NIN Year Zero - to be released April 17, 2007

This is a record review of Trent Reznor's forthcoming album, "Year Zero", also known as "Trent doesn't even give a fuck anymore".

So Trent made this on a laptop? It shows. Well kids, his muscles have been getting bigger, but he's lost his aggression. What we have here is a collection of simple lame songs hacked together without focus or depth. My main problem is that Trent doesn't do anything too new or adventurous stylistically. Other than sucking at most of the vocals. I've been saying over the last 8 years that Trent should go trip-hop or drum and bass, while Marilyn Manson should go lounge. But do they listen to me? Apparently not.

Well, on this record Trent comes up with some new tunes, sounds and textures, and voilà! yes, he dabbles in some interesting styles, but not nearly enough to take it off the "downward spiral" map.

"Pretty Hate Machine" was synth-industrial, "Broken" was industrial-metal. I expected Trent to come up with something a little different than trotting out the same-old same-old, but it seems he's settled into a rut. Can't really fault him; it's the easiest way to collect the paycheck.

Decent tracks: 6  8  9  12  14  15  16.

01. HYPER(suck)POWER!  Okay, it doesn't have the word "suck" in the song title, and it doesn't suck too hard. An instrumental opening, builds to a hailstorm of sleeting industrial churn. Very nice.

02. The Beginning of the End  Here Trent does a repetitious but adequate job.

03. Survivalism  Reminiscent of "downward spiral" musically, vocally archaic matched with a simplistic delivery. Ends with a rip-off of "Closer"'s closing refrain, which is hella good sure, but nothing new. Catchy, but kinda lame.

04. The Good Soldier  Funka-beat. Trent, dude, what up wid all this rhyming? Leave that to the rappers, this is lame and catchy. And in a bad way, complete with chimes or a xylophone.

05. Vessel  Slow grind, okay, mark my words, this is going to be the season's Strip Club Anthem. This is one of those pefect songs strippers love to work into their, er, "act". Like I needed to hear Trent about to cum. I'd be embarrassed to write this song, much more to sing it and put it on my record.

06. Me, I'm Not  What, good? Slow, interesting tunings and good bass extension on the bottom end, but again the vocals are the problem, though not as bad as the previous two tracks.

07. Capital G  Nice tune, same as "downward spiral". But the vocals outright suck. Not sure if even the music can save it on repeated listenings.

08. My Violent Heart  A tiny bit drum and bassy, which is at least stylistically different. Trent starts out talking softly into a processor. Then the song kicks off. It's okay. Nice in that soft-loud-soft pixies vein.

09. The Warning  Crunchy EBM opening, albeit way too few BPM to actually arrive at EBM, but still interesting. I think these two tracks and the next one are great explorations into different constructs than Trent's laid down before. This is a good thing. Not a great song mind you, but a C+ for effort, Mr. Reznor.

10. God Given  Another cool style deviation. Now if he could just do something about the lame-ass vocals. This song actually sports the line "sing along everybody now!". Wow.

11. Meet Your Master  Bater. Pretty much as lame as a song with this title could possibly hope to be. Funky, like "Vessel" or "Good Soldier". I do like the jams in this, for lack of a word not 30 years old. Lyrics are vapid once again, "come on down and meet..." Yeah, you go it.

12. The Greater Good  Blends in from where the last song left off. Sweet new sounds. Great murky depth. All airy on top. Whispery vocals (thank god). This would be great if it went somewhere. But it doesn't. So it's basically a cool instrumental intermission.

13. The Great Destroyer  The word "great" in two song titles in a row? This one will make you laugh, so it's got that goin for it. Okay, so it's plodding along innocently enough, and then all of a sudden we're 1:40 in and the music comes to a standstill, and Trent belts out: "I AM THE GREAT DESTROYER!" like some big-haired 80's metal band, sounding just the good! WTF?!? I nearly hurled on my CD player. Interestingly the song then launches into some great drum and bass wannabe funk-down, but it takes awhile for the scariness to dissipate.

14. Another Version of the Truth  A mellow instrumental rehashing once again of "downward". Nice, but do we need it? I think not.

15. In This Twilight  Musically like "Great Destroyer" - I just can't get the bad taste out of my ear socket. This song however is so much better (not saying much); it's safe to listen now.

16. Zero-Sum  Good, another throw back to "downward" mixed in with something like Stewart Copeland and Peter Gabriel would have done in the mid-80's. But that's okay, Trent. It's okay to fuck up when you're a popstar.

Two word review for those of you that waded through the above quagmire: "vocals SUCK!". Okay, so the album is a throw away, but will Bad Man be at the concert? Hell fucking yes. Front and center.

Rating: 5 out of 10

Brought to you by The Bad Man.