Reviews by Time Bomb

The debate remains open. Theme: it still makes sense to listen to a disc of Bad Religion in 2013? It is worth a review? But you do not have anything better to do? All good questions, very precise and detailed, which can be answered, however, only in a vague and subjective. What I try to do this review (which is already, implicitly, a half-second answer). It is true that the group drop-punk by definition now looks like an 'institution dedicated to preserve and hand down to posterity the best heritage of a musical genre that is likely to be distorted and misrepresented by the racket forever youthful mtviana-of-emo-oxygenated last fifteen to twenty years, more than an art project which is being renewed fits and feeds of his time. As it is true, a corollary of the first truth, which would be quite out of place to expect something new and surprising from a band in almost 35 years has changed very little, faithful orthodoxy of aggressive and melodic sound - almost an old recipe from survival guide hardcore - that detached and controtempi basic and lightning, guitars that jump to the white with a ferocity with agra and cheerful, that stings in spartan but insightful changes in choral melodies usually broken down into no more than three colors .

Apparently, then, would seem to be no reason of interest and perhaps even curiosity about a hypothetical new album of Californian band, the sixteenth of their career, tentatively titled "True North". Someone could very well go on to say that not listening to Bad Religion at fourteen means you have no heart, listen to thirty played back means you have no head. That there may also be, but it would be ungenerous and ungrateful especially for them. Gratitude - this might be a good answer to the first question - gratitude and nostalgia. Very vague and subjective, as a response, but this risk were already been told in advance. Yes, because Bad Religion, and more than other groups as long gone by the wayside of the lowest uncomfortable and drawers of memory, remind me of my early teens, my fourteen or fifteen, my naive but genuine enthusiasm, my tragicomic acts of rebellion, the parties, the first social centers, occupations, do "saw" at school under the guise of some pretended demonstration of solidarity to the comrades in Chiapas or this or that and end up at someone's house to listen to music and to much more "instructive" that you never learned in school.


On a conceptual level does not stand as an argument, I know, but since sometimes the feelings (and emotions) are more of the facts, I thought that this experience could be an existential ground common to many readers and music lovers like me , have experienced Bad Religion in the mid 90's when touched perhaps the pinnacle of their success, despite being "old men" who had already split and reformed a couple of times, thanks to the tax resogli by a generation of discussion and questionable "heroes" neo-punk like Green Day, Offspring, Rancid and the like. Then you discovered that going forward instead of Bad Religion were formed in the early eighties and who were part of the second wave of historic hardcore bands with fellow travelers illustrious and sometimes magnificent as Misfits, Social Distortions, Gun Club, Bad Brains, just to name a few. Of the brood, kids led by singer Greg Graffin and guitarist Brett Gurewitz (future founder of Epitaph, the label with which affect today) certainly were not the most gifted exponents nor the most original, as would Scaruffi, but surely the most tenacious and rooted in American punk community (and then international), the main popularizers of what was then called melodic hardcore, and the long career that has brought us here today to write this long and boring review (the opposite of their songs ) would amply demonstrated.

