A review of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross' "Bird Box (Abridged)"

Trent Reznor has been creating cinematic instrumental music for over twenty-five years. At first, on 1992’s Broken EP and 1994’s The Downward Spiral, these pieces served as small gasps of breath during the intense, industrial onslaught surrounding them, but on 1999’s double album The Fragile, of which nearly a third was instrumental, these moments became a larger, more integral element to his work. In 2008, Reznor released Ghosts I-IV, a 36-track instrumental album which he described as “soundtracks for daydreams”. It also served as his open letter to filmmakers signaling his interest in scoring major motion pictures. Since 2010, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross have scored several films, but Bird Box stands out among them as their first horror film.

Reznor and Ross understand that restraint is just as, or even more important than, release. Yes, Bird Box is their first horror score, but if everything is screaming guitars, exploding percussion, and bleeding synths, the listener merely goes numb, but craft some dark corners…small spaces in which to catch one’s breath, with which to instill a quiet, reflective moment of deceptive security and solitude, and the terror is brought to new heights when it does finally come crashing through the wall.

 It’s clear from the first track of Bird Box that this is the score Nine Inch Nails fans have been waiting for for almost a decade, because while 2010’s Social Network score was a masterwork, it’s almost entirely incongruous with the subject matter; based on the music, one expects to see Mark Zuckerberg covered in bits of hair and brain whilst bludgeoning nuns to death with a ball peen hammer, not typing intently and being a shitty friend.

The cold, repeating piano, blurred voices, and twisted electro-organic sounds of birds and insects on the opener, “Outside”, immediately abandon the listener in a vast, dark place, filled with tension and danger. They are alone and vulnerable. “Undercurrents" is menace and anxiety and lethal pursuit made sonic. "Looking Forwards And Backwards" has whispered of "Parallel Timeline With Alternate Outcome” from 2011’s frigid, sprawling score for Fincher’s The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo and allows for a few uneasy breaths; same with “Sleep Deprivation” and “A Hidden Moment”, that last which could have been a holdover from 2002’s almost acoustic Still. "And It Keeps On Coming” is the sound of unending despair. You will never be safe or warm or loved again, and "Close Encounters” is everything I’d ever wanted in a Reznor/Ross horror score in one track, the simple, subtle, effective violin motif, melting Yamaoka drone, and the teeth-chattering piano trill racing around the edge of everything. It’s a perfect, nerve-jangling track before the floor gives way and some monstrous thing begins lumbering after you. Everything is summed up with “Last Thing Left”, a sombre, beautiful piano and keyboard piece. It’s not a happy ending, but it’s an ending, the nightmare has finally come to a close.

There was concern that the music for Bird Box might have been phoned in, as it was composed on the road, in between dates on Nine Inch Nails' recent Cold and Black and Infinite tour, but that is unmistakably not the case. An artfully constructed and masterfully executed score from start to finish and something all horror film composers are sure to emulate for years to come*, Bird Box is the best use of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’ scoring abilities since their first foray into this particular area of musical composition almost a decade ago.

* Whether Trent Reznor likes that or not.

A review of They Might Be Giants' "My Murdered Remains"

Much like 2016’s Phone Power, My Murdered Remains collects the remainder of 2018’s Dial-A-Song offerings, and, also like Phone Power, it’s a bit of a mixed bag. While it’s mostly lacking in flow or cohesion, and comes nowhere near the explosive triumph that was 2018's I Like Fun, there’s still a lot of really excellent tracks on MMR. If you view this as more of a mixtape rather than a plotted out, thoughtfully arranged album, it feels better. Among the sixteen album tracks and sixteen bonus tracks (more detritus from both this year and 2015’s Dial-A-Song) you’ve got a small collection of rock solid tracks not only worth checking out, but worth repeat listens.

Standouts include the high-energy, paranoid anthem “I’ve Been Seeing Things”, “Applause Applause Applause” which reveals the secret mantra at the heart of every single performer throughout history, whether they admit it or not, the frantic, tail-chasing “The Neck Rolls Aren’t Working”, “I Haven’t Been Right Yet”, the synthy, uneasy “The Bullies”, “Tractor”, “Tick Tick Tick”, “Last Wave (alt version)”* , and finally, the perfect exemplar of a clever, dynamic, fun song that is pure They Might Be Giants in the album’s opener, “The Communists Have The Music”.

After yet another year of new, original tracks every week from the Johns, Dan, Danny, and Marty, there is nothing to complain about here, and while it may be a bit of a musical jumble, you can’t argue with how apt that title is. My Murdered Remains and its bonus disc (entitled More Murdered Remains) is only available on the band’s official website in digital, CD, and vinyl formats.

* Although this one really only works with a bit of background…which I will not offer here. Enjoy the weirdness, squares.

A review of Thom Yorke's "Suspiria" score

I compare Thom Yorke to Trent Reznor all the time. And if you don’t, then I kind of don’t think you’re into either them or their stuff. So, when it was announced that Yorke was scoring his first film, I immediately thought of Reznor’s first outing with The Social Network and how well he and it did. 

Headline: Reznor’s first score is better than Yorke's first score.

Side A

1. A Storm That Took Everything - The hungry, howling dissonance of the void.

2. The Hooks -  Spare, sinister piano, then lush orchestration. All underscoring a wet, brutal crime.

3. Suspirium - Inexplicable sorrow and beauty.

4. Belonging Thrown in a River - Horror movie strings, tension.

5. Has Ended - Psychedelic unease, overtones of totalitarianism.

6. Klemperer Walks - sick regality

7. Open Again - Cultist celebration

Said B

8. Sabbath Invocation - Mass

9. The Inevitable Pull - Deep, unsettling, navigating a dark space filled with monsters. More sparse piano.

10. Olga’s Destruction - Nervous piano bouncing off tiled walls and long shards of glass. Feels like a broken music box.

11. The Conjuring of Anke - Haunted mansion piano, complete with choir of ghosts

12. A Light Green - First overtly electronic moment. Alien, jarringly inirganic.

13. Unmade - Clear, bright, choral. 

14. The Jumps  - Soft, with some disturbance. Warm, touch of Badalamenti. Another warm, round synth feel

Side C

15. Volk - Sharp, stabs of panic. Inorganic disease. When the drums come in things just get more confusing. Some classic 70’s horror movie vibes.

