museless aiming

Nine Inch Nails

So, I've been listening to Year Zero or Zero Year or Zero Wing or whatever it's called, and even though it's (musically) standard NIN fare, it's (topically) starting to get sort of annoying. Artistically I don't think Reznor will ever top The Fragile (1999) but his last two have been decent by today's standards. It's just that he's changing little, and most of his developments are for the worse. Not that Pretty Hate Machine (1989) didn't have its catchy political pretensions ('God money nail me up against the wall' etc.), but somehow it wasn't as annoying. The sex/money/God mix with an occasional ounce of politics just isn't doing it for me anymore.

Don't get me wrong--'My Violent Heart' is energetic, has the great crescendos that he does so well. It's just that I think he's at a loss for anything new. Witness (as if I need to quote this):

You let me violate you, you let me desecrate you
You let me penetrate you, you let me complicate you
Help me I broke apart my insides, help me I've got no soul to tell
Help me the only thing that works for me, help me get away from myself
I want to fuck you like an animal
I want to feel you from the inside
I want to fuck you like an animal
My whole existence is flawed
You get me closer to god (1994)

versus

I let you put it in my mouth
I let it get under my skin
I let you put it in my veins
I let you take me from within
...
I am you and you are me
We will never be alone
I have finally found my place in everything
I have finally found my home
...
We can leave all the past behind
I can see right through the whole façade
I'm becoming something else
I am turning into God (2007)

See any similarities? Admittedly he's much worse in print (ha) than he is to hear, but still. I'm surprised to see that Allmusic gives it a 4.5/5, but then again, they give The Fragile a 3 (when it's indisputably a 5) and his live album a 2.5 (when it's at least a 4, one of the better live albums I've ever heard).

To touch on his previous album, With Teeth (2005) which I quite liked and even saw on tour, the political side of 'The Hand That Feeds' is fine, understated, but 'Right Where It Belongs' (especially in concert with his stupid statement of a backdrop) is just annoying. Stick to 'Every Day Is Exactly the Same', it's less obnoxious. And to think I had inferred from 'Only' that he was starting to take himself with a little irony...

Regarding this last album, which Allmusic informs me is some kind of retarded vision of the future, he's just too often over the line. It's working--like I said, they gave him a five. But it's pretentious as shit. 'The Good Soldier' is at least a good song, with great lines to combat its annoying topic. But 'Survivalism' is just over the top. You're a recording artist, so write art, not propaganda. It's not the specific political agenda he's pushing, but the fact that the politics starts to obscure the art. I like a lot of political artists (e.g., the Manics), but I much prefer something like 'Somewhat Damaged' to anything that's on this album.

: music : : reviews :
Mon Jun 4 01:05:26 BST 2007