And so, here we are finally. A "True North" and this review that perhaps has no reason to be, or maybe it depends on how you want to read, as long as you want to. I state that I listened to them, if not in bits and bites for more than a decade. As I found them? Well, I'd say. For anything aged. Even so, to be honest, had never seemed so young. There held to be. Nothing looks weird, or high street fashion in their sloppiness, a few tattoos, a little hair on his head, zero cravings for sex symbol. And they were not particularly in the texts, much more mature and reflective of most of the groups around them, written with brilliant concision, rich in irony and vocabulary polished especially in science and technology (Graffin, author of most of the songs , has a doctorate in natural sciences and paleontology and has taught college at UCLA): small apologists flavor aphoristic and philosophical, simple and memorable in their instant clarity. Not for nothing with one of their most famous songs of all time, "21st Century (Digital Boy)", prophesied the future of all media and virtual, that avatar and social networks in which we are immersed. So, picking up the thread of the discourse, have not changed much, hardly at all. And this must be said, was to be expected. And not just because you are training in three original members (Graffin, Gurewitz and bassist Jay Bentley, freshman in 1979, ultra-forties now) but just for the sake of music. There is nothing that is out of place. "True North" is like taking a trip down memory lane in the albums released in the first half of the 90s. Yes, of course, the production of Joe Barresi (Melvins, Kyuss, QOTSA) and the high of six musicians (including three guitars) give all'immarcescibile band's sound a volume more robust and powerful (evident in rifferama songs as "Dharma And The Bomb" and "Robin Hood In Reverse"), but otherwise we are always there. Their standards more representative and anthemici (examples: "Robin Hood In Reverse" and "Land Of Endless Greed") to hit and run scratching and singable a minute and forty or so (to the best of their ability with "My Head Is Full Of Ghots "and" The Island "), the chorus beach-punk well leveled and harmonized (" In Their Heart Is Right "), the sharp twang of microassolo in" Past Is Dead ", in shades that underlie a slightly more classic rock also if ever leafless and miniature ("Dept. Of False Hope", "Changing Tide").

And to answer the third question: no, even if you want, I do not think I had anything better to do in those 36 minutes (as hard disk) and all in all, I even enjoyed it. It will also be childish, but what did you expect? We are the Bad Religion Preservation Society.

Someone is still able to play and write music rock and blues. And as if he felt the need. After five years, Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds return with a disk as needed. Pleasant, pure, clean and embellished with some gems. A result taken for granted. Many wondered what would be the next step goodbye to Mick Harvey, historian and co-founder (co) soul of the group, arranger of many of the songs written by leader Nick Cave. Perhaps secondary issues for those who do not know the Australian singer (naturalized European), important for those who were afraid of seeing disappointed expectations.

Push away the sky would be a good first step to get to know the world of Nick Cave. A panorama made also, and above all luck - say fans - many more amenities. Because if, for better or for worse, a critic can move this disk is almost too much homogeneity of the tracks. But this is also the great advantage of a set of songs very well kept. Arrangements (great unknown after the departure of Harvey) are minimalist and create the right balance between the different souls of the disc. And what comes out is the voice of King Ink, deep and clear.

A voice that perhaps never in previous work had been so on top of the music. About the new sounds that bind gently at the words at the bottom are just the lyrics Cave to make one of the most respected songwriters of the last decades. And this album is no exception. A disc can listen to (almost) every time. To keep in the background, to be playing in your headphones isolated from the world, to be studied in order to understand every nuance of wonderful songs like We No Who UR, Jubilee Street, Mermaids, Higgs Boson and Push The Sky Blues Away.

The next step is to hear it live. A dimension that has always given even greater depth to the disks Nick Cave and his Bad Seeds. The answer will come from the next tour (only Italian date on July 11 in Lucca). In the meantime, we have to listen to this album which he really felt the need. There are missed. And the wait has been rewarded.

Does not shine over the new Black Rebel Motorcycle Club The band wanted to play it safe for Specter At The Feast, without undue risk from the point of view of the songwriting. In the aftermath of the previous Beat The Devil's Tattoo (2010), we were all convinced that the trio had found the security and freshness composition that stood out in the beautiful lush Howl (2005).

Was it wrong then expect big news for the successor to Peter Hayes, Robert Levon Been and Leah Shapiro issuing a work that would be very good if the mood was the most ram that can be appreciated in songs like Rival, Teenage Disease, Funny Games and Sell It, where temptations almost stoner make it very enjoyable distortion and psychedelic seventies. Certainly also worth mentioning Some Kind Of Ghost, anchored in the late sixties with unidentified fumes that surround and captivate instantly as the song unfolds.

