Music: A to Z 10.02.09: N is for…

Posted by Chris Crowing on 10.02.2009

...Nightwish, Nine Inch Nails and Nirvana with additional quick thoughts about the recent Muse and Alice in Chains albums...



Hoping for lots of hits this week with three very popular bands and talking about the two biggest releases of the past few weeks. Enough dilly-dallying. let's get into it!



Muse - the Resistance

In the words of Doug Stanhope 'f#ck you, you waited in line to get sucked off by a guy, and where's my $7.50?'

I am not amused. At what point did Muse abandon the guitar and bass awesomeness that characterized Origin of Symmetry and Absolution and begin this slide to indulgent, semi-electronic, faux-operatic boredom. Don't mistake me, it's still very GOOD with a great deal of technical awesomeness on display, but having listened to it a few times, I have no compulsion to do so again, because it's just not FUN.

"United States of Eurasia" is one of the most indefensibly indulgent and dull songs I've heard by a supposedly favoured act in years, and while "Uprising" is a decent tune, it just doesn't stand up to "New Born", "Plug in Baby", "Hysteria", "Stockholm Syndrome", or "Showbiz."

I am disappointed to say the least. Then again, the video for Uprising has godzilla-teddybears in it, and that's just awesome...



Alice in Chains - Black Gives Way To Blue

...is simply my album of the year, edging out Mastodon's Cracke the Skye because of not making my mind hurt. I've posted a review of it, but first blood went to the awesome Jeff Modzelewski and you should go read his review here.





* Please note, all 'Best...' designations are merely this writer's opinion, and stand as a recommendation for new fans, rather than an attempt to make a definitive statement. I'll likely change my mind by next week anyway.

Nightwish

What: Finnish Symphonic Metal Superstars
From: Kitee, Finland (that's in Europe...)
In the Beginning: Formed by Tuomas Holopainen to develop the music he playes around campfires, the heavy mertal elemenst were added to compete with Tarja Turunen's strong vocals.
Best Album*: Oceanborn (1998), Wishmaster (2000), Once (2004), Dark Passion Play (2007)
Best Song*: "Gethsemane", "Wishmaster", "Nemo", "Amaranth", "the Islander"
Recently...: A live CD/.DVD of the dark Passion Play tour was released in March, and a new album is expected sometime in 2010.

I hold my hands up that Nightwish are a guilty pleasure. Guilty because they're that sort of extravagant, very polished and not entirely METAL, metal band that appeals to the part of me thats a fan of stage musicals (being raised by a single mother has interesting side effects) as much if not more than the part of me that drools over chunky riffage.

I'll also hold my hands up and admit I only discovered Nightwish on their coming outy party as one of the biggest metal bands in Europe with the millions selling Once LP, and as such have only a cursory appreciation of their first four albums. Please don't judge, a body can only listen to so much music at once...

Like a great many people, my first glimpse of Nightwish came with the promo video for mega-hit, "Nemo"...



Quite liking what I heard, I obtained the album it came from, and really enjoyed it, from the rockier songs at the start to the lush, more restrained ones at the end.

Offering a stark contrast to the metalcore which made the bulk of my current listening at the time, the album made a real impression, and is partially responsible for an increased interest in power/operatic metal in the years since.

The opening bars of "Dark Chest of Wonders" will always make me grin like an idiot...



Of course I did delve into their earlier records, finding (IMHO) more standard power/symphonic metal on show, and lacking the mainstream swagger that Once had developed. I'm still not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing.

The songs are grander, yet take more time to get into. Suffice to say that all of their albums are worth a look, with Oceanborn and Wishmaster the pick of the first four...

...of course, the fact that chunks of the lyrics seem to be evidently based on Dungeons & Dragons style adventures might put some people off, but it does make me smile.



Moving forward from Once I have to touch on Tarja Turunen's contentious departure from the band. Much as I'm a fan of her impressive vocals, I think it's evident from several interviews in the years running up to her departure, as well as her general manner onstage (more like an opera diva than a singer in a rock band) that her heart was never truly in the daily grind of being in a touring rock band.

