Mostly Harmless

It has been such a very long time since there was a record that really mattered, a record that can get under your skin. Something that tries to take on the world, chew it up and spit it out, snarling and cool all at the same time.

The last album that managed that for me was The Holy Bible by the Manic Street Preachers. A record that took on prostitution, racist gun control laws, dictators, glorification of serial killers, failed relationships, anorexia, self disgust, self obsession, the holocaust, a longing for a lost childhood, general regret and oh yes Orwellian political correctness. It’s a hard act to follow as my all time favourite album, because it isn’t just an album, its a band firing on all cylinders. about to implode under the sheer weight of the songs they’re spewing out.

So Year Zero which attempts to paint a cautionary tale of where we could be fifteen years into the future has a hard act to follow. If it were a book you’d be comparing it to the likes of 1984 and Brave New World. The marketing campaign for the album has largely consisted of an AR or Alternate Reality game, where hidden images and sounds in songs have linked up with websites to provide the back story. Luckily it has all been documented by some kindly nerds at NIN Wiki go read, I’ll wait.

The premise

To give you a basic summary the current American administration continues to fight both at home and abroad against it’s actual and perceived enemies, there are crushing terrorist attacks on American soil. Global warming is rampant. Inequality is massive. The first female president (possibly Hillary Clinton?) has been removed from office and replaced by an alliance of politicians and corporations who have suspended the democratic process. The population is supplied with an immune system boosting drug delivered through the water supply that has the happy side effect of keeping people docile. There is a resistance, but apart from a few notable exceptions they’re largely peaceful (maybe its the water…) Oh and one more thing; the hand of god (or something that looks similar) has started to break down through the sky in every country on the globe and make it very clear it isn’t pleased at the way we’ve been playing together. Things very much seem to be coming to an end.

Amid all this a clever bunch of computer scientists (no wait don’t run!) have managed to use quantum computing to send information back in time - so we have the websites or “shards” and we have the album, each song of which is written from a different character in the Year Zero world.

Presumably because of the content of a lot of the websites the text they carry has been obscured so that people don’t confuse them with actual government websites or actual events. This means to read them you’ll have to select the text with your mouse cursor.

This theme carries over to the music itself, which features a variety of mechanical noises and computerised squeals, which seem out of place to begin with but quickly meld into the overall sound after repeated listening.

The Music

Even if you like NIN, you’ll probably consider these tracks pretty loud the first time you hear them. There are the normal stand out hooks, riffs and piano chords but you’ll have to work harder to appreciate them than in the very polished previous album “With Teeth”. Apparently most of Year Zero was recorded on a laptop in various hotel rooms while on tour but despite this there is a fair amount of musical variety as you’d expect from any NIN album.

The tracks are sung from the perspective of survivalists, resistance leaders, presidents, suicide bombers, soldiers, veterans, drug users, fallout victims, religious zealots and people clinging together for redemption as the end comes. Not a lot is spared, but none of the tracks are over the top and Reznor’s clear skill for empathising with his characters means that even though “Captial G” and it’s target are painfully obvious, you can still imagine someone somewhere singing along without irony “Ain’t gonna worry bout no future generations, I’m sure somebody gonna figure it out” as they drive along in their SUV running over small cute animals. The song may be a critique or an attack but it does represent a point of view that more than a few people actually hold.

Dystopian Success?

There has always been a distinctly dystopian streak to a lot of Reznor’s songs Every Day is Exactly the Same on the previous album With Teeth could appear on a 1984 musical for example. Year zero seems to put together a lot of previous NIN themes into one cohesive whole.

The album is an unwavering critique of America now and in the future and works on the basis of holding up a mirror. Because of this non Americans get off pretty easily, however a fair point to make is that if you need to empathise with your subject its really going to be pretty difficult to go much further than the suicide bomber following “The Great Destroyer” with its air of murderous purpose. I found this a cop out at first but revolution ultimately comes from within and Year Zero is very much designed to put our own house in order.

Once you get to know them the songs convey the characters emotions very well. In the beginning appears to be the only track sung from Reznor’s own perspective now or as narrative on the rest of the album and as such its the typical mixture of regret and pure white anger we’ve come to expect from the man.
Survivalism puts us in the place of a man who knows he has to keep his head down no matter who that means leaving bleeding behind in his wake. The Good Solider only half believes in his crusade. Listen to Capital G and you’ll imagine Reznor dressed in a politician’s suit atop a table in the oval office throwing guitar hero poses whilst spitting out the sneering lines. (There ought to be a video for this single).
Meet your master suggests the furious execution of aforementioned president and In this Twilight and Zero Sum paint a frankly scary picture of clinging together waiting to die and singing for redemption respectively.

Ultimately

All in all like my partner if you’re not into industrial / electronic / metal / rock or whatever the hell it is the music may leave you cold. It certainly isn’t easy listening, but then with the subject matter how could it be. But you’ve got to admire the songs, the effort put into the websites and you have to admire the intent. Personally, I’ve got into the music, I know the songs word for word and I wouldn’t be too surprised if a decade later I’m still playing and thinking along - just like with The Holy Bible. Apparently the next NIN album is going to finish the story and be a much more polished full band studio recorded affair, I can’t wait

The last thing worth mentioning is that the package is actually worth buying. You get the normal NIN style cardboard digipack , a lyrics booklet (the absence of which on a recording like this would have been criminal) and an extra rear cover sheet with a message from the Bureau of Morality about consuming subversive content. The art work is of high quality, I’ve actually found myself leaving this out in the hope that people notice it The CD changes colour in the warm CD player revealing another clue for the alternate reality game.

Buy this, it really is something different.

[rating:9/10]

Rowan :: May.30.2007 :: Personal Entries, Reviews :: 2 Comments »

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