Experiments at the edge of shoegaze (Returning) and folk ballads a bit 'too ethereal (Lullaby or the more compact Sometimes The Light) do not however quite perplexed, same goes for a tracklist that includes the most interesting moments well after the first pieces, which usually serve to positively affect the listener and which in this case does not involve at all. Safe enough, but you could do better

In terms of image, the film is one of those already seen: icon pop boy band of origin is free of trendy clothes and elegance tip - a little 'what he did with Robbie Williams Swing When You're Winning. But if in the case of the former Take That there was also a musical director to dictate the precise disguise to Frank Sinatra (swing, in fact), here the rules of the game Timberlake are substantially in line with the style that has always characterized his music: hip-hop aesthetic vein and soul are once again an enviable balance guaranteed by the work of his friend Timothy Mosley (aka Timbaland) during production. But he said "basically" no accident, for it is true that the Timb-association you recognize a thousand miles away, but the second and final piece of the discography of Justin (FutureSex / Lovesound, 2006) is an eternity , and the weather often changes people. Justin today is 32 years old and a wife, and how you want to focus only on the artistic production are two details that can not go unnoticed.

In fact, The 20/20 Experience does everything to look like a mature disc: dark suits not wearing only Justin, but also and above all his songs. And 'well forget Circulation funky aggressive Rock Your Body, My Love trance synth or the arrogance of Sexy Back; arrangements here willingly throw themselves on vintage horns and strings (Pusher Love Girl, Let The Groove Get In) , opting for electronic drums soft-derived eighties (Suit & Tie, Strawberry Bubblegum) and occasionally peeking experimentalism percussive rhythmic lines and modern (Do not Hold The Wall, Tunnel Vision). But the supreme pleasure is when past and future are mixed, as in visionary Spaceship Coupe or sublime That Girl.

The length of the disk than one hour, but the pieces are only 10, if you ask Justin what was going through his head when he thought to record tracks for a period of seven or eight minutes he replies candidly: "If they did Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin and Queen, why can not I? ". Boria? Not really. Listen to the slow unfolding of a ballad as Blue Ocean Floors - between reverse effects, strings in the background and support plan to fill - not tired, as well as in 485 seconds of Mirrors (the number most mainstream album) does not surface any feeling of boredom.

Justin Timberlake has always carved out its own niche in the pop world, and have success along roads not entirely conventional, it would be a pleasure to find some songs of The 20/20 Experience among the speakers straight (all the same) that dominate the charts these days.

It is rumored that Hurts have signed a disproportionate for the current market and with huge promotional investments. Not having yet achieved the goals expected at home, have focused on continental Europe, especially in the east, where, according to the accounts in the interviews, are treated as rock stars. All this seems hardly compatible with the video of the beginning, almost amateurish, but very refined: in 2009, the duo was an innovative niche that carried with it an opera singer and said he was inspired by the "slow disk" (a kind post- Italo disco of the early '90s - but they could also esserselo invented since there is no trace online). The debut album of 2010 had enriched their initial sounds to make them perhaps more appealing to the general public, but remained under the new, bombastic arrangements, a handful of exceptional songs ("Illuminated" at all).
With Exile, unfortunately, Hurts continue to magnify their sound in hopes to bring in the arenas and forgetting that it was the minimalism makes them so interesting. In many passages, the models and the duo's ambitions are clear: to combine the style of Depeche Mode, the sentiment of Coldplay and the credibility of the Muses. It is almost impossible not to find immediate references for each track on the album - not only to the three groups mentioned above (respectively, "Cupid", "Miracle" and "Mercy"), but also to Massive Attack "Angel" in the bottom half of "The road" or of Chris Isaak's "Wicked Game" in "The Crow". Even the most experimental track, "Sandman", passes for've heard when he enters the GarageBand loops used by Rihanna in "Umbrella".
This variety in the quotations that are never in the pop a crime if exploited well, but has no effect on the variety of the album: Exile sounds rather monotonous and is not helped by the texts or cloying faux-Gothic. The result is sleek and very well packaged, but lacks the personality and taste that Hurts sported before the delusions of grandeur would take over.

