Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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15 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Still Relevant - Still the most exciting music around, 1 Jun 2007
It has now been nearly 20 years since the release of Pretty Hate Machine, and Trent Reznor heads into his forties a changed man.
Much has been written about how Reznor has kicked his demons to the kerb, no longer taking the drugs or alchohol that fuelled the excess driven Downwoard Spiral / Fragil years.
'With Teeth', the precursor to 'Year Zero' saw a almost shy Reznor step back into the limelight, after many years of letting his one time protegee' Marilyn Manson take centre stage. It was, in Reznor's own admissions, disjointed and lacked the confidence that filled previous works.
However, with 'Year Zero', Reznor has found his muse again.
the opening track 'Hyperpower' starts the album with a bang, with loud coruscating guitars and synths fighting for supremacy, reaching a crescendo that harks back to 'Mr Self Destruct', the opener of TDS.
'The Beginning Of The End' gives an insight into where the album will take the listener - the ideas of this being a soundtrack to fifteen years hence is laid. The lyrics also point to Reznor now turning his attention to politics rather than the introspection of TDS or PHM - this is quite obviously his attack on the Bush regime (amongst others).
Survivalism, the first (and quite possibly the only, given Reznors recent attacks on record company greed) single taken from YZ is a dance floor stomp, as infectious as Closer, with backing vocals from Saul Williams.
Each track is outstanding, taking the listener through a journey which doesn't end here - this is but the first of three albums which will deal with the Year Zero Concept.
Buy this.
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A real grower, 23 Sep 2007
When a friend loaned me his copy of Year Zero, it was the first time I had sat down and properly listened to anything by Nine Inch Nails. (Since then I've really got into them.) At first I wasn't really fussed: it seemed like angry lyrics set to a load of electronic chaos. But after a few listens, the music started to resolve itself into something really brilliant.
First things first: Year Zero is a concept album set in 2022 (or 'Year Zero' under the new calendar adopted in the USA), in a world where the governments put sedatives in the water to keep the masses blinkered, dirty bombs go off in Los Angeles, climate change wreaks havoc and war is a constant reality. Towards the end of the album, a mysterious entity called The Presence begins to make itself apparent.
The story of Year Zero is told from the perspectives of people in very different positions: the compliant citizen, the disillusioned soldier, members of the government, rebels, even The Presence.
It's hard not to pick out highlights: Hyperpower! mixes fairly standard alt-rock with the sounds of marching, screams and explosions. The Beginning Of The End and The Good Soldier are damn catchy. Meet Your Master is easily the funkiest song on the album. The first half of The Great Destroyer is excellent, until it degenerates into bleeps and static, which is an aspect of NIN I don't particularly like.
For me, In This Twilight is the most poignant - it's also probably the most optimistic and radio-friendly song on the album, with (ironically enough given that I just said it was optimistic) two doomed souls watching the final sunset before the imminent apocalypse.
All in all, it's an excellent album and I look forward to next instalment of the story due out next year. I have to confess, I'm curious as to where one can really go from the extinction of the human race... (Then again, Muse managed it after Absolution and released their best album to date, so fingers crossed!)
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Best NIN album since 'The Downward Spiral', 29 April 2007
'Year Zero' is without doubt the best long-player Trent Reznor has released since the epic concept album 'The Downward Spiral', material since has been hit and miss - 'The Fragile' lacking focus, 'With Teeth' NIN-by-numbers and the live albums a bit confusing. One wonders what the intended collaboration with the late r'n'b singer Aaliyah would have been like (possibly the 'Tomb Raider' material) or if a mini-LP akin to 'Broken' should have been released in the style of the great NIN-song 'The Perfect Drug.' The last few NIN albums seemed a bit familiar, something depressing about a 40-something still peddling adolescent angst - which is why 'Year Zero' is very welcome, since Reznor takes a tip from Bowie, and releases a concept LP concerning a slavestate dystopia not far in the future...
'Year Zero' clearly acknowledges the current zeitgeist, taking in the current US administration, the Patriot Act, Guantanamo Bay, and the War on Terror as well as the Culture Wars, American overconsumption, dominant capitalism, and (cliche coming), "The American Dream." Reznor nails this to a 'Punishment Park'-style world, a SF-dystopia akin to that of Gary Numan's early trilogy, 'Replicas', 'The Pleasure Principle' & 'Telekon.' 'Year Zero' could have been called 'Myths of the Near Future' (a Ballard title nicked by Klaxons), its subject matter refreshingly different to much of the self-gazing angst of Reznor's back catalogue. 'Year Zero' is also very sonically pleasing, a mindblowing sound at the right volume, and recorded in a similar style to the last Ladytron album or the Young Gods' 'TV Sky', which processes/samples guitars electronically. Reznor, who physically appears to be turning into Henry Rollins, has cited the Bomb Squad-productions of Public Enemy, here we get the 21st century version of that, and contemporary reminders of such acts as Cabaret Voltaire, Meat Beat Manifesto and Revolting Cocks. Reznor's beats and electronics are up there with Timbaland's excellent work for Bjork and Justin Timberlake. Very present tense.
The 16 tracks are a journey, a relentless 63-minutes that looks backwards and forwards across NIN's career. Intro 'Hyperpower!' is potent stuff, reminiscent of Coil, that leads into the next two rapid tracks, 'The Beginning of the End' and 'Survivalism' - Reznor taking no prisoners. 'The Good Soldier' in a way feels like a contemporary take on the material of 1988's debut 'Pretty Hate Machine', that electronic funk feel - while 'Vessel' feels like industrial electronic music via Aaliyah's 'Try Again' (and it also recalls both 'the becoming' and 'Ruiner' from TDS).
I'm not sure of 'Capital G', since the drumbeat reminds me of something dodgy from the 80s, though if it was on the new LCD Soundsystem album, I'm sure many people would be drooling over it. Much better is 'My Violent Heart', which starts with Reznor in rap/spoken-word mode over groovy spaced r'n'b, prior to the chorus-section where an addictive din worthy of 'Burn' ensues - sounds like a rave in an apocalypse and definitely my favourite track on the album.
Things stay as enjoyable with 'The Warning', which opens with electro-clatter, prior to a bass-line that sounds like The Cure being mauled and reprocessed by Throbbing Gristle ('Year Zero' has a similar digital-sonic feel to 'Part Two' by TG). The dirgy bassline is a joy and a strange hook to hang a song on, Reznor's vocals come in and out, up and down waves, and then a alien guitar riff occurs - sounds like Trent has been listening to a bit of post punk and refiltered it into NIN.
The rest of the album is as enjoyable, I won't bore you with a track-by-track analysis, 'The Great Destroyer' and closing track 'Zerio-Sum' are also highlights. The latter sounding more out there initially than Radiohead's 'Kid A'-stuff, this really could be released on Warp! Piano reminiscent of 'Something I Can Never Have' comes in amid the mesh of beats, despite the fractal nature of things, it's kind of a pop song - Reznor like Kurt Cobain and Jeff Tweedy is a songwriter who can't help but write pop songs!
'Year Zero' is the best Nine Inch Nails album since 'The Downward Spiral', Reznor is in rude creative health and the rumoured follow-up albums ('Year Zero' part of a projected trilogy) are something to look forward to. Year Zero indeed...
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