Year Zero - Nine Inch Nails (2007)
Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails are a big part of my music listening, but I’d be lying if I said I paid a lot of attention to The Fragile and With Teeth, their two albums on either side of the new century. I had a lot going on, and a lot of stuff I was interested in.
So this was the first NIN record I got back into as soon as it came out, and still one of my favorites of their catalog.
It’s the sound of robots building beats in a scrapyard.
There’s a whole Sci-fi concept album thing going on, but you don’t really need to pay much attention. The more salient point is that Reznor had branched out, found more grown-up, less-self-hating avenues to explore the same intensity and rage he had before.
This is an outward-looking album in a lot of ways, but at its best it’s still a self-examination of why we get angry at the stuff we do.
Meanwhile, we’re listening to whole sections of melodic material put together from buzzes, screeches, and synth noise. It’s a brilliant sound and a brilliant statement.
Tracks I Liked
Capital G - One of my favorite NIN songs, and one of his deepest and most challenging lyrics. Sometimes with enough introspection it can be hard to know which side you’re really on.
My Violent Heart - less cerebral, more bruising.