16. The Universe Is Indifferent - Same session as "Has Ended" perhaps. Has some of the same feel.

17. The Balance of Things - Balance is maintained only for a moment before things slide over the edge into the darkness.

18. A Soft Hand Across Your Face - More Badalamenti vibes.

19. Suspirium Finale - a fuller exploration of the original.

Side D

20. A Choir of One - long, uncomfortable drone. Hypnotic but not very interesting.

21. Synthesizer Speaks - Last gasps of talking computer. The end is truly unsettling, like...turn this off, it's freaking me the fuck out.

22. Room of Compartments - rising choir of screams. This is perfect for Suspiria.

23. An Audition - frantic pursuit

24. Voiceless Terror - More mangled, manipulated screams. Horrifying.

25. The Epilogue - based on the sick, dead sound of this, no one made it out.

There's no sense of unification or flow here and everything feels scattered. Whether or not this was intentional and made to fit with the chaotic, nightmare feel of the film...I don't know. Because I haven't seen it yet. Again, comparing it to Reznor's work on TSN*, it's more swirls of sound and color, swaths and patches, with the occasional clear picture included. Personally, I love "Suspirium" and "Suspirium Finale", and side D is a lot of really solid and terrifying sound manipulation, but that's all I took with me. The rest is fine. It's...just fine. It's less traditional than I was expecting from Yorke, which is fucking saying something. It's also a letdown for me. I think Yorke's non-Radiohead stuff is his best work**, and thought this was going to be a triumph from front to back.

There were three things I was certain of when I first saw Yorke was set to score Suspiria. First, that it would be a challenging listen but, overall, rewarding, second, that it would be startlingly unique, and third, that it would stand out among all other scores, let alone the stagnant swamp of all those shitty bland horror scores out there and launch a Reznor-esque side career in film scoring. There’s no way to be sure of that third one until some time goes by, but I was wrong about the first one, and (kinda) right about the second one. There are a few truly brilliant moments, but not enough to make up for the featureless ones. 

Looking forward to whatever Thom Yorke does next.

* Yeah, I know that's not really how things are done, but I am going to continue to do this.

** Save for maybe two dozen absolutely perfect Radiohead creations.

A review of John Grant's "Love Is Magic"

John Grant has the market cornered when it comes to snarky catharsis.* He’s also pretty great at obliterating one’s heart with a sledgehammer in one song and then eliciting snorts of laughter in the next. Love Is Magic is dense, consisting of ten tracks clocking in at just under an hour. On one hand, it could be argued that Grant lets things unfold, not rushing, allowing the listener to feel everything he set out for them to feel. On the other hand…does, everysong here have to be as long as it is? I believe that decision will come down to how much each individual listener enjoys synthesizers.

The event begins with “Metamorphosis"; fat, springy synths accompanied by seemingly random lyrics (“14-year old boy rapes 80-year old man/tickets to the Met/sweet corn from a can/baby's in the whitest house playing with his toys/earthquakes forest fires/hot Brazilian boys/67 yogurt flavors which one do you want?/can’t decide on toothpaste/Immanuel Kant) which then dissolve into a dark, uneasy interlude where context is given as Grant sings "as I enjoy distraction/she just slipped away/it didn’t seem to matter/how much she had prayed/they took her in an ambulance/and that is where she died/and still unto this very day/I don’t think I have cried”. Then, it’s back to the almost Oingo Boingo vibe as he continues his list.

Fuck me, that’s just the first five minutes and change of the album.

But it’s not all gloom and doom: ”Preppy Boy” is a cheeky, straightforward romp about offering to fuck a preppy dude who may or may not know he’s gay (come on now, preppy boy/if you’ve got an opening then I am unemployed/I’m so sick and tired of waiting in line/call me up if you’re down and you got the time), “Smug Cunt” is about…a smug cunt, absolutely dripping with Grant’s acidic vitriol, and while it maybe goes on a bit long (this horse is beaten, dead, buried, exhumed, and shat on) it’s enjoyably sharp the whole time. There are also heartwarming/heartwrenching moments like “Is He Strange” and the closer “Touch and Go”. The big winner on Love Is Magic, however, is “Diet Gum”. I’m not even going to address it, just listen and enjoy.
And, of course, everything is delivered in Grant's signature decadent purr…it’s like being wrapped in warm towels…

While maybe not as tight as 2015’s Grey Tickles, Black Pressure, Grant continues to deepen and widen both our smiles and the gashes he’s carved into our hearts.

*...snatharsis...?

A review of St. Vincent's "MassEducation"

There’s no truer test of a song’s quality than to hear it with all its production stripped away. So much music today is its bells and whistles and samples and so on. But it all comes down to the bones. That is what MassEducation is: no harmonies, no insanely talented and effect-buffed guitar playing, no dozens of takes to get that perfect sound, just Annie Clark's voice, Thomas Bartlett’s piano, and Pat Dillett’s subtle yet integral production lending a sense of continuity.

As this new release is a reinterpretation of last year’s stellar Masseduction, I’m just going to break the former down versus the latter.

"Slow Disco" - feels like the impetus for this whole thing and it’s perfect. This is the fifth iteration, also known as “Slow Slow Disco”, as opposed to “Fast Slow Disco” which was released earlier this year. This was a favorite from Masseduction.

"Savior" - Clark brandishes her voice like a glass sword. Absolutely beautiful and naked and fire. Great juxtaposition between the high piano and plucked low notes.

The repetition and layered vocals from the original version of “Masseduction" lose something here and this feels a bit harried at times.

“Sugarboy" - stripped of its frantic, coked-up, clubby chaos, we see those bones and realize there is much more to this than originally indicated. Bartlett’s piano is indispensable in making this work as well as it does. The moment towards the end where Clark makes herself laugh is wonderful.

"Fear The Future" - sounds so triumphant and timeless in this arrangement, again, thanks to Bartlett’s shimmering high notes.

Without those huge, swelling noises in the background and the massive, thudding drums “Smoking Section” feels so much more vulnerable. Originally, when Clark declared “it’s not the end”, there was a sense of certainty, but here, she plays the role of the unreliable narrator.

"Los Ageless” becomes a low key, jazz number that wouldn’t be out of place in a smoky speakeasy from the 20’s. Almost a total reworking. This arrangement is reminiscent of something by Tori Amos, which makes me want a Love This Giant-type collaboration immediately.

“New York” gains added fragility, taking on a more sorrowful tone.

“Young Lover”, one of the only tracks to get a tempo shift, loses a little something, but that’s really one of this album's only shortcomings.

“Happy Birthday, Johnny” loses its gentle bed of slide guitars and gains an absolutely gorgeous piano break. Perhaps one of the only tracks here better than the original.

