Death Magnet

Last week, Metallica released Death Magnetic. Your opinion of it seems to have been determined approximately 17 years ago. That is when Metallica released their self titled or so called "Black Album." For some people, this was Metallica's sell-out album. They went from being a cult favorite to being mainstream. Nevermind that they had already multiple gold and platinum records prior to the Black Album, but no one can argue with the success of the Black Album. It has always been hip to criticize that album and everything after it, and to praise everything before it. If you are hip like that, then obviously you won't like Death Magnetic. On the other hand, if you thought the Black Album was a big improvement for Metallica, then you will love Death Magnetic.

Personally, I like the Black Album and I like Death Magnetic. It is definitely in the vein of other recently successful rockers of the 80s/90s, like U2, R.E.M., and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, in that it "channels" a lot of their classic material while still sounding modern. The guitar playing is impressive, and in many ways the whole thing felt like it had been inspired by the Guitar Hero video game (which I also love to play.) In fact Death Magnetic can be downloaded and played on the XBox 360 and Playstation 3, but unfortunately for me, not the Wii...

Year Zero

Any year with a new Nine Inch Nails CD is a good year. I've watched in amusement as the whole "guerrilla marketing" campaign for Year Zero unfolded. I'm sure I would have ate that up when I was in college. These days I don't have time for researching mystery drugs, calling encrypted telephone numbers, and searching for underground websites. All I have time for is the music, and that does not disappoint.

I was a little nervous about a concept album from NIN. Lyrical has never been Trent Reznor's strength. But like every NIN CD, it doesn't matter. The music on Year Zero is amazing. It made me think about how most artists who make heavy use of technology (like Reznor) make heavy use of sampling. That's how they use modern technology to make music. Not Reznor. NIN is much more organic than artists like contemporaries such as Beck and Moby, or more recent electro-artists like Gorillaz and Gnarls Barkley. Even U2 made heavy use of sampling when they did their technology forrays on Zooropa and Pop. The only band that takes a similar approach to NIN is Radiohead.

Anyways back to Year Zero. The music is intense. The lyrics mine the concept more than adequately. They are a little repetitious at times, but the music keeps you from noticing. This is a lot more like what I would have expected of NIN after The Fragile than With Teeth was. It's an incredible CD. Arguably the best NIN CD from start-to-finish. There's never a weak point and there's one surprise after another.

Don't just take my word for it, since I am unabashed NIN fan. It has received very good reviews across the board. It even got a nice review from traditional NIN-bashers Pitchfork. They make a good point that essentially Reznor has embraced the long tail (they don't use that technology metaphor of course.) Whatever the case, NIN has made my year.

Favorite Songs of 2006

I was picking songs to listen to on my iPod last night, and thought about my favorite songs of the past year. Here they are, in no particular order:

Supermassive Black Hole -- Muse
Vicarious -- Tool
Crazy -- Gnarls Barkley
Where'd You Go? -- Fort Minor
Out Here All Night -- Damone
Had a Bad Day -- Daniel Powter
Upside Down -- Jack Johnson
Hip Hop is Dead -- Nas
Paralyzed -- Rock Kills Kid
Gold Lion -- Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Think I'm in Love -- Beck
The Joker and The Thief -- Wolfmother
Snow (Hey Oh) -- Red Hot Chili Peppers
Especially in Michigan -- Red Hot Chili Peppers

I could probably list a lot more songs from the Red Hot Chili Peppers' Stadium Arcadium. That was definitely my favorite CD of the year. Maybe I'll make a list of other good CDs later next week.