TRACKLIST:
"Exile"
"Miracle"
"Sandman"
"Blind"
"Only you"
"The road"
"Cupid"
"Mercy"
"The crow"
"Somebody to die for"
"The rope"
"Help"

The great Jimi Hendrix's posthumous record, we know, does not exist. There is a "Smile" on which fantasizing, there is a Holy Grail of which try to reassemble the pieces (we are talking here of study material, because among the countless documents live - the box of concerts Winterland in October '68, for one thing - the treasures, some recent, there). We are satisfied, therefore, sketches, doodles, tests, trials, experiments scattered in a few years of intensive work without breaks for a musician so taken by its mission to be passed in the recording studio (the Sound Center, the Hit Factory, the Record Plant in New York ) every time before clipping to build a toy of his own in which sbizzarrissi in peace (the Electric Lady Studios in Greenwich Village is still working). Affastellando coils on coils, strips of tape that Experience Hendrix's stepsister Janie directed by L. extracted with systematic and diabolical perseverance of a drawer seemingly bottomless entrusting the reconstruction two superspecialists as the irreproachable former right hand man Eddie Kramer, sound engineering magician, and the biographer / archivist John McDermott. And "People, hell and angels" is, in turn, a disc by historians and specialists, a hoard of snapshots scattered between March 1968 and August 1970, between the first session of study in the United States to return the glories of London and the last months of life, curled in a sequence that favors flow and smoothness criteria in chronological considerations (there is no substance, for that matter, to baste a logical story and unravel a coherent narrative). In the dozen tracks presented on the occasion lurk alternate takes of songs well-known versions of studio pieces, usually captured live and some most curious selection that Hendrix gave the microphone to other items: in "Let me move you" a vibrant r & b to James Brown refers to his early experiences sideman and accompanist, is the saxophonist and old friend Lonnie Youngblood to take a leading role, while "Mojo Man" is a snappy funk soul tacked-style New Orleans vocalist Albert Allen, accompanied by his band and the famous pianist James Booker, recorded at the legendary Fame studios in Muscle Shoals, temple of black music in the '60s, and on which Jimi overdubbed his guitar parts only years later in New York.

"Here my train a comin '," here in electric version, instead belongs to the large group of tracks surfaced several times in live and discs posthumous and controversial as the "Rainbow Bridge", "War Heroes", "Crash Landing", " Midnight Lightning, "" Nine to the Universe "and" Valleys of Neptune "(a sort of twin" People ... "), even though, under the auspices of the Hendrix family, is at least still a risk of those wretched hairpieces assembly of which he was responsible at the time the producer Alan Douglas, author of Frankenstein questionable sound: with one exception due to insurmountable technical problems, what you hear here is what was delivered to the original master, changing from dynamic jam trio with Billy Cox and Buddy Miles muscle during the first steps of Band Of Gypsies, the sextet (with two rhythm guitar and percussion) of Gypsy Sun & Rainbows, training view in Woodstock a couple of weeks later, in the studio, trying to harness the elusive spirit of "Izabella" and Incompiuta "Villanova Junction Blues", meteors precipitated by a new galaxy of music "total" in which the blues and r & b fused with jazz and Latin music. There are sax and organ, there is a straight, dry funk of "Earth Blues", but the heart of the disc are the pieces in trio of post Experience, looking for that "new kind of blues" that Hendrix was experimenting with obstinacy , recreating the music of the masters ("Bleeding Heart" by Elmore James) and chasing ultra sound, between the wah wah roaring of "Somewhere" (with the bass, one of the largest and most memorable pieces in the collection) and only filtered through a Leslie's organ "Inside out" where Jimi pulls out a great riff overdubbing a bass part on the basic track recorded in the company of only Mitch Mitchell on drums.

Insights and ideas taken up again in the most famous songs and has been made, uplifting music with a dignity that even its shape sketched and transient can affect much. The basic question, however, remains as always unanswered crumbs able to indicate the path where Hendrix would have walked if death had not caught early that September 18, 1970 are scattered in the wind, the track seems to reconstruct a ' an impossible and perhaps even unrealistic.