I was really curious how this would go…but, thanks to that slightly detuned, demented plucked piano, “Pills” works just fine. Somehow the relatively fast vocals work here where they didn’t on “Masseduction”. Another appearance of Bartlett’s sparkling high notes seals the deal.

"Hang On Me" is an excellent closer. It’s even more perfect in this state than in its original presentation.

While Jack Antonoff’s production lent Masseduction a dynamic, immediate quality, the versions presented here feel more ageless and weighty, even those that actually sound lighter than the originals, probably because there’s less to distract from the melodies and lyrics. Not that there was really any doubt, but MassEducation further cements Clark’s songcrafting skills. For those who didn’t like the instrumentation or presentation of her last album, or for those who loved it but would appreciate a deeper, more intimate look at the album, or simply for people who like the work of a strong, female singer/songwriter to accentuate the vibe of the season, MassEducation is meant for you.

A review of Nine Inch Nails' "Bad Witch"

Sometimes…it’s just fucking exhausting to be a Nine Inch Nails fan. Most bands…they say, hey, we have an album coming out. Then there’s a single or two, maybe a video, then the album. It’s good, you like it, you play it a lot, you attach thoughts and ideas to it, you continue listening to it, you see the band in concert, you post pictures on social media, you feel important, life goes on. Not with Nine Inch Nails. Oooooh no. Starting with the first time Trent fucking Reznor said the words “concept album”, everything has been a goddamn marathon. Anyone ever hear about the whole Year Zero ARG? No? Do you even know what an ARG is?! Well fuck you, because my favorite band is more calculating and deliberate than yours. My favorite band hides new music in European bathroom stalls. My favorite band puts as much time and planning into THE ALTERNATE REALITY ASSOCIATED WITH THEIR NEW ALBUM AS THE ALBUM ITSELF.

And, while I’m bragging, I’m also lamenting, because I can no longer just…fucking…LISTEN to a new release from Nine Inch Nails. I have to dissect it. I have to search for hidden lyrics in the lyrics tab on various streaming platforms. I have to play it backwards. I HAVE TO RUN THE FUCKING THING THROUGH A SPECTROGRAM TO LOOK FOR HIDDEN PICTURES IN THE WAVEFORMS.

FUCK!

All this to say: the trilogy of albums, which started in 2016 with Not The Actual Events and continued in 2017 with Add Violence has been completed. The mystery has been solved. Our entire world is just a computer simulation. Or not. Whatever. I can’t feel anything anymore.

But how about those saxophones?!

Leaning more towards the dissonant impenetrability of Not The Actual Events than the mellow, nuanced gloom of Add Violence, half of the lyrics on Bad Witch are crooned in the style of Bowie, whereas the rest are buried behind walls of noise. Hand claps have never sounded less celebratory than on the opener, “Shit Mirror”*...“I eat your loathing, hate, and fear / Should probably stay away from here” Reznor warns**. “Ahead of Ourselves” writhes with smirking, barely restrained fury until the chorus when it snaps its chain for just a few bars at a time, nearly doubling in volume. Those moments feel like actual punishment for the mistakes we’ve made. “Obsolete / Insignificant / Antiquated / Irrelevant / Celebration of ignorance / Why try change when you know you can’t?”.
After the punch/kick combo of the first two tracks, “Play The Goddamned Part” and “God Break Down The Door" take the listener on a noirish, Lynch/Bowie influenced midnight journey. When the latter was dropped a few weeks back as the one and only single, it consternated a lot of fans, but it finds its place in the context of the album and fits perfectly.
While the first two thirds of Bad Witch are brutal, more an assault than an album, the last third, consisting of the nightmare soundscape of “I’m Not From This World” and the funky, hypnotic groove of “Over And Out”, provides a welcome shift. The final two minutes of the album serve as a well-deserved respite from everything that came before it.

With or without the context of the trilogy of albums released over the past year and a half, Bad Witch stands as the most unexpected and challenging work Nine Inch Nails has ever created. If Trent Reznor were to retire now, I cannot envision a more perfect endpoint to his career. Or, if he wants to keep making groundbreaking stuff for another 30 years, that’s fine with me too. Whatever. Like I said, I can’t feel anything anymore.

* Yes, yes, believe me, I know, I had the same thought.

** Yes! Seriously! I know how it sounds, but the song more than justifies the title and lyrics! CONTEXT, PEOPLE! IT'S ABOUT CONTEXT!

A review of "The Ghost of Georges Bataille" by Drew McDowall & Hiro Kone

When the focus of one’s release is "the sentiment of death as productive force", there must be an ongoing respect of the source material, deeply felt, at the heart of the work. McDowall and Kone are reverent the entire time, perfectly blending their own unique sonic talents and birthing something fragile, nuanced, and draped in shadow.

The Ghost of Georges Bataille is the first recorded collaboration between Drew McDowall (Coil) and Nicky Mao (aka Hiro Kone) and was recorded in only a week, however, anyone thinking that wasn't ample time to craft something genuine or compelling should think back to that alleged Picasso anecdote.

"Barely Awake" opens with a metallic drone and develops into what could be the last breaths of some dying being, desperate yet also resigned. Death is to be feared, but it may not be an end.
"Dreaming Is Nursed In Darkness" thrums and fizzles with odd, alien vocalizations before a beat makes itself known. Then jagged, icy programming delivers a fantastic sense of dynamism.
"Bright Kiss of Fire" is dark and cavernous, tense and anxious.
The centerpiece of Ghost, "Violence’s Detour", maintains a solemn, dour beauty. Warmth washes over the listener for a bit before a stuttering, broken beat kicks in, adding chaos and unrest.

"Not for the casual listener" stands alone as a sort of warning at the bottom of a paragraph in the album's press release. While I wholeheartedly agree with that, I can't help but think maybe if more "casual listeners" took their time to sit with and take in work of this calibre, they'd be less "casual".
The Ghost of Georges Bataille is a sepulchral triumph, meaningful and arresting, and, hopefully, the first of many collaborations between McDowall and Kone.

A review of They Might Be Giants' "I Like Fun"

The one thing lacking from I Like Fun is fun. And that's 100% as it should be. After thirty-five years and twenty albums, They Might Be Giants have perfected their unique style and the result is this obsidian gem of an LP.

