«Only for fans of Year Zero; worthwhile for them, though.»
I don't usually listen to remixes. But I think Year Zero is the best NIN album to date, so I took a chance on Year Zero Remixed. Unlike NIN's other remix albums, where Trent Reznor mostly did his own remixing, the arrangements here are all by other artists (though some of them are closely associated with NIN, like Saul Williams or Alessandro Cortini's Modwheelmood). The results are about as good as you could hope for -- pretty uneven, but with a few startlingly good parts.
The biggest show-stopper is Ladytron's version of "The Beginning Of The End." They take what was already Reznor's most danceable song since "Closer," and make it even more danceable. But the remix is just as gloriously doom-laden as the original, with even deeper bass, on echoing keyboards rather than guitar. Additional keyboards in the second half add a lot of ominous atmosphere. The guitar solo in the original is worked into the end of the remix, and serves as a good crescendo. It's the rare case of an alternate version that is significantly different from the original, but is every bit as good. It's also a lot better than most of Ladytron's own work.
Another attraction is Saul Williams' revision of "Survivalism." The original version was aggressive, but I always found it kind of plodding. It just didn't have the same energetic kick as, say, "The Beginning Of The End," and it didn't have anything original in the way of beats and riffs, either. The remix is completely different. The aggression is gone, replaced by trippy ambience and slower, more subtle beats. Most of the noise, including Reznor's snarling vocal, is now submerged in the murk. In the end, part of the chorus is repeated in a floating, disembodied falsetto. I really think that this version fits the paranoid, unsettling imagery of the song's video and the Year Zero concept better than the original.
These two tracks also sound great back-to-back, although they are different in style. Interestingly, the best remixes on the album tend to be the ones that take a certain element that was suggested by the original, and then take that element as far as possible. For instance, Modwheelmood's version of "The Great Destroyer" omits the drum freak-out, and leaves only Reznor's calm chanting, set to acoustic strumming in the verses, distorted and made to sound distant in the chorus. I like the original more, but the slow burn of the remix is also enjoyable.
On the other hand, Olof Dreijer's take on "Me, I'm Not" is awful. The original was a spooky trip-hop soundscape, full of looming menace. You'd figure that would be ideal territory for The Knife, but Dreijer turns in what basically amounts to "Silent Shout," minus about 95% of the synths, i.e. a house beat and some incidental noises, which go on without end. It is very boring.
Some tracks aren't remarkable one way or the other. Bill Laswell's remix of "Vessel" is pretty much the same as the original, with minor variations in the beginning and middle. The Faint clearly have no idea what to do with "Meet Your Master," so they glitch up the vocals and try to make the beat more danceable, in the process losing the dynamics of the original, while gaining nothing. The remix of "My Violent Heart" is notable for being authored by a "regular" NIN fan, but unfortunately nothing else about it is interesting -- he just takes the original song and makes the rhythm track a lot louder and more dissonant, again losing the dramatism of the original while making it much less listenable.
And sometimes, radically changing the originals just doesn't work very well. The Epworth Phones remix of "Capital G" turns the song into a flamboyant house anthem, wrapping altered samples of the screeching guitars around the dance beat. But it also has the flavour of a "typical remix" in the way it pointlessly repeats, cuts up, and alters the original vocals, which were key to the impact of the song. All told, I prefer the original, with the less conventional time signature and the vocals intact. And without the incredible, constantly mutating bass line from the original album, Stefan Goodchild's "The Warning" is not very interesting.
The last three remixes follow the same order as on the original album. Kronos Quartet contribute a straightforward reading of "Another Version Of The Truth" on classical violin, which is just as moody as the original and somewhat reminiscent of Godspeed You Black Emperor in their better moments. Christian Fennesz strips the overbearing percussion out of "In This Twilight," and with the increased emphasis on the words and vocals, it becomes clear that the song is very well-written, and probably Reznor's best ballad (better than "Hurt" -- yes, I said it!). Finally, New Order do something similar to "Zero Sum," cleaning up the hissing percussion and replacing most of it with a dark techno pulse, which accents the rueful tone of the vocals quite well. (They do the same thing for "God Given" as well, and it works there too, although that song is more obviously suited to such a treatment.)
Overall, the whole thing is worth a listen. A lot of it serves as a reminder of how strong the original songs are. The best couple of tracks, particularly "The Beginning Of The End," are good enough to take on the originals. It's fun to imagine that some of these modifications might cause Reznor himself to change his approach in the future.
[Monday, November 03, 2008]
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