TRACKLIST

"Earth Blues"
"Somewhere"
"Hear my train a comin '"
"Bleeding heart"
"Let me move you"
"Izabella"
"Easy Blues"
"Crash landing"
"Inside out"
"Hey gypsy boy"
"Mojo Man"
"Villanova Junction Blues"

The impact of this twelfth work of Bon Jovi is immediate, as expected. Within three songs seem to be precipitated directly into the Wikipedia page for the item "images and stereotypes of the United States of losers" dusty highway, pick-up with boxes full of furniture removals coast-to-coast, leather boots mangy, they die fast food stories of love between hot dogs and gallons of soft drinks, unshakable faith in a God who mistreats as a baseball during the All Star Game Major League, dust from urban cowboy happen ... the hint?
Besides, Jon Bon Jovi and his loyal cronies (he are together since 1983, Sambora, Bryan and Torres) have always been heroes of the imagination - which, however, is linked to a double-edged sound very precise, with stakes and styles absolutely uneducable, disqualification and withdrawal of the boot spurred by the evaluation committee.
And then we put the cowboy hat and take the keys to the pick-up to afford the trip to the stars and stripes - longish, however: it sforano the 51 minutes total in twelve pieces, though in different deluxe editions and regional goes so far to 17 pieces by the Japanese.
Those who already loved Bon Jovi "What about now" will find the crystal and reassuring confirmation: there are melodies warm and simple, the guitars hypervitaminic, romance a bit 'Hollywood that makes you dream without problems at low cost rates and, to a than usual, there is also a good dose of social consciousness-style Obama (of which, however, Jon Bon Jovi is a very active supporter). Who has never had an interest, on the other hand, in the music of the band scoverà some new ideas of interest listening to the new album. It is a classic situation where the status quo - for better or for worse - is maintained.




Perhaps, to love analyzing a product that still has a dignity of its objective (especially when considered in a continuum of proposal-based adult / album oriented rock and contextualized in the band's career), jumps ear a pinch of coating and more softness, as if the spicy aroma of hard rock were sometimes eclipsed by a horse dose of wax polish with which everything was polished to mirror a much eighties, in fact, that rewards the enamel and the 'appearance, where now the general public has learned - thank goodness - even to love a bit of dust and some stains, dirt true, in the production phase.
Anyway, the interesting side, and - paradoxically - it works in this album is the ability to live the rock most typical corporate and commercial law (in the sense of object designed to meet a specific market with a view to sale) with a poetic from typical "underdog" with a position in favor of the forgotten and the classes most devastated the U.S. population. Evidently the blue collar roots of Jon (born and raised in Sayreville, New Jersey, a place totally working class in the economic crisis of the mid-seventies and eighties was devastating) are still alive and well, in spite of his superstar status world.
And then, in good order, we have a new album Bon Jovi they do - well, no doubt - Bon Jovi and that will not disappoint their legion of faithful and converts.
There is a note, however, that I can not stop myself from doing: it is true that the AOR and mainstream rock are areas in which almost everything has been said, living - as happens to many kinds - in part of self- and constant adherence to certain patterns defined Jon ... but, damn, can that "I'm with you" you managed to clone the verse of "Sick and tired" of Anastacia and the chorus of "Poison", one of the most famous songs of the late eighties good Alice Cooper, without realizing it, and no one has told you anything? Mystery.