Not only is "Let's Get This Over With" a fantastic and relatable sentiment, a great name for an opener, and an excellent song, it also has what might be the best opening lyric from a They Might Be Giants album since their debut in 1986.*
And the album keeps getting better.
"An Insult to the Fact Checkers" centers around a surly Flansburgh sneering over aggro-surf rock. "Mrs. Bluebeard", one of the most straightforward and stunning tracks here, joins the ranks of PG-13 educational songs like "The Lady and The Tiger" from 2011's Join Us, a posthumous lament from one (or all?) of the notorious pirate's dead wives ("I want to say I learned something valuable today / alas my murdered remains are incapable of learning anything / I’m not complaining / I’m not anything"). “I Like Fun” could be the theme for a follow up to The Oblongs. It starts off a little eerie with that warbling Linnell sample, then the chorus makes it weirdly nostalgic and warm. The enigmatic "McCafferty's Bib" is funky, slick, and untrustworthy, and "The Greatest" would have been perfect on an episode of Malcolm In The Middle. 

But the secret, sad heart of the album are the four tracks tucked between the uneasy creep of the title track and the sci-fi, hippie rock of "Lake Monsters". The forced, aching smile of "Push Back the Hands" ("it wouldn't help you if you'd had any sleep / it wouldn't save you from the mission creep"), the subtle, sorrowful sharpness in the mellow, sun-warmed "This Microphone" ("selflessly hiding all emotions inside / chilly and dry / New England style"), "The Bright Side" which sounds like a friendly, exhausted band locked into a shitty 15-album contract performing for a sunny field full of fans whom they loathe ("the bright side / is blinding our eyes / and the sound keeps ringing / the bright side / is just a white lie / that the crowd keeps singing"), and the frenetic, desperate hope of "When the Lights Come On"** ("there won't be any more trouble / you'll be dragged from the rubble / when the lights come on / and I'll be looking so great / I will have lost some weight / when the lights come on"). Listen to that tetralogy, read the lyrics, and you'll get the band's manifesto, the soul of They Might Be Giants.
This opus comes to a close with "Last Wave", the broken, unveiled face of I Like Fun. "We die alone  / we die afraid / we live in terror / we're naked and alone and the grave is the loneliest place".
It's not quirky. It's not funny. It's not fun. It's the truth and that is so goddamned sad.

Everything here is seething or apprehensive or resigned or snarky. The title track is about medicating away someone's enjoyment of life for Christ's sake...and the fact that this whole thing is called I Like Fun is the best sneer ever. Some might think this album is too morose***, but those people haven’t been paying attention; not to the music of John Flansburgh and John Linnell, and not to recent world events. This is the best, darkest, and most cohesive They Might Be Giants album in a quarter century.

* Perhaps a reference to "Don't Let's Start". Since we did let them start, we may as well get this over with.

** All the while it's so crushingly, painfully obvious that the lights will never come on again.

*** A potential alternate title for the album could be Songs of Fear, Anxiety, And Defeat.

A review of Gorillaz' "Humanz" (Super Deluxe)

Why do people purchase "deluxe" or "super deluxe" or "bonus" or other such named "enhanced" versions of albums? For extra artwork? Unique packaging? More songs? For the sheer exclusivity of it? For me, depending on the band, it's for unreleased/extra music first, then artwork, and only if I really dig said artwork. So when Gorillaz, a band for which the artwork is as important as the music, maybe moreso, announced their new album Humanz a mere month before its release, I went all out; I purchased the two-CD version which featured six tracks not on the standard CD and pre-ordered the "Super Deluxe" version which boasted fourteen new tracks. Between that bonus CD and the SD version, that doubled the tracks on the standard album. After months of delay, I received my SD package earlier this month and sat down with it over the weekend.

Included in the Super Deluxe edition of Humanz is an art book featuring the Instagram posts from earlier this year which detailed the Gorillaz' path from Plastic Beach to Humanz, some scribbled-on lyric sheets, and unseen art from Jamie Hewlett, and fourteen separate records, each a unique color, each in its own sleeve, the a-side containing the album's twenty tracks and the b-side sporting a new, unreleased track. The book and records all come in a huge, faux leather case adorned with lightning bolts. I'll get right to it: while a handful of the bonus tracks are interesting (namely "Colombians" which sounds like something from Goat Simulator, "Midnite Float", and an alternate, D.R.A.M.-centric version of "Andromeda") most are forgettable instrumentals and foreign language versions of LP tracks. 

Now the question: was it worth it? The package was over $350 with shipping and took eight months to arrive. Everything in it is beautiful and well-crafted, although the tracks are mostly Gorillaz-official-website-background-music quality. Would I have been happy with just the standard LP? I'm not a theoretical physicist so I really can't answer that. I'm going to say no though, as I am a completionist and when it comes to Gorillaz, the narrative is important to me, so any new music/images could mean more insight into this non-existent band. For a normal person though? They probably don't even know about this, and is that a bad thing? Digital vs vinyl. Collecting vs minimalism. Each record has only two songs. Arguably, the only less practical way to present this album would be to have twenty-eight one-sided records. Is it necessary. Ooh. There's a phrase you don't hear a lot in conjunction with these special releases. But, then again, it's "super deluxe", what's "necessary" about something labeled as "super deluxe"?

Oy. 

Did you know there's a Grammy award for packaging? Look it up. Nine Inch Nails was nominated in 2008 for Ghosts I-IV and Reznor, Ross, and Rob Sheridan in 2012 for their The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo score packaging. They were nominated for "Best Boxed or Special Limited Edition". THERE'S A GRAMMY AWARD FOR PACKAGING.

A review of Beck's "Colors"

All right, I'm going to get weird here for a moment. I do not consider myself a conspiracy theorist, but since the direction of Beck's follow up to Morning Phase has slowly come to light over the past three years, I have developed what one might call a "conspiracy theory"*...and here it is...

After Beck won the Grammy in 2015 and was rewarded by Kayne's cuntishness and a legion of ill-informed children tweeting #WhoIsBeck, I believe he had a thought. I believe his thought was to make an album so accessible and so mainstream as to show these twenty-somethings exactly who he was and what he was capable of. He sat down and looked at what he had lying around** and saw a bunch of stuff he did with super-mainstream, finger-on-the-pulse producer and former keyboardist, Greg Kurstin. This stuff was as far from the somber beauty of Morning Phase as Beck had been perhaps since 1999's Midnite Vultures and it was accessible as fuck. The plan started there.
Beck went on to make songs as commercial and radio-friendly as he was able, dusting them with just a hint of the funk and weirdness he is so adept at, but not too much funk or weirdness, got to keep this appealing to the masses, always think of the masses. If Morning Phase was the spiritual sequel to 2002's Sea Change, a complete work for musicians and people who loved intricate and challenging music that pays dividends after repeat listens, then this new one was going to be for the Playlist People, the Shuffleheads, those who like songs but not albums because who has forty minutes to listen to anything? To someone in their twenties, forty minutes is the equivalent of four hundred years. That is a fact created by combining math and science.***
At one point, and here's where things get uber-conspiratorial, Beck decides to not just make an album for the kids, he decides to mock them a little by lampooning the music and subjects they're used to. Proof?**** The first single, "Dreams". The song actually features the Millennial Whoop. And those lyrics...so...normal...
As time went on, the songs got more and more overproduced, and less and less substantial. He removed continuity and flow from the album, and came out with ten candy-coated frosting dots that were designed to appeal to the most brainless and least focused demographics: Millennials and the corporations that shill for Millennials.*****

