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April 19, 2007

Online Exclusive

Music Review

Well-Designed Effort

Intricacies in the music and CD design will leave Nine Inch Nails fans satisfied

Story by: Rebeka Baltazar

The Shorthorn staff

Nine Inch Nails’ new album, Year Zero, leaves listeners wanting to head-bang and use some slinky dance moves on whoever may be standing nearest them, all at the same time.

Having not following the group’s prior efforts and only having heard a handful of their former songs, including “Closer” — which left me in a hot state but nonetheless pleased — I didn’t know what to expect with the new release.

Starting with a nice musical introduction, the band offers an interesting world that sounds like a mixture of hip-hop, intelligent dance music and rock.

The CD offers excellent song transitions, never letting the harder rock songs jostle softer tracks. The variety also keeps anyone listening from getting too bored by the same sound, the curse of most artists.

“Capital G,” one of the album’s tracks, sends out a political statement, with lyrics like, “the more we let you have, the less that I’ll be keeping for me.”

Assuming the song is geared to any major political figure, Nine Inch Nails portrays them as believing they are God, signing their name with a capital G and leaving any followers on their “hands and knees.” The song has a great introduction, interesting beat and catchy hook that will leave people singing what lyrics they know as they walk down the street.

The album cover offers fans a nice continuation of the band’s promotional story of the CD, depicting a transparent hand reaching down from the sky onto the ground. Anyone keeping with the alternate-reality ad campaign would find the pictures and booklet stay with the government-conspiracy theme, with distorted images similar to those on a Web site that is not fully functional.

The CD itself offers a surprise when taken out of the CD player. Originally, it is black with the album’s title written at the bottom in white. When taken out, it changes to reveal an off-white exterior with something similar to numbers from The Matrix, caused by the heat inside the player.

Putting so much effort into an album not only shows, but it also allows for nearly an hour of looking like a maniac throwing out extreme dance moves and earning the band high praise for this latest effort.