Of course, she did front the band for nine years, but once genuine international fame came her way following Once, the writing was on the wall. When you reach a point where one band member has their own tour bus, and always has their husband sit in on band interviews, there has been an irrevocable rift and a split is the best thing for all concerned.


Notice, that I do not judge Tarja for her actions which led to the split, not Tuomas & the rest of the band for dropping her. These things happen (my own band has lost and gained two members this year), although I would say that the 'open letter' mode of dismissal was perhaps a little bitchy.

Nonetheless, Nightwish soon hired a new singer, of less operatic excess but seemingly more 'rock' willingness and released the awesome Dark Passion Play in 2007.

Lead single "Amaranth" is a gorgeously flowing tune, but of more contentious interest is the next one, the somewhat pointed "Bye Bye Beautiful"...



... do you think they're trying to say something?

Dark Passion Play is probably my favourite Nightwish record, although I concede that Oceanborn and Wishmaster may be better, and Once is more accesible. I love the most recent record because of it's balance between pace, lushness and crunch, with tunes like "Cadence iof Her Last Breath" and "Master Passion Greed" keeping the proceedings heavy, while "the Poet & the Pendulum" is as proggy as anything else you are likely to find.

I also love Nightwish for adding some softer tones to my CD collection and this record boasts two sublime tracks in "Eva" and "the Islander". The latter also posesses an awesome steampunk-esque video and is the Nightwiosh song I find it easiest to cover, given that Marko is the lead singer for this track...



All in all, I love Nightwish largely as an easy-listening band, to add some lush tones to the usually stark metal/grunge/folk which is my base listening, but their range extends into the metal, ambient and folksy realms as well. A band of massive range, deep perceptions and heart-stopping talent.

Nine Inch Nails

What: Industrial/Alternative/Electronic Legend (and supporting musicians)
From: Cleveland, Ohio
In the Beginning: Following a stint in other bands, Trent Reznor recorded the whole of pretty hate Machine at the music studio where he worked at night, playing all the parts except for the drums. To his surpise, the record was picked up and released, when he'd expected to perhaps get a single release on some obscure European industrial label...
Best Album*: Pretty Hate Machine (1989), The Downward Spiral (1994), The Fragile (1999)
Best Song*: "Sin", "Head Like A Hole", "Wish", "March of the Pigs", "Hurt",
Recently...: Following the touring cycle for Ghosts I-IV and The Slip, Reznor announced that "Nine Inch Nails need to go away for a while." As such the band have effectively ceased to exist, with Reznor saying he may produce music under the moniker in the future, but that the band won't be touring anytime in the foreseeable future...

What can I say that is new, interesting or insightful about Nine Inch Nails, that hasn't already been said a million times? With several of their/his records regularly appearing in 'Top 100 Albums Ever' lists and a near omnipresence in 'Most Influential Artist' lists, Nine Inch Nails place in the lexicon of musical legends is utterly assured.

It can be best said by another. When I went to see the Foo Fighters, Nine Inch Nails and Silversun Pickups at Meadowbank in Edinburgh a few years back, Dave Grohl announced from the stage that he never expected to headline over a band he respects and rates as highly as Nine Inch Nails, and was almost overcome with the responsibility and kudos - and Dave Grohl is a bit of a legend in his own right.

That should give some idea of how Nine Inch Nails are to be regarded.

I was seven years old when Pretty Hate Machine came out, and didn't hear my first Nine Inch Nails record (which was of course the Downward Spiral) until I was seventeen years old, so I won't be claiming any 'most tenured fan' awards - I rarely can. However Nine Inch Nails mean a great deal to me, easily one of the most powerful artists I have ever encountered both musically and lyrically, they were also largely responsible for relaxing a bizarre aversion to electronic music I developed in my late teens.

In any case, if I abandon a play by play of their storied career, I guess the best course of action is to nail down the things about them which touch me the most.

