Sorry for the delay in posting; it has been a hectic day.Yesterday, I noticed a myspace bulletin from the Nine Inch Nails page, stating that a new EP called Lights in the Sky was released online and free (like the last thing from nin.com, The Slip). The EP is a sampler of bands that are touring or playing with Nine Inch Nails during the North American tour.
I like the idea of the sampler. It gives us an idea of what to expect from the opening acts at the shows on the upcoming tour, as well as exposes some new bands to an audience that might not otherwise hear about new and interesting talents. However, I have to give this a 60% meh rating. While there are two outstanding tracks on this, the other three are nothing that really affects me.
Before I get to the music, some notes about what's in the download. I like the cover image, but the obvious implication of the "black triangle" UFO as depicted by three lights hovering in mid-air gives me the warning lights that also tripped in Year Zero; I fear that Trent Reznor may be heading down the path of X-Files conspiracy theory thinking and that worries me. But it's a pretty cool picture, and makes a nice album cover (as well as a .jpg can be cover, mind you). Also included in the download is a file of wallpapers, avatars, assorted web graphics, and a printable .pdf tour poster.
The first track on Lights in the Sky is A Place to Bury Strangers' "To Fix the Gash in Your Head." While I love A Place to Bury Strangers (as seen in this review I did several months ago), they picked my least favorite track from their catalogue to appear on this release. However, compared to the other appearances on Lights in the Sky, this sounds really good. I also suspend my criticism of this track since I truly believe A Place to Bury Strangers deserves the great amount of recognition that appearing on this EP will hopefully garner them. They're already gaining ground everywhere, so this will merely accelerate a process that would have the same result otherwise.
Does It Offend You, Yeah? chases with "We Are Rockstars," from their 2008 release You Have No Idea What You're Getting Into. I'm not quite sure what to think of this one. It's quite a danceable little beast, but I can't help but feel like it's overdone club lightshow dross. Not great, not bad, somewhere in the range of things I'll only listen to when in the rare mood for it (one Tuesday afternoon every other year). I'm a bit more adamant about how lackluster Crystal Castles' "Crimewave (Crystal Castles vs. HEALTH)" is. Electro dance sort of stuff with enough video game sound effects to make you think you're stuck in an 8-bit equivalent of a gay disco. While I give them credit for the innovation factor of those sound effects, I find the result is cheesy and annoying (edit: I've been informed by Frank that Crystal Castles isn't as innovative as they seem to those of us not sitting on this particular style of music; see comments for more information).
Following the Metroid dance mix thing, Deerhunter jumps in with "Like New," featured on the Fluorescent Grey EP from last year. It's the shortest track on Lights in the Sky, and the one that stands out the most. Deerhunter tends to move more along the lines of an indie rock/shoegaze variety, while most of the music on Lights in the Sky is electronic in nature. This is more spacey, echoing out with a certain strained beauty that is absent from the other songs.
The final song on Lights in the Sky is Nine Inch Nails' own "Echoplex." In case you missed my review of The Slip, I will reiterate that I find this track unimpressive and dragging out unnecessarily. I still rate it as a solid "meh."
While two out of five songs would hardly be worth buying had this been a CD release, being a free download makes it at least worth the 39.2 mb it takes up on your hard drive (that's the whole package of mp3s and pictures). It's an experience that may induce a listener to try something new and see what amazing (or lackluster) things are happening out in the music world beyond that which already is established. In that respect, I have a great respect for Mr. Reznor. Associating himself with these up and coming bands shows us that he has taste and wants to experience new music as much as we do.
Even if you hate everything on Lights in the Sky, you spent nothing on trying, and if you do like something you heard, you did so without risk. I didn't like most of this, and already knew one band fairly well (bought A Place to Bury Strangers' eponymous album from last year twice, once on CD and once on vinyl), but at least I picked up some new names and gave them a spin. It's all about giving new stuff a shot; go for it.
Nine Inch Nails' website
Deerhunter's myspace
A Place to Bury Strangers' website and myspace
You can find the others on your own.
13 drunks rambled about this:
Interesting. I didn't know about this. This is a well-written review. I agree with you that there could be nothing more worrisome in nin-world than for TR to go down the X-Files conspiracy path and mix in lots of Nintendo sound effects along the way. Why oh why did they choose echoplex? That remains my least favorite track on The Slip. One might think that Lights in the Sky would've been the more appropriate choice.
I'm not sure about Trent's taste these days. I'm excited that he will be taking APTBS on tour with him, as they rock hard and do deserve the fame they are starting to achieve. Many of the remixes on the Year Zero remix album were terrible in my opinion. And you're right—no other word more readily comes to mind to describe some of these tracks than "gay." Whether it's their danciness or their sound effects or their vocal effects, that's the end result.
like 'em or loathe 'em, i'm happy he's supporting underground artists.
I've reconsidered my "echoplex" statement.
By picking the worst song off The Slip, he humbly set himself up to make all of the other artists on the compilation look superior. Well-played, Mr. Reznor.
kla*: I'm not so sure about his tastes either, but at least his taste is somewhat varied.
frankie teardrop: Agreed. Even though I didn't like most of this, I'm glad he's drawing attention to these other artists.
kevin: i don't think TR thinks echoplex is the worst song on the album, contrary to your roundabout compliment there. i still dig that song. probably my least favorite too, but i like it.
they did a warm up gig last night, apparently. on the set: a handful of ghosts tracks, corona radiata, head down, last, we're in this together...it's going to be a good tour. you guys should get jerzee tickets.
chris: funny that you use the word 'innovative' in regards to crystal castles. though i like them OK (enough to have seen them, and to download their discography), they're being sued for stealing other artist's material under the creative commons license. it's a big to do, look it up. i don't really care so much, but it's just a funny statement considering the circumstances.
frankie teardrop: The more your know!
it's kind of despicable, but i'm glad i downloaded the album especially now. that way i can enjoy it without having supported their pseudo-theft.
blogspot is a bastardization of standard html sometimes. sorry about that. i swears i entered the code correctly.
I'm reading the article now, and am finding it fascinating. I put up an edit in the post to draw attention to what you've told me.
nice choice with KC lyrics.
That's funny, echoplex is my favorite song on the slip.
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