Lost Highway; 2007

Well, Ryan Adams isn’t dead. In fact, it looks like he is finally getting it together. I mean, he’s cleaned up (who thought that would happen?) and made some of the more polished recordings of his career. He’s teamed up with the Cardinals again for his ninth LP “Easy Tiger”, so there are the obligatory guitar solos and extended jams. They certainly don’t detract from the album in any way, in fact it makes it into the bona fide alt country-rock album it should be, compete with tasteful pedal steel on “Tears of Gold.”

Although some might write it off as another adult contemporary singer-songwriter post-addiction album fit for the cd stands in Starbucks (which, by the way, is going to happen), there are definitely a few country-pop hooks in this album, enough to justify giving the whole thing a listen to decide for yourself what you like.

One thing I’ve always had to respect about Adams, despite his erratic and sometimes deviant behavior, is the rawness of his lyrics. He can write a love song like Neil Young, leaving you wondering if that really was a love song or just a wistful lingering of thought. It also leaves room for the case that Mr. Adams needs an editor, which seems to me a self-defeating argument. On the same token, some of the content comes across as a bit pedestrian, as if Mr. Adams is trying to make himself a little more marketable. Of course, what can you expect from someone who has built a career on inconsistency?

A few songs really stand out on the album, making them play list worthy, even if the album as a whole gets old after a couple spins. Ryan AdamsDespite the lyrics, “Halloweenhead” is an uplifting rocker contrasted with gentle acoustic tunes like “Oh My God, Whatever, Etc.” or “Off Broadway”, where the guitar gently follows the melody and grows in intensity underneath Adams slightly whiny vocals. The album even touches on the folky – “Pearls on a String” with poppy banjo and mandolin chasing the simple, twangy vocals. Some of the melodies, namely “Rip Off” have a Steely Dan easy pop feeling without sounding like a dated tune. There’s even a lonely harmonica in “I Taught Myself How to Grow Old”. There is the reality, though, that Adam’s songwriting has been better, but maybe he’s just finding his feet after the marathon 2005 mixed bag of recordings and excessive drug use. It seems that, fortunately, Adams’ hip hop alter ego DJ Reggie had no influence in this record.

There are definitely some very tastefully done songs on this album, which is certainly his best in the past few years (despite a few hidden gems on “29”). It brings back the Adams of “Heartbreaker” and “Gold”, if not completely, at least enough to satisfy fans of those albums. But the album itself stands on its own without the knee-jerk comparisons to the other albums in
Adams’ interesting and somewhat checkered catalogue.

Metropolis; 2007

Fallout, a remix EP from Front Line Assembly, is a real treat. Comprised mainly of remixes from their recent Artificial Soldier album, Fallout also contains some previously un-released tracks that do not disappoint, finding most of its strength in dance-friend remixes and a handful of new tracks from FLA. Opening with a “Mindless Mix” of the opening track of Artificial Soldier called “Unleashed,” this track sets the stage with a floor-smashing beat as if those that wanted to remix this track wanted to demolish every beat. It is an unstable vibe, but that is what makes much of this album, with its post-apocalyptic artwork, so enjoyable.

DJ Acucrack remixed “Buried Alive” with a very movable drum ‘n bass beat, and it works incredibly well. The Combichrist Remix is somewhat weak, adding ostinato synths and punchy beats on 2 & 4, which feels like a less enthusiastic version of the first track on this Remix EP. Following these first three tracks are two previously unreleased offerings, among them are (a seemingly Philip K. Dick-inspired) “Electric Dreams,” “Armageddon,” and “Unconscious” (which closes the album in the 12th slot). These new tracks are a real treat. “Electric Dreams” hearkens a bit in vocal flavor to “Existance” from the earlier Epitath release (2001), also opening and closing with ambient flourishes. “Armageddon,” while not as original as “Electric Dreams” (I swear I have heard some of these lyrics before), is still an excellent track, moving the album forward.

“Social Enemy” is mainly a forgettable remix employing all the tried-and-true methods of the previous remixes on the album, but by the time we get to the “Portion Control Remix” of “Lowlife,” some true remix creativity of this album begins to shine through. Slowing down the original tempo a bit to a more plodding groove, this is one of my favorite remixes. The “Dan Kearley Edit Remix” of “Humanity” coming next is also a shining star on this album, completely revamping the original track into something truly original, only keeping a few of “Humanity”’s extant elements.

