I recently got myself a copy of Nine Inch Nail's new album, Year Zero. I'm a huge fan of NIN and this album is a lot better than Reznor's last, With Teeth. Year Zero is one of those albums that gets better with every listen. At first I thought the songs all sounded pretty much the same, and there was nothing new going on. However, my initial dissapointment has been replaced by pure, unadulterated joy. The tracks are full of energy and that NIN-esque frustration that really drives the music forward. Reznor himself put it best I think, as he says, 'It will sound different after a few listens', 'You can dance to a lot of it' and 'You can fuck to a lot of it (maybe all of it depending what you're into.' Yes, yes and yes. One quote that really hits the nail on the head is this: 'You can think about it and it will reveal more than you were expecting'. I wouldn't have agreed with this if it hadn't of been for the last 5 HOURS I've spent in work doing NO actual work and instead perusing the many pages of ninwiki.com and the various fake web sites NIN have up relating to Year Zero and the whole dystopian, police state future kind of deal they've got going on. As it turns out, Year Zero is a concept album, focusing on a timeline stretching fifteen years into the future, based on a story that a totalitarian government has assumed control of the United States. There is so so so much backstory going on behind this album. Each track is a different perspective from somebody from this future, a future in which drugs are put in the water to keep the public under control and a giant, spooky hand comes down from the sky to scare people shitless. Reading all this stuff has really got me excited for the album. I love the premise and the approach taken by Reznor to construct and develop this scenario. Yeah. I love it. Read loads here.