Now, do I actually believe all this? Eh, no. In a nutshell; I think the direction and content of the album as well as the decision to release Colors after Morning Phase was influenced by the fact that the overwhelming response to a skilled artist winning one of the music industry's highest awards****** resulted in the majority of the public asking "who's this guy who is almost 50 and who we've never heard of who just beat Beyonce for the best album released in the entirety of 2014. I don't care if you're a time-travelling space alien like Beck, that's got to get through, and it's got to sting, at least a bit.

I should probably review this thing, huh?

Colors is an album made of and for the zeitgeist. Sadly, while the zeitgeist can be colorful, it can also be hyperactive and vapid. From start to finish, the album is rife with the same overused and mundane concepts and assertions that've plagued the music industry since its inception. "Put it up in the air / if you don't really care", "just wanna stay up all night with you / nothing that I wouldn't rather do", "it's my life, your life / live it once, can't live it twice"*******, "what I need is right in front of me", and so on. Here's the thing though, even if 90% of the lyrics here are just fluff, a lot of the songs are catchy, if not good.
I don't hate this album. I hate...what it is and why it is, the need for it and the music it reflects and mimics. There are good, well-crafted, pop-as-fuck songs here. "Dreams" (the original, not the blander album mix) and "Up All Night" should be on every summer mix tape for at least the next five years, "Dear Life" is solid and would fit nicely on other, better Beck albums, "Square One" and"Wow" are fun (but the latter isn't nearly as weird as seemingly every other review claims it is. There's one "weird" line in it and that accounts for five seconds of a forty five minute album. Fucking get over it and make sure you don't listen to Midnite Vultures or your heads will explode), and "I'm So Free" needs to be on the radio forever.
And hey, if Beck wants to make an album where every song is crafted to be purchased by movie studios or car companies and featured in commercials or trailers or bland CW dramas, who am I to get mad when he does? He's got kids and, apparently, musical genius and Grammy awards don't pay for college. Going from there, as I was listening to Colors for the first time, I could actually see the commercials in which each song would be used and took notes. 

"Colors" - iPhone 8 Color announce or new Canon printer, something where they're trying to sell the idea of "color" as a new invention or product

"Seventh Heaven" -  CW teen drama prom dance song as credits roll; our introverted hero just found out his mother has cancer but she told him to go to the dance anyway and to ask the girl he likes to dance with him and he does and she does - full disclosure - this might be because of the old WB show of the same name, but I've never actually seen an episode so...I don't know.

"I'm So Free" - sugar-free chewing gum commercial, both because the gum is sugar...free and also because chewing gum makes one feel free. Or maybe some smartphone plan that has free long distance.

 "Dear Life" - ABC pilot about a bartender/burgeoning stand up comic, used as the theme or maybe an extended intro. Is the show called "Dear Life"? Patton Oswalt would have been offered and would have turned down this show. But Joel McHale might not have...

"No Distraction" - specifically the bridge and chorus - used in the first act of the inevitable sequel to NERVE, before shit gets dark - driving through a city at night, perhaps with someone yelling out the window about how great the night is going to be

"Dreams" -  is there a sequel to Inside Out? If not, definitely something by Pixar. Probably just in the trailer though.

"Wow" might be the only track too "out there" for typical ad agencies. That's not to say it's not viable, just that I'm not a fucking copywriter. Whatever it gets used for it will have the spec "urban".

"Up All Night" - oh, I don't know...maybe, like, a watch commercial?

"Square One" - in the fourth sequel to Bridget Jones's Diary in a scene where her daughter is having a fun girls' night out but she's in love with one of her girl friends? Was Bridget Jones's baby a chick? Can we rewrite that?

"Fix Me" - "hip", "cool" life insurance ad for 30-somethings. My wife suggested that one and it clicks audibly for me.

I was going to go as far as to record little fake commercials using these tracks in these situations, but that felt shitty. Plus, I'm lazy.

My hope is that Colors will prove to the idiot tastemakers, the vaping and vapid Millennial masses, Twitter********, car company ad execs and to himself that he can be as banal, mundane, and relevant as the rest of what's drifting in the cultural septic tank that is pop music. Then he can get back to being Beck, unfettered, and continue making real music for no one but hiss founky self.
And me.

* Not Gibson's worst movie, but certain scenes reminded me too much of Jacob's Ladder, plus he's still a rapey, anti-Semitic piece of shit and no one seems to remember that anymore.

** In my mind, and with regards to the amount of material they've both got backlogged, I equate Beck to a funkier Richard D. James.

*** I used to be in my twenties, so shush.

**** Or "proof", I suppose.

***** Obviously this doesn't apply to each and every single person born between 1982 and 2004 (or whatever the definition of a "Millennial" is). I know a lot of Millennials and a lot of them they kind of hate the label and fight against it, but for every Millennial I know who is not a piece of shit, I know a dozen who are.

****** Kind of. To some people anyway.

******* aka "YOLO". Ugh.

******** Seriously though, I feel like the marketing budget for this album could offset more than one third world country's debt. But hey, check out that custom Beck hashtag!!!!

A review of Marilyn Manson's "Heaven Upside Down"

From the moment it starts, it's clear that 1996's Antichrist Superstar, the best album Marilyn Manson has ever released, is the template for Heaven Upside Down, and that is always a good idea. This album is evidence that Tyler Bates in Manson's new Trent Reznor. Is he as good as Reznor? Obviously not, but he's the best thing to happen to Manson in over a decade.

