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 Eels at Brooklyn Steel, 6/9/18

Eels closed their first set at Brooklyn Steel with the final track from 1998’s autobiographical Electro-Shock Blues, “P.S. You Rock My World”. There’s a lyric from that song which, in my mind, could serve as a thesis for everything Eels’ leader, Mark Oliver Everett has ever done…”maybe it’s time to live”. It’s not as vapidly positive as “it’s time to live” or irritatingly motivational as “go out and live!”; it’s real and shows that there are options. “Yeah, things are shitty and you could end it all or…maybe it’s time to live.” There are no guarantees, but…maybe. That was the vibe throughout: hey, it could be better, but it could be worse…maybe it’s time to live.

As always, Eels served up equal parts well-crafted (if sometimes simplistic) rock and subtle reflection*. From Souljacker’s “Dog Faced Boy” to Shootenanny’s “Dirty Girl”, and Hombre Lobo’s “Prizefighter” to Electro-Shock Blues’ “Climbing Up to the Moon”. The chameleon songs returned in brand new wrapping, including what I keep thinking of as a Tool cover of “Novocain for the Soul". And speaking of covers, as usual the show had a handful. Most notably two Prince covers, “Raspberry Beret" which was fun, and the return of "When You Were Mine”, first played live on Eels’ 2005 tour. Originally, it featured a string quartet, but this time, it was stripped down and sorrowfully bluesy, absolutely beautiful. These days, it seems everyone is covering Prince, but as E has been covering him since the early 90’s, it somehow seems to mean more.

Although the arrangement was tight, the new album (The Deconstruction) wasn’t meant to be recreated with two guitars, a bass and a drum kit, and most of the more intricate tracks from that album were left off the evening’s set list in favor of the more rock-like songs such as “Today Is The Day”, “Bone Dry” and “You Are The Shining Light”. Standouts included “I Like Birds", the arena rock version of “Mr. E’s Beautiful Blues", “From Which I Came/A Magic World”, "Fresh Blood", “Daises of the Galaxy", “Flyswatter", "Bone Dry", "P.S. You Rock My World", and the mini-medley show closer of Brian Wilson’s "Love and Mercy", "Blinking Lights (For Me)”, and “Wonderful, Glorious”. 

Eels have just wrapped up their North American leg and are now off to Europe and the UK. If you’re hoping for a string quartet, horn section, or even a piano, you’re out of luck, but you should still see them, you should always see them, because they are Eels.

*Also an original song introducing the world to their latest drummer Little Joe entitled ”Little Joe!”.