Emotion

Electronic music is often derided as sterile, and lacking in emotional depth - at least that is a position I developed as a teenager, which I now utterly disavow. However, Nine Inch Nails could never be accused of this, as Trent has mastered the art of the evocative soundscape even before adding his often caustic and incisve lyrics. IMHO, there is more heartfelt emotion in the instrumental Ghosts I-IV than is to be found in a large pile of cookie-cutter Emo records.



Trent also has a lyric for every emotional situation, from ennui ("Every Day Is Exactly The Same"), self loathing (too many to mention), blind lust ("Closer"), suicidal despair and regret ("Hurt") - OK, almost every negative emotion, I never said this was euphoric listening...



...but shivers down the spine. Every single time.

Musical Genius

It's one thing to impart emotion to a song, but you can do that with a very basic level of musical understanding and a natural flair for songwriting (this being one reason why I often disdain bands who are clearly faking their emotion in songs - do you not feel?) but some bands just blow you away with the scope of their abilities.

Nine Inch Nails are one of these, especially since I learned to listen 'through' a song and start pulling apart the threads of different instruments and hear the small parts amid the greater concerto.

To an uninitiated ear, much of NIN's output can sound like monotone rumblings or disconnected static (especially on the Fragile or Year Zero) with the obvious exception of the big hits like "Closer", "Sin", "Hurt" and "The Perfect Drug" whcih tend to have more obvious pop hooks and traditional song construction, but applied perfectly...



From the sheer build & release in many of his songs, to the sublime symphonies of the Fragile, the utter deliberate chaos on Broken and the Downward Spiral, the super-sweet production of With Teeth and the experimental discord on Year Zero, the Nine Inch Nails back catalogue is a masterclass in musical virtuosity which I will never get tired of immersing myself in.



Integrity

If Pretty Hate Machine made Trent Reznor a star, the far darker Downward Sopiral made him a megastar, and his stardom showed him the truly sick underbelly of the big money music industry and it sickened him. The result was The Fragile which is one of the most desolate, negative and paradixically beautiful major record releases of all time. Many complain of the hangers-on and the negative aspects of fame and 'the industry' but rarely has it ever been done with such vitriol as Reznor did on the Fragile in general and "Starfuckers Inc" in particular.



Since then, Reznor's dissatisfaction with the industry, especially on discovering that Nine Inch Nails albums are routinely sold at a higher price than more commercial releases 'because his loyal fan base will pay it' has resulted in the decidedly un-commercial tone of Year Zero and Ghosts I-IV as well as the perfectly radio-acceptable the Slip being released for free download, because he'd rather make less money on the records and stiff the grubbing middle-men. You gottas love that.



Variety

If I'm in a mood to dance, I can happily listen to a whole batch of NIN songs ("Sin", "Only", "Survivalism", "Discipline"),



if I'm in a rock mood, I can listen to "Wish", "March of the Pigs", "Starfuckers Inc" or "the Perfect Drug"



and if I'm in a chilled out mood, I can lay on Ghosts I-IV or the Fragile



and if I'm looking for something more demanding, the second half of Year Zero and album tracks throughout Trent's catalogue sit waiting to melt my awareness.



There are literally NO other acts who can appeal to virtually any mood I find myself in.


Live Show

I've seen Nine Inch Nails twice, and neither show lived up to what all they could have been, purely because of my situation.

First time was on the Live:Beside You In Time tour at the Carling Academy in Glasgow, but because we were a little slow getting tickets, we ended up in the balcony seats, and as such it was like watching a DVD, and because of their copious dry ice, we didn't even see a band member till they'd been playing for twenty minutes. Awesome show, but it felt like we wern't REALLY there....

Second time was at the aforementioned Meadowbank gig. Sadly, the crowd was full of neds and mainstream folks who were there to see the Foo Fighters play their hits, and as such the crowd was pretty dead, and Trent responded by playing a set full of stuff from Year Zero, which was technically impressive but perhaps not the most energizing set.

Alas, on their final tour Nine Inch Nails played dates in England and one festival show in Scotland (and I wasn't willing, or able to pay festival prices to go and see one band) so I may have missed my chance to fully immerse myself in the sweaty emotional chaos of a Nine Inch Nails pit. This pains me, as I have been told many times of the power of their live shows if you get right down in it, and I've seen possibly hundreds of hours of luive NIN concert footage. They are a force to be reckoned with, and a dearly hope Trent gets bored at home and hit's the road again...please?