The album's opener, "Revelation #12" echoes the thudding, sludgy bass of Antichrist Superstar, the kind of shit Twiggy Ramirez was meant to play. From there, we get something absolutely unique in "Tattooed In Reverse". It's like bluesy-electro-Goth-jock rock. Knowing Manson, this one is for the strippers. It's like something from The Golden Age of Grotesque* slowed down and made massive. The cadence of that opening line..."So fuck your bible and your babble"...that is word play. "WE KNOW WHERE YOU FUCKING LIVE" is another excellent ACS throwback, and his best single in years...fourteen years, to be specific. "We know where you fucking live / we know where you fucking live / we'll burn it down / burn it down / they won't even recognize your corpse". Jesus, no shitty puns there. "SAY10" starts like a horror movie and then becomes the killer, and, while I'll award points for "cocaine and Abel" (because it is so. Fucking. Manson.) I'm taking them away almost immediately for referring to himself as a "legend". You flew too high, Brian. "SAY10" should have been the last track on side A (ABOVE), and the next track, "KILL4ME", should have been left off the album entirely; it's the weakest link here, smacking of Eat Me, Drink Me from its first note: repetitious, plodding, dull. The first in a small handful of missteps.

Side B (BELOW) begins with "Saturnalia", one of the longest tracks Manson has ever created, clocking in at almost eight minutes. I was very excited/anxious for this, as it could have been a toilet fire like "I Want To Kill You Like They Do In The Movies"**, but it kept me engaged the whole time. Between the drums, bass, and Manson's backing croak-als, this is the closest thing to "Bela Lugosi's Dead" he'll ever release, unless he just does a straight-up cover. Manson does love his 80's covers... "Je$u$ Cri$i$"*** has some of that barroom-fist-fight dirt introduced on Pale Emperor and there's something concise about the circular manner of the chorus that appeals to me. I was worried when I first saw the title, but when things kick in about halfway through, all the worries go out the window. They should really play this live. JC might be the perfect amalgamation of Manson's previous album and the direction of his next one...I hope. And, speaking of hope, here's where I started to lose mine. The final three tracks in no way stack up against the majority of the opening seven. Nothing is out and out awful, just a letdown in comparison. I was really looking forward to the title track being as revolutionary and world-ending as that of Antichrist Superstar, but it is not. "Blood Honey" and "Threats of Romance"...just kind of happen.

I like Manson better when he's telling a story and playing a character. I've always seen him as a character and I don't need to hear about how he can't sustain a relationship, it's mundane. I like my Manson screaming and bleeding in front of a burning church, not howling power ballades and asking someone to hold his hand...which he actually does in the title track...like half a dozen times.
"KILL4ME", "Blood Honey", "Heaven Upside Down" , and "Threats of Romance" all feel like remainders from the Pale Emperor sessions and they don't belong here, they distract and get in the way of Manson's re-evolution back to ACS. To be clear, they aren't bad (except for "KILL4ME", that song is bad), just not right for this.
60% of this album is more than solid, more than good, it's great, and, as Manson's music for the past fourteen years has created a sort of grading curve, that translates to a much higher score. Heaven Upside Down is the true successor to Antichrist Superstar. There are traces of Pale Emperor here, but I'm hoping this is the second piece of a new trilogy, the final installment of which will sound wholly like Superstar and signal a return to form for Marilyn Manson as a dark, malevolent force, championing for and bringing about the musical apocalypse.

* Manson's last great album before this one

** A nine minute track from The High End of Low

*** Oy.

A review of Nine Inch Nails' "Add Violence"

Note: I’m not going to even mention the ARG here. Okay? Good.

Add Violence is the second in a trilogy of related EPs from Nine Inch Nails…and it’s real good, you guys. 

"Less Than”, the EP’s “radio single" is misleading in the best way possible. It’s like an ideal version of “The Hand That Feeds”, which was tired about two minutes into its first play; here’s hoping the weirdly retro synth and drum programming along with the jump kick to one’s front teeth this song provides will forever replace it in all future Nine Inch Nails live shows.

“The Lovers" is as dark and eerie as a song called “The Lovers" by Nine Inch Nails should be, featuring lyrics such as "hot swollen skin / want me take me / perfect embrace / black and bloody / rotten and perfect” and instrumentation that harkens back to “The Believers”, a track from the first How To Destroy Angels EP.

“This Isn’t The Place” has an almost jazzy feel to it and a gorgeous, syrupy slow build, culminating in some of the most vulnerable vocalizations Trent Reznor’s ever created. 

"Not Anymore” is driven by an utterly filthy bass line, reminiscent of 2005’s “The Line Begins To Blur” but…just fucking filthier. Atticus Ross, you wash your bass, young man. It’s also creeping and schizophrenic and just unsettling as hell, one of the band’s most unique tracks to date.

Add Violence ends with “The Background World”, which clocks in at nearly 12 minutes. The first four and change are a solid Nine Inch Nails song, nothing more, nothing less, but the last seven and change are the digital equivalent of a locked groove, but instead of repeating the same few seconds over and over until the needle is lifted, the nine second phrase slowly degrades until it’s just a sludgy buzz. It’s…memorable.

This is some of the most challenging and experimental music from Nine Inch Nails since the stranger moments of Ghosts I-IV. Though I will say that, after one listen, I never have to hear those last seven plus minutes of “The Background World” ever again, just like I never need to hear Coil’s “Tunnel of Goats” ever again.

For those keeping track*, there are references to 2007’s Year Zero, 2013’s Welcome oblivion**, 1999’s The Fragile, 2011's score for The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, last year’s Not The Actual Events, and even Bleedthrough, the unreleased concept album that later became 2005’s With Teeth….and that's not even taking into account the nods, Easter eggs, and allusions scattered around the cover art and accompanying music videos. Folks…there’s a lot to unpack here. But, for those who saw that episode of Twin Peaks and downloaded “She’s Gone Away” then heard “The" Nine Inch Nails had a new thing coming out and decided to check out Add Violence…well, sorry. After “Less Than”, you might just be let down and/or confused and/or terrified…and/or a Nine Inch Nails fan for the rest of your life.

* Like the thousands of people over at the Echoing The Sound forums

** Debut LP from Reznor’s side project How To Destroy Angels, which consists of Reznor, Atticus Ross, and Reznor's wife, Mariqueen Maandig.

A review of Zos Kia/Coil's "Transparent"

"We've been witnessing your many and varied forms of control today. They're very effective...very pretty." These are the first (and most intelligible) words one hears at the start of Transparent, one of the very first recordings of what would later evolve into Coil. This is not a good album, or, at times, a listenable album, but it is perfect for what it is. Recorded in various live situations (and one studio) over the course of 1983, what was originally a cassette has been restored* and released. This is raw and pure and explosive, the soul and seed of Coil.

