an A side that showcased Beatles fan Cobain's ear for a hook and a melody and a B side that betrayed their underground 1980s punk rock lineage, Incesticide deliberately distilled and separated the two fundamental elements that had been fused together to such powerful effect on Nevermind, not only giving insight into their past (as per Novoselic's comments) and their present (as per Cobain's notes) but also their future, with the raw, vulnerable and uncompromising In Utero just around the corner.
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