With their fifth album, Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails attempt to get away from their past sounds while still retaining their past appeal. Carl Zielinski reviews an advance copy of Tuesday's release, and he isn't pleased.

By Carl Zielinski
Gargoyle staff reporter
Posted Monday, April 16, 2007, The OG, arts

AT A GLANCE
— CD: Nine Inch Nails, “Year Zero”
— Release date: April 17, 2007
— Nine Inch Nails' Web site
— Nine Inch Nails' MySpace page
— Nine Inch Nails' Wikipedia entry
— Stream the album here

ALL NINE INCH NAILS albums are oddities of sorts.

“Pretty Hate Machine” was almost entirely electronic, and featured samples as bizarre as someone singing, “Rainy day go away/ Come again some other day.”

The “Broken” EP was odd because the song “Wish” used the term “fist f—-” and still won a Grammy, while the video for “Happiness in Slavery” featured a man being tortured and killed by a machine.

“The Downward Spiral” was odd because although Trent Reznor (the band's only official member) proclaimed not only that “God is dead/ and no one cares,” but “I want to f—- you like an animal,” the album still went quadruple-platinum.

Then you have “The Fragile,” which was odd because of its 90-minute running time, and “With Teeth,” which is odd for no other reason than it sounds like an exact copy of its predecessors.

With NIN's newest album, “Year Zero,” Reznor has turned his thoughts away from Nietzsche and instead toward politics. Although the plot of this concept album is ridiculously convoluted and complex (you can find a full explanation here), in a nutshell it revolves around a government conspiracy in the year 2022.

However, the focus of the album is the sound Reznor creates rather than the lyrics. The entire album is a caustic, chaotic jumble of electronic, distorted effects and jagged, mutated guitars.

Fortunately, Reznor avoids many effects that simply ended up sounding irritating on previous albums, such as high-pitched squeals and the “rainy day” sample.

As usual, the album has a heavy drum-machine-created beat throughout (except on “Hyperpower!” and “Capital G,” which feature live drumming from NIN touring drummer John Freese), harkening back to the electronic dance-pop of “Pretty Hate Machine.” While this could easily become repetitive, the drum work is varied enough that I didn't end up noticing any problems.

On an unusual note, Reznor's singing seems to have improved with age. While he almost exclusively whined on “Pretty Hate Machine” and “The Downward Spiral,” he now actually comes close to carrying a melody throughout the record.

Unfortunately, his vocal experimentation on “Capital G” is almost as annoying as the “talk rapping” on the band's first single, “Down in It,” and it effectively ruins the rest of the song for me.

The album's major downfall is that most of the best songs are packed into the first half. While this problem isn't as noticeable as it was on “The Fragile” (the second half there was 40 minutes long), by the time the closer “Zero Sum” ended I was impatiently tapping my foot, waiting for the album to finish.

The only two exceptions I can find are “In This Twilight,” which features one of Reznor's most inspired vocal performances, and “The Great Destroyer,” which I love just because of its electronic beat.

So is this the best NIN album ever? No, not really. It has its moments and is certainly better than “With Teeth,” but it isn't anywhere close to the earth-shattering “Spiral.”

While more mature than some previous releases, “Year Zero” simply isn't as cutting edge or in-your-face as its predecessors.

If you're willing to put in the necessary time to listen to the record over and over again to the point that you can understand everything that's going on, fine by me. Otherwise, just download the “Survivalism” single and save yourself some time.

RELATED

— Music video for Nine Inch Nails' “Survivalism”