Zos Kia was comprised of John Gosling (Psychic TV, Mekon), Mia Kent (the real person on which Helena Bonham Carter is based), John Balance, and Peter "Sleazy" Christopherson, and it was artfuck without compromise or pretension or artifice. Track one, 'Sicktone' features John Balance murdering a violin, 'Truth' is a bit of a precursor to PTV's 'Neurology', 'Silence and Secrecy' is, in Balance's own words, "a tape of cicadas amplified really loud with wolf noises". The female vocalist, Min Kent, adds something perhaps lacking in a lot of later Coil; a sick softness, like the skin of rotten fruit. She sounds like a drowning victim who's resigned to her fate and her ear-splitting shrieks on “Poisons"** will chill your blood.

Will you ever play this at a high school prom, probably not, although it would be remembered. Is this something you’ll throw on to unwind on the drive home, no. It's not even for fans of Psychic TV, Coil, or Throbbing Gristle; it's for true worshippers, devotees, cultists of what these people created. It’s also perfect in its destructive capability and raw, world-ending scum. To say it’s just noise would be 100% accurate and yet a complete dismissal of what’s on offer. If I could, I’d give it a 1 and a 10. But I can’t, so I’m giving it a 10, perhaps the most solipsistic 10 ever, but, still, I stand by it.

* As much as one can restore a shitty cassette from the early 80's

** Although said shrieks are actually part of the previous track, 'Violations', a live and renamed version of Zos Kia's 'Rape' which also features Coil's 'Here to Here (Double Headed Secret)' as a sound bed, all featured on the original version of this album. You got all that?

A review of Nine Inch Nails' "The Fragile: Deviations 1"

\\

When The Fragile was released in 1999, it was 25 songs, clocking in at almost two hours. Even back then, Trent Reznor said that there was more material, in various states, which made up about one more full disc of music. Around the tenth anniversary of the album, he started hinting at a deluxe reissue, complete with unreleased tracks and a 5.1 mix, created by himself and long time studio partner, Alan Moulder. Since then, he'd mention it occasionally; how he'd "just stumbled over some old bits and pieces or demos", how they were "working on it", etc, but nothing ever came to fruition.

At the very end of December 2016, along with the "definitive editions" of Broken, The Downward Spiral, and The Fragile*, as well as a brand new, 5-track EP entitled Not The Actual Events, Reznor released The Fragile: Deviations 1, a 37-track, all instrumental version of the 1999 release, featuring forty minutes of unreleased music**. These unreleased tracks range from completely finished pieces simply missing their vocals to demos and outlines of songs that, for whatever reason, were never completed. The entire two and a half hour journey of Deviations 1 is the definition of epic, and might be the most Nine-Inch-Nails-fan-centric release Reznor has ever unleashed. That said, it is not perfect. It is not the deluxe, cancer-curing, ultimate reissue fans have been teased with since 2009. It is something huge and strange and complicated.

For the most part, the original tracks from the album haven't undergone much transformation, with the exception of "Somewhat Damaged", "Ripe (With Decay)", "The Mark Has Been Made" and a few others, which feature some added elements here and there, and, as for the new material, it's a mixed bag. Tracks like "Missing Places" and "Feeders" don't really stand on their own and found spots on the original album as transitions, while "Taken" and "Last Heard From" seem to be little more than demos. Then there's "The March" and what was originally called "Hello, Everything Is Not OK", the former which ended up as "Skin of a Drum" from Saul Williams' The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust!, and the latter which became "10 Miles High". The three most intriguing tracks are "Not What It Seems Like"***, which builds on a simple drum loop and, through subtle layers of sound, becomes something triumphant, "White Mask" which sounds like an homage to Coil****, and "Was It Worth It?", which has an almost startlingly bright feel thanks to some straight up 80's synths in its chorus. That last one appears to only be missing lyrics.

I wanted everything. I wanted a seven-disc release with the original album in 5.1 and all previously released material (remixes, b-sides, etc.) also remastered and in 5.1. I wanted all the video content: those tiny little trailers, both of those MTV Fragility tour specials, all the music videos*****, And All That Could Have Been and its accompanying acoustic special and everything else in blazing high definition with a picture so sharp I cut my fucking eyeballs. I did not get that. I got forty minutes of new instrumentals, twelve minutes of which I really dig, and a vague promise in the form of that little number "1" appearing after the word "deviations". Is there going to be one more? Eight more? Is it going to come out this year? This decade? My logic tells me that Reznor wants to be done with this fucking thing as much as me, to just wrap things up and never have to talk about it again, but my logic also tells me that Reznor is a busy, busy man with four children, two new Nine Inch Nails albums set for release this year, and an unquenchable desire to score everything forever.

Anyway. If you're a foaming-at-the-mouth Nine Inch Nials fan or just love the everloving shit out of The Fragile, hop on over to the revamped nin.com store and pay $80 for The Fragile: Deviations 1, for which you will receive an instat wav download of the entire thing along with a fantastic digital booklet which contains some unused artwork from David Carson's original concept for the album as well as a four-LP vinyl of the record, coming this spring. 

* All meticulously restored and remastered versions of the original, vinyl releases of the albums

** If you ignore the Apple Music release of The Fragile (Instrumentals) from June of last year, which featured three of those aforementioned unreleased tracks

*** Which could be a reference/counterpoint to "Just Like You Imagined" from the original record

**** And since Jhonn Balance and Sleazy Christopherson were lurking around nothing studios recording Backwards at the time, who knows?

***** "Starfuckers, Inc." and the original "The Day the World Went Away" video included

A review of Nine Inch Nails' "Not The Actual Events"

Trent Reznor seems to have decided that 2017 will be one of his active years. Along with definitive reissues of all of Nine Inch Nails' core releases on vinyl and high resolution audio, he has promised "two new, major works" from Nine Inch Nails. Then there's his and Atticus Ross' score for Peter Berg's Patriots Day (official release in a few weeks), the upcoming Ken Burns doc about the Vietnam War (due in Q3), and who the hell knows what else. But, before all this, Reznor started things off by fulfilling his promise from last year by releasing new Nine Inch Nails music in 2016, namely, Not The Actual Events, a 21-minute, 5-track EP.

Reznor says the story and concept for NTAE originated from a few years' worth of musical experiments and the idea of directly referencing back to a track of his from the mid-90's. He says it's impenetrable and unfriendly. He says it should be played loud. Some of the lyrics here feel like automatic writing, stream of consciousness. Reznor's voice is affected on some tracks, nearly unintelligible on others, and, on the opener "Branches/Bones", half of the song's lyrics aren't sung. Maybe we're supposed to...feel them...? Also, the fourth track, "The Idea of You", sounds a bit like electronic Metallica.

