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ARTS & LIFE
The Clarion \ Feb. 8, 2008
CD Review: Nine Inch Nails
by Zack Harding
Arts & Life Editor
One of the biggest groups to
emerge out of the alternative
angst-rock explosion of the 90’s
was undoubtedly Nine Inch
Nails, and just as well one of
the most over-rated.
The electronic meets rock
studio efforts are for the most
part wholly contributable to
frontman/whiner Trent Reznor
who far too often gets labeled
a musical genius while his work
only rarely hints at such a
classification. The new album
Year Zero continues with much
of the less-than-genius work
Reznor has done in the past.
One of my biggest complaints
about Trent Reznor is that he
is an absolutely terrible lyricist
who reuses phrases over and
over on his albums. Just like
on previous albums he chants
something to the effect of
“can’t stop us now”, “on hands
and knees”, and using the word
whore as in “Survivalism”
where he says: “She gave us
all she had but / we went and
took some more / Can’t seem
to shut her legs our / mother
nature is a whore.”
Another problem of mine is
that for all of his supposed
genius he sure tends to
address the same unhappy,
self-loathing emotion with the
majority of his output. Such
tendencies are exactly why he
thrived in the 90’s and why
Nine Inch Nails sounds more
than a little bit trite today.
This said, I do think he hits a
couple of really high points on
this album, even amidst all of
the business as usual. “My
Violent Heart” is a wonderfully
atmospheric tune that has a
big, ugly, cacophonous blast
of chorus, and it works really
well. On the other end is “The
Great Destroyer” which is
downright pretty with its
falsetto, and inspiration from
The Cure seems obvious.
Reznor experiments a lot with
noise on this album, as multiple
tracks end with an industrial
barrage that sounds like techno
from hell. These sections are
novel the first hsten or two and
become aimoying later on.
Year Zero stands above much
of what Reznor has done if
simply because it is focused,
unlike such lauded works as
The Downward Spiral. The
songs aren’t really that bad, but
there is nothing that really hits
me and strikes a feehng beyond
“hey, that’s a neat sound.” For
my money he will never top
1999’s The Fragile w\Achis his
one true mark of genius.
I guess it is worth mentioning
that the album is supposed to
be a concept album and the wild
marketing strategies that went
into the promotion of this album
somehow corresponded with
the story. The story doesn’t
make much difference in the
music, and The Wall this is not.
HIHE IHEH LIAClS. YEAfl ZERO
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-Hen's
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