Conclusion

I may have rambled a little here, but NIN are a band where I find it hard to say anything but fawning praise, as opposed to my other favourite band, Metallica, where I have battle honed a hundred arguments through dire experience.

Suffice to say, I rate Nine Inch Nails (read: Trent Reznor) as one of THE best, most influential and generally awesome artists of recent times, both for music in general, alternative music in particular and their effect on my own taste, development and quality of life.

Any dissent to that? I thought not.....

Nirvana

What: Cossover grunge icons
From: Aberdeen, Washington, USA
In the Beginning: Formed by Cobain & Novoselic in 1985, they settled on the name Nirvana in 1988 aquired Chad Channing as a drummer and soon had the "Love Buzz" single released on local independent imprint Sub Pop, leading to the release of debut album Bleach in 1989.
Best Album*: Nevermind (1991), In Utero (1993), Unplugged in New York (1994)
Best Song*: "School", "Smells Like Teen Spirit", "Drain You", "Lithium", "Heart Shaped Box", "Dumb", "All Apologies"
Recently...: Cobain was of course found dead on April 8th 1994, and since that time a series of posthumous releases have occurred, increasingly characterizing a feud between the remaining band members (Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic) and Cobain's widow, Courtney Love. A DVD of the bands performance at the 1992 Reading festival is set for release in November.

I am a fan of alternative music.

More specifically, I am a fan of alternative music with an unashamed tendency towards the melodic, lyric orientated and (say it quietly) arguably poppy.

So of course I am a fan of Nirvana.

Do not mistake me, I make no spurious claims of loving them before Nevermind came out (because I would have been ten years old, and was in truth more interested in Army Men, Lego and the Thundercats at the time of the nascent grunge underground) but as my explorations into alternative music gathered pace, Nirvana were a key step in that evolution and I still listen to them (I'll admit only occasionally) thirteen years later.

My first memory of Nirvana comes from one of the guys in my dorm at school having a copy of In Utero (and Nevermind as well) which was played on a cycle with the theme song from M.A.S.H, a bossa nova cassette featuring "The Girl from Ipanema" and albums by the likes of Blur and Ultra-sonic. You can see where my slightly skewed musical taste comes from….

In any case, I remember liking the record (in the accepting way of a thirteen year old), especially "All Apologies" and the way that "Rape Me" seemed to grossly offend grown ups…



However, Nirvana didn't impinge on my real alternative eduction until I was already a devoted fan of Metallica, Pantera, Fear Factory and the Foo Fighters. I vividly remember smashing my foot against my friend's coffee table listening to "Smells Like Teen Spirit" for the first time in a few years.



I still LOL at Kurt taking the piss because of the meant-to-be-live-but-not performance, not even trying to look like he's playing the right guitar parts and messing up the vocals...

Along with virtually everything else I discovered around that time, I swiftly caught up, obtaining Nevermind, In Utero, Incesticide, Bleach and Unplugged in New York in short order, consuming them and filing them.

I think I loved Nirvana intensely for about a month or two, before they fell back into the pack of my estimation and I started discovering acts like Paradise Lost, Nine Inch Nails and then nu-metal happened.

Of course, given that "Smells Like Teen Spirit" is about the heaviest thing you'll hear in your average student disco, I did throw myself about to it a great many times over the years, but the first rush of adolescent love didn;t last.

They remain a band which I will happily dip into from time to time, and while songs like "Heart Shaped Box" are favourites, it has always seemed to me that Nirvana are somewhat the easy and obvious choice for someone who shares my general musical geography to like. Is that unfair? It's certainly perhaps a little hypocritical for someone who's favourite band is Metallica - surely that is an obvious choice as well?

Perhaps I dislike the ubiquitous Nirvana love because of it's very pervasiveness, the annual obituaries for Cobain, the breathless superlatives and gross over-estimation of the band's musical importance along with the falsely earnest tears and adoration which generations of angst teenagers who were NOT EVEN BORN when Cobain died really annoy me.

