Part two in my Dystopian Future Album series.
Don’t worry – I don’t have plans for a third part. At least not yet.
Year Zero by Nine Inch Nails was released in 2007, during the Bush II era of US Presidency. I was 26 going on 27 at the time, bemoaning how stupid we were in the western world to be following such an absolute idiot as the Leader of The Free World for a second term. Oh, how dumb and naive I was. The more things change…
Here we are, not even two decades later, and those times seem oh-so rosy now. A bygone era, where politicians mostly did things above board (okay, maybe not), the corruption was less blatant and in your face, and the 24 hour news cycle seemed to pause and let us all collectively take a breather occasionally. You know, instead of pummelling us non-stop with the next imminent crises or global meltdown.
George W. Bush now seems like a scholarly elder statesman looking back, with his Fool-Me-Once-isms and inventive pronunciation of Nu-Cu-Lor that I still not cannot stop saying myself, and that awe-shucks goofy smile. But he didn’t have it easy, no sir. He was just a salt of the earth guy from Texas that inherited everything from his daddy, including his post-secondary schooling, political party and presidential seat. Oh, and his favourite nation to have a war with. If only all of us were so lucky to fail upwards in such a stratospheric manner.
Year Zero was very obviously Trent Reznor’s look at the Bush II era we were living through, and taking it all to an even more outrageous level. The entire album is an ode to a world gone even madder. There are songs that show the blurring of lines between religious zeal and nationalistic jingoism. Lyrics envision a dystopian hellscape where misplaced rage and deeply flawed masculinity find each other and fall in love. The rabid worship of power for power’s sake is given musical form.
Well, thank goodness, none of that nonsensical doomsaying will ever happen.
This is a Nine Inch Nails album, so naturally many of the songs are heavy and industrial and pugilistic; just like that 24 hour news cycle or doom scroll on the socials we can’t look away from. This music is full of grinding guitars with dissonant beeps and boops, interspersed with hauntingly beautiful soundscapes and piano melodies and more.
The big difference between Year Zero and most other Nine Inch Nails EPs and LPs is that it gets political. Don’t worry – this album does explore personal failings and hubris; which are perhaps thematic to the point of being a common trope in much of the band’s music. However, instead of wallowing in personal emotion and hurt, the album casts a light on the wilful ignorance and comforting righteousness of rage and extremist that we all, collectively, feast upon.
It is so easy – comforting even – to fall into the carved-out trenches of our chosen faction in the political landscape. You only have to pop your head out once in a while to judge the other side as weak and ignorant and lob a few insults their way. A simple concept for our simple minds, which are galvanized in our own chosen creed to the point of calcification. Or numbness. There is no need to take in a differing set of ideals. There is only our way, which is right and diametrically opposed to the other way, which condemn.
We are all guilty of doing this. We fervently build fortresses out of our ideological armour and eventually end up trapping ourselves within.
Whatever you do, make sure to slap a bumper sticker on that fortress to let others know what side you are on.
Year Zero uses both music and lyrics as caustic agents to strip the listener raw. But the music doesn’t leave you feeling cold and alone, or judged and alienated: Nine Inch Nails and Reznor are right there with you for the journey.
AI could not make an album this good. At least, I hope it can’t.
Cheers,
Evan
Shame on us
For all we’ve done
And all we ever were
Just zeros and ones