Covenant remixes “The Storm,” maintaining its penultimate location on this album as in the original on Artificial Soldier. The song has been extended by nearly 2 minutes, making it feel like it should have been all along, akin to the album release of “Maniacal” (5:14) on Civilization and the single version of it (7:21) on the Maniacal EP.

Closing the album is the new “Unconscious.” As an instrumental track (with a view audio samples), it travels through some previously unexplored sonic vistas from the EP and the straight-ahead Artificial Soldier, ending in a bizarre Aphex Twin-style twisted voice. It’s a brilliant track, and one of the reasons I love FLA.

All in all, this album is a must-have for Front Line Assembly fans. Some of the remixes in the first half of the EP get a bit old after a while, but the inclusion of the previously unreleased FLA original tracks and the creatively original remixes on the last half of this album more than make up for this. Also, gone are the days of the Dave McKean artwork, and while I will miss it, the new art direction seems more politically appropriate in these turbulent times. A very enjoyable contribution to the FLA corpus.

Interscope; 2007

Nine Inch Nail’s fifth full album entitled Year Zero (Halo 24) gave me a shock that had nothing to do with Trent Reznor’s often hostile lyrics. It’s not the coolest thing I have ever seen, but on that day, it made me do a quadruple-take: on release day I put the disc into my car stereo as a black CD, and when I arrived home and ejected the disc, it had turned mostly white. What was left over was bits of binary code and other bits of ‘digital’-looking imagery. This almost thoroughly boring anecdote is meant to illustrate that even after 19 year of existence, Trent Reznor’s Nine Inch Nails is still trying its best to surprise and be innovative with their fans. And, this is quite evident in the music itself of Year Zero.

As a concept album, Reznor describes it thus:

“What’s it about? Well, it takes place about fifteen years in the future. Things are not good. If you imagine a world where greed and power continue to run their likely course, you’ll have an idea of the backdrop. The world has reached the breaking point – politically, spiritually and ecologically. Written from various perspectives of people in this world, ‘year zero’ examines various viewpoints set against an impending moment of truth.“

Picking up where it left off sonically on With Teeth, NIN continues with the distorted analog synth sound. This time around, however, Reznor says that much of the CD itself is improvised. One can guess that tracks such as “Vessel” (one of my faves), “My Violent Heart,” and “The Great Destroyer” are among the songs with improvisation, and it lives up to the excitement that they display when they do this on stage (if you haven’t seen them live, check out the highly enjoyable And All That Could Have Been and Beside You In Time live performances). Radio listeners will be familiar with “Survivalism” and the funky “Capital G,” both politico-religious “viewpoints” that take on the critique of a fascist state and what happens when Christians think that their saviour is capitalism and power.

Perhaps the only complaints I have with this album are the songs “The Warning”, the end of the album itself, and perhaps surprisingly in these bizarre times, the concept itself. “The Warning” repeats “Your time is tick, tick, ticking away,” which has a tendency to be too reminiscent of The Fragile’s similarly repetitive “Into the Void” where Reznor chimes, “Tried to save myself, but my self keeps slipping away…” The end of the album closes with “Zero-Sum” which mourns the loss of all things as the digital age takes over with assimilating everything into one’s and zero’s. Perhaps I am just disappointed with it as a closing track in light of Reznor’s magnificent “Hurt” (The Downward Spiral), “The Great Below” (The Fragile), and With Teeth’s ‘Beside You in Time” and “Right Where It Belongs” double-closing feel.

As for the concept, it does not take much guess work to realize where Reznor is going when you open the CD and on the left you see a hand holding a Bible and as the right flap opens up you see another arm holding a machine gun. It is quite understandable these days to want to equate plenty of religiosity with violence–especially theo-fascist tendencies of Christian dominionists–but this is really a kind of sloppy argument, especially in light of all the execrable polemics of Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennet, Sam Harris, and now Christopher Hitchens on the scene of atheist fundamentalists. It makes for good secular “apocalypticism,” but that is about it. There is really very little nuance in these histories of faith (although many could be cited, for starters see Terry Eagleton’s review of Dawkins latest).

Despite these minor quibbles, the album is an immensely enjoyable listen. The radio-funky “Capital G,” the forboding “God Given,” and the punching “Vessel” stand out as highlights on this disc. There is even an ambient track (“Another Version of the Truth”) which follows the distorted mayhem of “The Great Destroyer,” hearkening back to the welcome come down of “A Warm Place” following “Big Man With a Gun” from The Downward Spiral. I would definitely recommend putting this album on repeat for a few hours.