mainstream trend-following listeners (gained from the success of Nevermind) might have turned their heads away from. Tracks like “Aneurysm” were produced with this intention in mind. Of the four songs recorded during the session, the band spent the longest working on "Aneurysm", using fade-ins and fade-outs on the backing vocals during the verses to give the recording an "unusual" vocal effect, as described by author Gillian G. Garr, and overall "lighter" feel than the Music Source version. Post-Incesticide Despite never being released on a studio album, "Aneurysm" was a regular part of the band's setlist in 1991 and 1992. The song's final live performance was on August 6, 1993, at the King Cat Theatre in Seattle. Lyrics and composition Music "Aneurysm" is a grunge song that lasts for a duration of four minutes and thirty-five seconds. According to the sheet music published at Musicnotes.com by BMG Rights Management, it is written in common time, with a moderately fast rock tempo of 132 beats per minute. "Aneurysm" is composed in the key of B minor, while Kurt Cobain's vocal range spans one octave and five notes, from a low of A4 to a high of F5. The song has a basic sequence of F5–C–B5–A5 during the introduction, alternates between the chords of B5 and D5 in the verses and follows F5–G5–A5–B5–B5–B5–A5 at the refrain as its chord progression. Its arrangement begins with an extended introduction, opening with an echoed, descending guitar riff. The song's verses are structured around a simplistic, crunching two-chord sequence. Lyrics According to Charles Cross in the 2002 Cobain biography Heavier Than Heaven, "Aneurysm" was the first of "a half dozen" songs written by Cobain following his break-up with American musician Tobi Vail in November 1990. Cross described "Aneurysm" as an attempt to win Vail back, unlike later songs like "Drain You," which instead expressed "his deep level of hurt." Throughout the number, Cobain loudly snarls parodic lyrics insisting listeners to, "Come on over, and do the twist." His lyrics for the song make fun of pop conventions and drug-use rituals ("shoot the shit"), ("beat me out of me"). During the chorus, Cobain delivers a rousing round of catchy chants. The song concludes with enigmatic praise for an unidentified woman: "She keeps it pumpin' straight to my heart." Reception Reviewing Incesticide for the NME in December 1992, Angela Lewis dismissed the album's side two as "not terribly good"