I raise a glass to Layne Staley and Darrell Abbot when their anniversaries go by, but the media circus around Cobain has jaded me to ambivalence.


However, perhaps it is unfair to judge a band by the unfortunate circumstances of their end, so first I'll look at the music and then judge whether the Cult of Kurt is justified...

Right from the beginning, Nirvana added a new dimension to the burgeoning grunge wave, and songs like "Love Buzz", "Negative Creep" and "School" and especially "About A Girl" possessed a marketable melodiousness that set the band apart from the likes of Tad and Mudhoney, although some might argue this compromised their 'grunge' integrity. As I've discussed before, such things are a matter of perspective.



Arguing a very handy record deal with Geffen, gave Nirvana the platform to evolve and Nevermind remains one of the most effective synthesis of alternative principles and pop hooks ever put to record.

You simply cannot deny the affecting lyrics, catchy melodies and infectious riffs of the album. Indeed,the megahit "Smells Like Teen Spirit" was only intended to be a potential third of fourth single from the album, once the more ostensibly radio-friendly "Come As You Are" and "Lithium" had paved the way. However it caught on through advance plays and the rest is history, and you just can't argue with that kind of exponential, unexpected success.



In Utero was a more fractured animal, with Cobain torn between his desire to make music and his despair at the trappings of fame, between the desire to remain alternative, a punk band and the increasing inclination to write almost folksy songs. Thus the album is torn between Steve Albini's prodcution, Scott Lit's eleventh hour mastering and the collosal difference in tone between songs like the almost sweet "All Apologies", "Dumb" and "Pennyroyal Tea" and the abrasive "Tourettes" and "Scentless Apprentice." The album starts with a howl of discord and ends with static over the repeated 'all in all is all we are' despite the disparities within.



How sweet and innocent Kurt seems at the start of that video...

I believe that Unplugged in New York is a good indicator of what Nirvana's (or more specifically Kurt Cobain's) future would have held, had the singer not committed suicide. Displaying the eclectic, melodic taste and folk inclinations that had always set Nirvana apart from the lesser lights of the grunge wave, it remains the Nirvana record I listen to most, with not one bad song.



I truly believe that had Cobain survived, Nirvana would have ceased to be (you couldn't have denied Dave Grohl his true chance as a songwriter) and he would have retreated into a lower profile, folk orientated career as much as possible. His legend would have been less, but you could argue his musical reputation would be less contended.

While Nirvana are not the most technically impressive band in the world (every Nirvana song I've tried to learn I have gotten down in less than an hour), Cobain's songwriting shines through his suspect voice and basic technique, and there is genuine merit in both that musical awareness (technique is always less important than feel) and the genuine emotion of his lyrics.

Furthermore, Nirvana arguably did more than any act in the last twenty years to bring alternative music to a wider audience. Purists may sneer at their pop leanings, but for every millions kids who bought Nevermind, a significant proportion will have dug deeper, discover bands like Mother Love Bone or even more directly through songs Nirvana covered, discovering the Meat Puppets or Vaselines.

Their success, status and reputation is deserved.

But for all that, I cannot abide 'the Cult of Kurt.' I'm sure even his friends and loved ones (apart from Courtney Love) are somewhat horrified by all his name is supposed to represent.

His band were influential, important and successful yet he himself could not stand the strain of the life he found himself in, or the choices he made. That is indeed a tragedy, but it is a very personal one, and he should not be celebrated for committing suicide, for being a martyr, for being the poster boy for the suicide scene - he hated it.

Celebrate him for being a passionate, talented musician.

It's how he would have wanted it.





Hmnn, no comments last week, which means I was either very good, or very dull. I hope it's the former.

In any case, I hope you've enjoyed my work this week (please tell me so, comments fill the emptiness inside...) and come back to see what the Letter O has to offer.

On a completely different subject...



...sometimes I agree, sometimes I don't, but I always laugh.

Slainte,
Chris Crowing

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