CD REVIEWS: NINE INCH NAILS, YEAR ZERO
Jun 6, 2007 3:50 PM Lori Kennedy (Writer)
Two years after the release of With Teeth (rather than the typical five-year span between records), Trent Reznor is back with the apocalyptic concept album Year Zero. Not only is the Rez back with a new album so quickly, but he’s also crafted a brilliant marketing campaign to surround it. The Year Zero concept puts us 15 years into the future, where the U.S. has turned into a police state. Reznor created a mass of tangled Websites (http://iamtryingtobelieve.com, http://anotherversionofthetruth.com, among many others) to deliver his message of what could be, where we learn how Americans are doped into complacency with "Parepin" (it's in the drinking water) and the government is, well, reading your mind. It's Big Brother multiplied by 1,000.
Musically, Year Zero contains a mix of dark, fuzzed-out synths ("Vessel"); tinkly, somber piano ("Zero-Sum"); creepy soundscapes ("Another Version of the Truth"); dreamy, heavily melodic synths over driving beats ("In This Twilight"); and masterfully manipulated squelches, blips and bleeps ("The Great Destroyer," "The Warning"). The Nails haven't dulled over time; as Reznor's focus gets sharper, so does his music.
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