Nine Inch Nails, “Year Zero”
POST-INDUSTRIAL|Nothing/Interscope, released today
Trent Reznor, below, enjoys taking his time between records – five years between each of his first three studio records and six years between his third and fourth albums. So fans should note that “Year Zero,” his fifth full-length CD, arrives less than two years after his last outing, “With Teeth.”
Fans’ learned behavior – that of waiting – was disrupted months ago when Reznor and his friends started a mostly online campaign advancing “Year Zero” with a complex back story. And while that was fascinating, the music is even more engrossing – as it should be.
While “With Teeth” was a return to form for Reznor, who first broke with the 1989 classic “Pretty Hate Machine,” “Year Zero” is an exploration of minimalistic electronic programming. Instrumental opener “Hyperpower!” recalls “The Downward Spiral’s” uber-percussion heyday, and the album’s lead single, “Survivalism,” takes that unique approach to drums/programming and adds to it. Reznor experiments with his vocals, adding hiccuplike breaths, meditative spoken word heavy on the downbeat and slides into his upper register.
The result is a classic NIN track, something that will fit naturally into his live sets alongside “Terrible Lie” and “Into the Void.” The rest of the album is solid with a few stand-out tracks. “Me, I’m Not” is quietly lush and surprisingly soulful, composed with sounds that can make you uncomfortable.
The few guitars in “The Warming” are manipulated and bent brilliantly, and it lends an exciting Indian aesthetic to the song. “Capital G” starts with “The Way You Make Me Feel” drums but elevates into a political rager with Reznor, again, exploring new vocal territory.
Part of “Year Zero’s” early arrival is Reznor taking advantage of his renewed popularity, but the record is also fully formed enough to fit in with the rest of his accomplished catalog.|Ricardo Baca
Bucky Covington, “Bucky Covington”
POP-COUNTRY|Lyric Street, released today
Covington’s first post-“American Idol” single, “A Different World,” is a sappy rumination on the 29-year-old’s childhood. No bottled water, he drank out of a hose. No video games, no more than three TV channels. His mom smoked and drank.
“It was a different life/When we were boys and girls.”
And that song sets the tone for Covington’s lackluster debut. Covington, who made the Top 8 in “Idol’s” 2006 season, said the most stressful part of the show was “wondering, ‘What do I do next? Is it back to the body shop? Am I going to be playing clubs, or am I going to get a shot at something big?’ Then the day after I left the show, Mark Miller and Ron Harris called me.”
This is his shot. And Miller, a producer and frontman for Sawyer Brown, heard something in Covington’s voice. But their collaboration results in little more than post- high-school gossip with talk of prom, bachelor parties and send-offs to the military and college. Like so much of the pop-country that litters the FM band, this translucent songwriting is lazier than it is honest.|Ricardo Baca
Other releases today:
Avril Lavigne, “The Best Damn Thing” (RCA) The ’80s-aping single “Girlfriend” is already huge on the charts, and now it’s time to see if the Canadian teen-pop singer’s latest outing has the staying power of her previous records.
Cowboy Junkies, “At the End of Paths Taken” (Zoe) The Timmins siblings – singer Margo, guitarist Michael and drummer Peter – are back with bassist Alan Anton for more psychedelic Americana.