There are records of which comes all too easy to write well. One could say, go and buy it, without question. Review over.
It does not happen often, but when it happens ... "Sound City - Real to Reel" is one of them. To have, without question.
The story is nice and simple: this is the "soundtrack" of Sound City, documentary film of the same name on Dave Grohl recording studios, of which we have spoken long ago. At the end of the film, Grohl saves the console of those studies, a Snow, installs it in his studio and invites friends to play. What friends: Trent Reznor, lead singer and guitarist of Queens of the Stone Age Josh Homme, Paul McCartney, the former Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic, the former Germs guitarist (now in the Foo Fighters) Pat Smear, Alain Johannes, Corey Taylor of Slipknot, Stevie Nicks of Fleetwood Mac, Taylor Hawkins and Nate Mendel of the Foo Fighters, the rhythm section of Rage Against the Machine, and Rick Springfield.
The "Real too reel", as the title promises. Authentic, on tape. The spirit is that of the old rock 'n' roll, what Sound City represented and which today Grohl is the embodiment of the most credible and feels. The result is much, much more than a soundtrack.
It 'a disc that comes from that film, to show that the spirit is present and working. An album of rock united and cohesive, although there are about twenty different musicians involved.
No tripe for all, in these 11 songs: one that made the most news is the pseudo reunion of Nirvana (Grohl and Novoselic + Smear) with Paul McCartney: McCartney's amazing how you put into play as a kid, but "Cut me some slack "is not the strongest piece of the album, although great rock 'n' roll. Preferences are subscribed to "You can not fix this," with the wonderful voice of Stevie Nicks (with Lindsey Buckingham register that the first record in those studies: from there gave birth to the Fleetwood Mac "Rumours") and long and hypnotic "Mantra" with Trent Reznor, whose voice and keyboard blend with the vocals and guitar of Grohl. Two masterpieces of songs.
But, really, there is plenty of choice. 55 minutes of pure enjoyment rock, showing that the talent is not enough, the music. The spirit is (almost) everything. If there is an idea, if there are the right conditions, if there is chemistry, the music flows, and how if flows. TRACKLIST:
Dave Grohl, Peter Hayes Robert Levon Been - "Heaven and all"
Brad Wilk, Chris Goss, Dave Grohl and Tim Commerford - "Time slowing down"
Dave Grohl, Rami Jaffee, Stevie Nicks and Taylor Hawkins - "You can not fix this"
Dave Grohl, Nate Mendel, Pat Smear, Taylor Hawkins and Rick Springfield - "The man that never was"
Alain Johannes, Dave Grohl, Lee Ving, Pat Smear and Taylor Hawkins - "Your Wife Is Calling"
Corey Taylor, Dave Grohl, Rick Nielsen and Scott Reeder - "From can to can not"
Alain Johannes, Chris Goss, Dave Grohl and Joshua Homme - "Centipede"
Alain Johannes, Chris Goss, Dave Grohl and Joshua Homme - "A trick with no sleeve"
Paul McCartney, Dave Grohl, Krist Novoselic and Pat Smear - "Cut me some slack"
Dave Grohl, Jessy Greene, Jim Keltner and Rami Jaffee - "Once upon a time ... the end"
Dave Grohl, Joshua Homme and Trent Reznor - "Mantra"

Fortunately, the world did not end, so we can play Ni No Kuni The Threat of the Witch Cinerea, at least in the West, because Japan is already out for several months. Disconnect the decoder so that the silent cacophony of political forums, disinteressatevi because it is a form of protest. If certain items are not listening are forced to remain silent so that other, better, first silent, can be heard, including our own.

Videogiocate Ni No Kuni if ​​you can, it takes fifty hours, not even the time it takes to complete a short internship underpaid, free or paid which then leaves you unemployed as before. We all need a big and beautiful, fairy tale like the one that says this game there are so few stories that transcend age of those who live in the soul and leave him richer and wiser, because they speak the best that humanity in us.

After Ni No Kuni will not change your life: the crisis will bite your ankles and even the future appears dark because we live under the rule of the Nazgul. But - sweet as a balm of Kundry, painful as an adagio of Schubert, funny as a joke of Mickey Mouse, as beautiful as the last day of school and the promise of the holidays - Ni No Kuni will amaze you. And wonder is good for your health, our psyche and of those we love, it is the perfect antidote to the squalor and hypocrisy that force us to live. The wonder is not taught to ignore, teaches to think, to love and fight.

Born from an idea by Toshio Suzuki, a producer of almost all the works of Hayao Miyazaki's animated, Ni No Kuni combines visual imagery and poetic art of Studio Ghibli videogame programmers Level 5. This is one of those rare and wondrous alchemy between talents that give life to works of rare beauty and depth, as was the case with the collaboration between Shigeru Miyamoto and Squaresoft Super Mario RPG: Legend of The Seven Stars or the meeting between Kato Masato, Hironobu Skaguchi, Tetsuya Takahashi and Akira Toriyama for Chrono Trigger.

