He's Insane

Okay, so I just made the post about favourite albums... and then my wife bought me Year Zero, NIN's new CD.

I had mixed feelings about The Fragile when I first heard it (It's now in my top-5), and With Teeth took me a solid five forced listens before I finally fell in love with it.

Not so with Year Zero. Love at first sight.

People are calling this Reznor's Magnum Opus... I agree. Not only does the music kick ass, but he's gone one up in the way he's delivered it. Buy the CD and you'll notice a piece of paper stuck to the back reading "USBM WARNING: Consuming or spreading this material may be deemed subversive by the United States Bureau Of Morality." Of course, there is no such entity, but when you go searching for such a thing on the internet...

...Well, I won't spoil it for you. But let me say, it reminds me heavily of The Matrix, where Neo is using the web to search for Morpheus.

It doesn't stop with the Internet. Reznor has gone completely Davinci Code with this one. Open the CD and it's a solid black CD with a spot of text on the bottom reading "Year Zero". Put it in your player for a track and take it out... it's a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT COVER! (Triggered, I assume, by heat.) I was blown away when I first noticed that. Look around and you'll find strange bolded letters here and there... collect them, rearrange them... well, you get the point.

He's turned it into an experience.

Not to mention, there's some kick-ass anti-establishment messages in the lyrics. Examples:

"I push the button and elected him to office, and / He pushed the button and dropped the bombs. / You push the button and a watch it on the television. / Those mother-fuckers didn't last too long."

"I've traded in my god for this one, and he spells his name with a Capitol G"

Yum.