It's dense and it's brutal, but I can't tell if the fucking thing is good. I haven't stopped listening to it since it came out, but that means nothing; I'm a Nine Inch Nails fan and that's my function. I can say that I actively enjoy "Branches/Bones" and that, when the chorus of "Burning Bright" kicks in, I feel something explode inside of myself. But that's me. Not The Actual Events is on all streaming services as well as vinyl and some other mysterious format Reznor is teasing people with, so give it a listen and decide for yourself.

A side note: One of the most intriguing aspects of the EP (for me) is its artwork, which is identical to that of NIN's 2002 release, Still.

Still was a 9-track collection of acoustic interpretations of earlier works and leftover tracks from the Fragile sessions and it sounds absolutely fuckall like this new EP. Which begs the question: is NTAE to whatever's to come from Nine Inch Nails next year as Still was to The Fragile? Are we getting a new double album? Are the tracks on NTAE alternate versions? Also: who killed John F. Kennedy? Why is Hitler? Are 23 and 42 related?
In 2017, we shall find our answers.

A review of Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross' "Patriots Day" score

Note: This is a review of the "For Your Consideration" edit of the Patriots Day score. What this means is that this is not the final version of the score as is set to be released commercially in January 2017. Certain tracks are merely different edits of other, longer tracks, some with different mixing, instrumentation, and arrangements. As that is the case, this is less of a formal review and more of a "first impressions" write up.

While different from their previous score work, this is still clearly Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross. On their next score, I'd really enjoy hearing them take more risks, getting out of their current workspace. Maybe it's them, maybe it's Peter Berg, the film's director, maybe it's the inherent lack of innovation in Hollywood stifling their artistic inclinations, but these two are much more adventurous than this.

Of their five scores thus far, Patriots Day feels the most like an Oscar Movie Soundtrack*. A really stand out, interesting Oscar Movie Soundtrack, but still well within the constraints of the system.

"Couples & Brothers"

Warm watery background with soft ascending and descending piano over it.

This is an R&R score.

Close to "Juno", but less spacey.

Maybe didn't need to be 7 minutes.

The ending gets uneasy.

"Donuts & Legs"

Delicate with a rough buzz in the background. Lower notes reminiscent of bass from "La Mer"/"Into The Void". This is a shade of "Obama & Coffee".

"Fornicator"

Little pops and clicks under a rising throb of menace. Like a dark, electronic open wound

":26"

Unsettling and cavernous. Wave cut short.

"Arrival"

Dissonance and tension. Very uncomfortable track.

Wrong notes. Staticky steam towards the end.

"Dread"

This makes me want these two to score the new Aliens movie so hard. A distant alarm tone pings while walls of noise rise and fall. Huge sound.

+"Bombs"

A longer, more fleshed out version of "Dread". Some deep synths and distortion around the edges. 

"FBI"

Two notes repeating before a subterranean pattern emerges to darken things up.

"Black Falcon"

Subtle intensity, low key chase music.

+"Hospital & Whole Milk"

Has remnants of "Dread"/"Bombs". Those somehow panicky alarm tones bouncing off the walls. Some very "Juno" moments about halfway through.

#"Vigil"

Another permutation of "Obama and Coffee". Clearer and more defined. This and its ilk are my favorites thus far.

+"Tommy Breaks Down"

Yet another, more stripped down version of "Bombs". The deep synth and alarm motifs are the focus here until things deteriorate and splinter towards the end.

@"Left of Boom"

Manipulation of "FBI", those two notes.

Find my attention wandering…

#"Obama & Coffee"

This Reznor & Ross is my favorite kind. It might be a formula, but it's a great formula. Hope there's a longer, deeper version of this on the final release.

"Roommates"

Very sinister crawl to this. It feels evil...

"Backpack & Brothers to M.I.T."

Nebulous and tense.

"Shoot Seann"

Feedback and reverb, baby, feedback and reverb. I'll say it again: will you guys please do a horror movie/video game? Death Stranding anyone?

"Car Jack"

First few seconds feel like "A Warm Place" before the electronics come in and makes things cold.

"Drive to Watertown"

Those "Juno"-esque vibes again...

"Escape"

The most electronic track thus far.

Like a digital washing machine. Peals of feedback drift around like ghosts. One or two moments actually harken back to NIN's Tetsuo theme.

"Shoot Out"

Sounds a bit like electronic indigestion.

Then more dark and pulsing programming.

"Tamerlan"

Right up there with "Escape" as far as its electronics. Like some diseased heart monitor. 

&"Manhunt"

Permutation of "Car Jack". Deeper, more electronic, more fleshed out.

"They Got The Wife"

Literally, a blast of noise.

^"Interrogation"

Reminiscent of "Perpetual" from Gone Girl thanks to the instrumentation.

Then, shades of "Arrival".

#"Watchlisted"

Features bass line from "Donuts & Legs" with a more compelling, electronic layer on top of it.

"Good Versus Evil"

Absolutely gorgeous. Warm and welcoming after the nervous tension of the rest of this score.

+"The Boat"

Another combination of that scratchy percussion and that alarm noise. Accompanied by the requisite waves of synth.

+"SWAT"

All right, that alarm noise worked once, maybe even twice. But by this point it seems so overused as to be almost ineffective.

"Capture & Fenway"

Finally, something different. Some nice light strings. This goes up there as one of the best tracks here. Feels like "34 Ghosts IV", the live arrangement of "The Day The World Went Away", and How To Destroy Angels' "A Drowning". Loving everything here.

%"Interviews"

Callback to "Couples & Brothers". This should have been the definitive version.

"Main Titles"

One of the only tracks with proper drums. Another perfect example of a rock solid Reznor/Ross joint.

+ Contains elements of "Dread"

# Contains elements of "Donuts & Legs"

% Contains elements of "Couples & Brothers"

@ Contains elements of "FBI"

^ Contains elements of "Arrival"

& Contains elements of "Car Jack"

"Donuts & Legs", "Vigil" and "Obama & Coffee" are all different iterations of one another and they're some of my favorite pieces here, along with "Good Versus Evil", "Capture & Fenway", and the main titles. Other stand outs include "Fornicator", "Escape", and "Tamerlan", mainly for their dark, sludgy electronics.

To reiterate, this is not a 100% accurate representation of the final score, set for release next month, and, going by just how many of these tracks are different versions of one another, I feel like I'm only getting a portion of what's to come. I hope. Because, unless there's some crazy additions to what's on offer here, this is going to be yet another solid yet unsurprising score from Reznor and Ross.

* That's not really meant as a compliment...