Nine Inch Nails
Year Zero (Nothing/Interscope)
Rating: 5/5
When Trent Reznor announced in a recent K! news
story that he'd got his confidence back, few could have thought it would result
in something like this. True, last month's UK NIN tour offered adrenalized
proof that the old mucker could still kick it large with the best of them, but
after 2005's patchy 'With Teeth' it seemed that musically, the best might have
been and gone. Or, rather, it did. For a record full of fresh ideas and new
perspectives, 'Year Zero' is a title well chosen. After nearly two decades
building a career on tormented introspection, Reznor has turned his vitrol
outwards to embrace more political concerns. The targets might be obvious-
George Bush, global conflict, environmental issues and religious fundamentalism
all come under fire- but the execution is not.
Sidestepping preachy sloganerring for a
collection of schizophrenic lyrical mind-sets, he's created something far more
sophisticated; assuming the role of a right wing bigot for 'Capital G'"s,
Dubya-goading, mechanoid glam pounder; a war-weary lost soul on the deadzone
lull of 'The Good Soldier'; getting a messiah complex for 'Vessel'"s
electro power-grind.
And while much of 'With Teeth' laboured under a
mantle of uniform riff abrasion, this time he's fashioned a soundtrack full of
daring imagination and musical risks. With guitars kept to a minimum, 'Year
Zero' is one of the least rock things he's done-among the multi-layered
textures, mind-bending sound manipulation and super dense beat booms, you're
more likely to find references to Aphex Twin and Massive Attack than anything
with more metallic origins. What's astonishing is how focused and heavy the
whole thing sounds. The rubber room techno-pulse of 'God Given' sounds like its
being discharged from a point several miles underground, while 'The Great
Destroyer"s sensitive revolution anthem gets cauterized midway by an
electronic ramraid bordering on the psychotic. Elsewhere, whether it's the
scabrous pop of 'The Beginning of the End' or haunting strains of 'In This
Twilight'- simply one of the most beautiful things NIN have ever done- you'll find
examples of adventurous, accessible song writing in unexpected abundance. Even
the obligatory nihilistic NIN-closer has been eschewed in favor of 'Zero-Sum',
a number that offers- would you believe it- a sense of redemption among its
neo-gospel overtones.
And whatever you want to make of that, what's
clear is that this is not a rock record, an industrial record, or an electronic
record, it's a stunning realization of the one thing Trent Reznor has always
kept paramount: music. And as such it's a staggering Nine Inch Nails record.
Eighteen years on he's still at it, still convincing, still relevant- and still
no-one else sounds like this.
Download: 'The Good Soldier', 'Capital G'
For Fans of: Ministry, Killing Joke.
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