Hayao Miyazaki, who does not like video games, has not worked on the project (design is better than his new film, which is not too much admire his dreams), but there are many Totoro studio artists who have lent their genius to Ni No Kuni. Among these was Joe Hisaishi, who composed a soundtrack that flies like a bird magic between the lights and shadows of the forest of wonderful images and stories of this precious Japanese role-playing game.

The journey begins in a world that resembles ours, Motor City, a Turin or Detroit in key fantasized manga where the whole economy, aesthetics and desires revolve around industrial engines. Little Oliver runs away at night, while the mother sleeps, to drive the prototype car of a friend. But a horrible accident happens, the tragedy is lurking and the only hope lies in another world and a puppet that comes to life.

Memories of The Talisman by Stephen King and Peter Straub, sublimation between gameplay and Pokemon Tales Of, reminiscences miyazakiane, eco Final Fantasy and poetry to Lunar Silver Star Story: Ni No Kuni mixture of this and more at the same time varied and invents with delight and gravity.

The gamer is absorbed into the mother of all the fairies and born a second time, is not a metaphor, at some point during the game, really happens and is one of the most lyrical, funny and philosophical questions that I have lived with the controller in hand.

Flaubert was wrong when he wrote that "everything passes, everything dies and the human heart forgets." Good stories, whether real or imagined, never fall into oblivion.

Welcome introduction of oblivion, is repeated obsessively "is anybody listening?". Those voices, filtered and distorted, almost seem to draw a connection with another desperate cry for attention: "Where is everybody?" From "The Fragile" by Nine Inch Nails. Few artists have been so fascinated by the possibilities (and limitations) of the communication in the digital age as Trent Reznor. In sound research, but especially in marketing and interacting with fans, the leader of the NIN was one of the first to embrace change. And no one was better than him to put music in the film adaptation of this revolution (The Social Network) and interpret the coldness and epic.
With the composer Atticus Ross (already present in the aforementioned soundtrack), the singer and wife Mariqueen Maandig and designer Rob Sheridan, Reznor continues to explore the same themes, leading to the extreme in a post-apocalyptic future. The video for "Ice Age", released in late 2012, is perhaps the ideal introduction to the work: the band is locked in a cabin while something happens outside of inexplicable and disturbing, the strings of the banjo coldest ever heard repeating the same notes indefinitely while under electronic sounds are becoming more invasive, we see images of movies tender and reassuring but in which human figures are obscured, and finally the band itself becomes almost a hologram, surrendering to the Ice Age-to-digital of the title.

The titles of the other tracks are just as faithful to the content dystopian album: the evolution in the world of How To Destroy Angels, did not lead to anything good. Welcome entire oblivion, when men have the upper hand on the machines take only the paranoia and messages fragmentary survivors. In the duet / dialogue between Trent and Mariqueen of "Too late, all skirts," the two voices come together to affirm that "the more we change, the more everything remains the same," while in "Keep it together" when the singer sighs of feeling disappear The companion does not come to her rescue to save her, but to externalize the same feeling. Meanwhile, beat, very similar to those of the soundtracks fincheriane, bouncing in the background throughout the album without ever exploding, punctuated only by interference and glitches. But when the formula for success, he began to tire, comes a surprise: "How long?", The single carrier and the piece of pop opera - as if daring experimentation that the band is to be granted make a song under four minutes with verses and choruses. You need an exception that does take your breath halfway through, but one wonders what might come out if Reznor had the courage of lightness, if he dared to paint the same apocalyptic scenarios in pop. Or maybe "How long?" is a commercial compromise because - it should be remembered - after years of militant independence, the musician is back in a major. The future does tricks.

TRACKLIST:
"The wake-up"
"Keep it together"
"And the Sky Began to scream"
"Welcome oblivion"
"Ice Age"
"On the wing"
"Too late, all gone"
"How long?"
"Strings and attractors"
"We fade away"
"Recursive self-improvement"
"The loop closes"
"Hallowed Ground"