Nine Inch Nails — Year Zero

Since The Downward Spiral, Nine Inch Nails albums have had a theme that entirely reflects frontman Trent Reznor's state of mind. On that record, he was at a creative peak, but seemed like he couldn't have cared less about any of it, more engaged in drugs than participating in the scene he was being asked to lead. The Fragile depicted him completely strung out and sick of his enablers. After a six-year break, With Teeth was Reznor's sobriety album, where he spent most of it pondering the relative monotony of the daily routine and what had happened to his audience while he'd been in a destructive haze. Now sober for a few years, he's decided to start caring about things. Year Zero is an overtly political record that envisions an apocalyptic future foreshadowed by the questionable decisions made by the current neo-con empire. Apparently it's sonically inspired by Public Enemy, which makes some sense. Some of the beats are devastatingly heavy, and it's probably Reznor's most carefully layered record to date. There's an odd yet obvious parallel here: in the mid-'90s, David Bowie decided he wanted to sound like NIN and became pals with the band after doing so. At a similar stage in his career, Reznor has decided he really wants Nine Inch Nails to be Massive Attack. "The Great Destroyer" and "In This Twilight" both sound like 100th Window cuts, replete with unfortunate computer synthesized vocals. But those missteps are easy to ignore. Earlier tracks "Vessel" and "Me I'm Not" sound more like Mezzanine. It's an interesting and decidedly abstract shift, given that Reznor had almost positioned himself for a commercial move. The latter songs seriously lag, but the first two-thirds of the record are compelling enough that they should satisfy any of the group's fans. And hey, they didn't have to wait six years for it. That itself should be worth celebrating.