New NIN album up on myspace for freeeeeee (Review)

[SNOWBALL]

http://www.myspace.com/nin

This MIGHT be their best album yet. Trent Reznor seems to have climbed out of himself completely in this album. Trent has said that a lot of his former lyrics basically just came out of his personal journal, and that he sometimes felt shocked and embarassed that this stuff was actually going out to the world.

The lyrics in Year Zero evoke a dyptopic world using complex political and religious imagery. The lyrics of all of the songs combine together in a narrative of worldwide moral decay. Ushering in this decay is a central image of a hand coming out of the sky called "the presence"

Listening to this album is not very easy. I'm a HUGE NIN fan, and listen to them every single day. However, I disliked almost all of the songs on the first five or six listenings. The one exception was "In this twilight", which is the second to last song on the album. If you're looking for a shortcut to enjoying this album, that's a decent place to start.

At the moment my favorites on the album are Capital G, The Vessel, Meet your master, and Zero Sum.

Capital G is a rough song to listen too. At first it was too vulgar for me, but when I became immersed in it, I learned to appreciate the total appropriateness of it's timbre, given the subject matter of a world leader espousing either hatred or apathy for poor people and foreigners.

The vessel is a strange song that alternates between straightfoward industrialism, and an erotic/fearful techno element. It's one of the songs in the album, along with Me I'm not, that is a throwback to NIN's previous work, which centers around the individual man (specifically trent), instead of society as a whole. However, it's clear that this song has a solid place on this album, but what exactly it is cannot be said. The protagonist in the song is under intense and unfamiliar pressure from his environment, and interprets his survival as proof of his messianic transformation. It's weird business.

Meet your master is just a plain great rock song. It embraces total destruction of everything with an incredible zeal. It's basically like Ghengis Khan learning electric guitar and rocking your ass while pwning your life. Ironically though, it's a pretty great sing-along. File this one under "strange pleasures"

Zero sum is like an epitaph for the whole album. It appears that whatever it is that happened in the rest of the album has come to it's full form. The task of this song is to mourn what is lost, and to engage in reflection and self-flagellation. The silver lining in this song is a message that "we will be together again", but it doesn't imply a lost love. It seems to imply that there is an enduring spiritual connection between a group of people who suffered a great upheaval. The chorus in this song is very beautiful "Shame on us, for all we have done. May god have mercy on our dirty little hearts."

The vocals and instrumentals are more subdued, and the mood is ethereal (as opposed to concrete and intrusive). Maybe more than anything else on this album, Zero Sum shows how diverse and masteryful nine inch nails can be.

Ok, well this was my first draft of my very first music review. Feel free to improve on it (perhaps an easy task) and plz plz listen to this album.

[Alobar]

cool, good review. I listen to NIN damn near everyday as well, so Im really excited I didnt have to wait 5 years for the next album this time.

Im not gunna listen to it on myspace tho, I want my first listen to be from the actual CD I can put in my stereo. Plus Im kind of enjoying the anticipation.

[KneeCo]

I have a good friend who is one of the biggest NIN fans in the world, I'm surprised there hasn't been an on going OOT thread about all the cool viral marketing the new album is getting (purposely leaked singles on usb keys hidden in concert venues with hidden messages in them, websites/graffiti/billboards with hidden messages about post-revolution Year Zero United States, a whole back story of the creation of the album, ...). I'm not really a fan, but this is just some of the stuff I've gathered listening to my friend.

[Rushmore]

[ QUOTE ]
cool, good review. I listen to NIN damn near everyday as well, so Im really excited I didnt have to wait 5 years for the next album this time.

Im not gunna listen to it on myspace tho, I want my first listen to be from the actual CD I can put in my stereo. Plus Im kind of enjoying the anticipation.

[/ QUOTE ]

I used to feel this way about NIN CD's, now I only feel this way about TOOL CD's.

[DavidC]

ty

[JMa]

ive never listened to NIN, which album shold i start out with?

[Alobar]

[ QUOTE ]
ive never listened to NIN, which album shold i start out with?

[/ QUOTE ]

wow, thats a really tough question. What are your musical tastes?

[Rushmore]

[ QUOTE ]
ive never listened to NIN, which album shold i start out with?

[/ QUOTE ]

This is a tough question.

I would start with the Broken EP, then move to The Downward Spiral.

Pretty Hate Machine (the first CD) doesn't really stand up that great, but is certainly worthy on several fronts.

The remixes of The Downward Spiral (Further Down The Spiral)are excellent, by the way.

Otherwise, it's hit or miss all the way.

[JMa]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
ive never listened to NIN, which album shold i start out with?

[/ QUOTE ]

wow, thats a really tough question. What are your musical tastes?

[/ QUOTE ]

stuff like metallica, trail of dead, dragonforce, wolfmother etc..

i think im gonna listen some to the new album and then try the Broken EP.

[Rushmore]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
ive never listened to NIN, which album shold i start out with?

[/ QUOTE ]

wow, thats a really tough question. What are your musical tastes?

[/ QUOTE ]

stuff like metallica, trail of dead, dragonforce, wolfmother etc..

i think im gonna listen some to the new album and then try the Broken EP.

[/ QUOTE ]

Based on your tastes, you might do well to skip Pretty Hate Machine altogether.