CD Reviews

Nine Inch Nails, Arctic Monkeys, Patti Smith, Signal Lost

Reznor takes a razor to Nine Inch Nails sound

Monday, April 16, 2007

Nine Inch Nails - 'Year Zero'

(Interscope)

Coming a mere two years after "With Teeth," NIN's head cheese Trent Reznor's most recent opus "Year Zero" supposedly promises a return to the man's industrial rock roots. Considering that Reznor has a history of taking four or five years between full-length releases, the promise of old school thump-and-scrape might also mean "I knocked this one out between games of 'Halo 2.' "

And Reznor's not wrong. This is spare, rocking stuff when compared with NIN's previous symphonies of blip. But that doesn't make the blips sound especially fresh, nor is he using all that many new blips. There are just fewer of them — his status as one of the most popular and least funky beat programmers alive remains intact.

And what of the title? Well, the cover art looks like a record nerd in-joke, recalling fellow one-time-Cleveland residents Pere Ubu's "Datapanik in the Year Zero," not a bad reference to make. And like everyone with a recording budget and a pulse right now, Reznor wants to talk politics and "Year Zero" charts the rise of a police state in the near future. Or something. Didn't Styx already do this on "Kilroy Was Here"? Joe Gross

---

Arctic Monkeys - 'Favourite Worst Nightmare'

(Domino)

The heavier second album is a rock tradition. See also the Stooges' "Funhouse," the Velvet Underground's "White Light/White Heat," Black Sabbath's "Paranoid" and many more. To hear the British press tell it, the Arctic Monkeys may already be in such illustrious company, a classic rock band (rather than a "classic rock band") that managed to excite all of the UK with a zippy, lyrically complex album that owed as much to hip-hop's linguistic trickery as, say, modish forefathers the Jam.

Speaking of mods, on "Favourite," the Monkeys speed up and find their groove thang, something that mods from the Pretty Things to John's Children to the aforementioned Jam tried to do. From the opening sparks of "Brainstorm" through the howls of "D is for Danger," "Favourite" is shot through with spiky drums and spikier guitar, the frantic riffs keeping the melodies from falling to pieces, much in the way disco-punks such as Liquid Liquid kept tension and release in a tango. They still don't have quite the melodic gifts of their mod forefathers, but nobody seems to care.

And while the lyrics don't seem quite as personal as the slices of twentysomething life that littered last year's "Whatever People Say I Am," singer Alex Turner still knows his way around both a quip ("Top marks for not trying!") and the exhaustions of clubbing ("Will you find yourself in a skirmish where you wish you'd never been born?" or "D is for desperately trying to simulate what it was that only was three-quarters of an hour ago!"). They have their finger on the pulse and the pulse is racing. — J.G.

---

Patti Smith - 'Twelve'

(Arista)

Covers have been a crucial part of Patti Smith's legacy since the beginning. After all, her first single was a slowed down, form-destroying version of "Hey Joe," which turned the garage rock staple into a melodramatic poem, a transformation she's returned to again and again. She did it with her astonishing take on "Gloria" on her debut "Horses," and '60s staples such as "My Generation" and "You Really Got Me" were crucial parts of the live Patti experience. Heck, there was a wonderful bootleg called "Roots," assembled about 10 years ago, that was nothing but such covers.

In fact, that collection would be a better addition to the official canon than this odd little album, a set of 12 covers knocked out in the studio. She does more or less right by Jimi Hendrix's "Are You Experienced?" turning the anthem into a trance; Bob Dylan's "Changing of the Guard" was at least an interesting choice; and she pulls a "Gloria" on "Smells Like Teen Spirit," adding a few of her own lines. But other covers end up inadvertently hilarious. Tears for Fears' "Everybody Wants to Rule the World" plays out as karaoke and Paul Simon's "The Boy in the Bubble" feels awkward. In a live setting, covers are context-building devices, placing Smith in the tradition to which, in spite of her quasi-revolutionary stances, she always desperately wanted to belong. Here, they play out as just a bunch of filler. — J.G.

---

Signal Lost - 'Prosthetic Screams'

(Prank)

Well, that sure sounds different. There's no question that longtime fans of this popular Austin punk band may do a bit of head-scratching at producer Chris "Frenchie" Smith's big rawk production. (You might remember Frenchie from such large-bore rawk bands as Young Heart Attack.) Stacks of guitars and muscular drumming bump up against singer Ashley Marshall's sharp belt, itself occasionally doubled and tripled. (You might remember this sort of vocal stacking from such large-bore rawk bands as Iron Maiden.)

But Signal Lost's devotion to anthemic punk rock remains in full effect. Bangers such as "Blurry Vision," "Terminal Simulation" and "Second Voice" buzz and howl with a '77 spirit. Remember, raging against the machine shouldn't be a band as much as a way of life. — J.G.