Nine Inch Nails rachets up noise in ”With Teeth”
Nine Inch Nails
“With Teeth” (Interscope) •••
Trent Reznor, the industrial rock pioneer who once inspired steady enlistment in a swelling underground movement, now operates as a one-man subgenre. His mentors and disciples have faded, yet Reznor soldiers on, formulating fresh, computer-assisted compositions to ferry his self-lacerating lyrics about psychic agony and rage.
“With Teeth” bears little of the spooky delicacy of 1999’s “The Fragile,” instead returning to the noisier tradition of 1994’s “The Downward Spiral.” This time, Reznor aims for radio with a straight-ahead rock cruncher, “The Hand That Feeds,” and scattered tunes with compact, accessible structures.
Guest drummer Dave Grohl (Nirvana, Foo Fighters) brings a ballistic punch to the party, and Reznor’s usual shriek eases into a surprising croon for “All the Love in the World.”
Undiluted aggression and heavy textures move in for the latter half, resulting in such brazen, rhythmic steamrollers as “Getting Smaller” and the despairing piano ballad “Right Where It Belongs.”
Edna Gundersen, USA Today
Jo Dee Messina
“Delicious Surprise” (Curb) •• 1/2
The back cover photo of Jo Dee Messina’s first CD in four years finds a well-toned, bra- and crucifix-flashing Messina striking her best ‘80s Madonna pose. She has even managed to turn the CD’s first hit country single into a bona fide pop culture catchphrase: “My Give a Damn’s Busted.”
But the plucky redhead’s fourth studio CD is straight out of Nashville, sitting somewhere to the left of Reba McEntire’s slick country and to the right of Gretchen Wilson’s kickier edge.
Given that Messina’s tasted a bit of hell since her last CD – she spent time in rehab to break an alcohol habit and ended a long relationship with her fiance – “Delicious Surprise” could benefit from a grittier approach as opposed to the radio-ready production. (A couple of tracks are co-produced by Tim McGraw, who did similar honors on her previous CDs.)
That said, Messina’s take on Joe Diffie’s “My Give a Damn’s Busted” is a perfectly feisty kiss-off to an errant lover, and she sings even the predictable hook-filled numbers with determination and verve.
Howard Cohen, Miami Herald
Il Divo
“Il Divo” (Syco Music/Columbia) •• 1/2
The creation of “American Idol” judge Simon Cowell, Il Divo is the result of his two-year worldwide search for charismatic guys who could sing pop music opera-style (call it “popera”).
As a critic, it’s certainly easy to knock a contrived project like this. The gimmick is that the boys of Il Divo (Italian for “male diva”) sing pop songs in various languages, rather than classical music, to best reach the masses. On the most blatant grab at heartstrings and wallets, “Mama,” a gushy tribute to a mother’s love, they are preaching right to their core SUV-driving demographic.
The overproduced music sounds like Josh Groban’s and Celine Dion’s – big, windswept ballads with waves of strings and familiar melodies. The first single is “Regresa a mi,” a Spanish-language reworking of Toni Braxton’s “Unbreak My Heart.” The Frank Sinatra-popularized “My Way” and the Righteous Brothers’ “Unchained Melody” also get the Il Divo treatment.
The quartet tends to sing all the songs in the same bombastic fashion, and the harmonies aren’t as sonorous as the individual voices. Still, given the dearth of true voices in contemporary pop, Il Divo is worth backing – no matter your feelings for Cowell or the cynical nature of such projects.
Howard Cohen, Miami Herald
Ben Folds
“Songs for Silverman” (Epic) •• 1/2
Maybe it was his smirking over-ebullience. Or perhaps it’s because at his worst, he came off like a third-rate Billy Joel. Anyway, to me, Ben Folds used to sound like a jerk.
Then he got married, had kids, went solo. And while his voice is still geeky, and his piano stylings still overly ornate, subtle differences in the mature Folds allow for a more pleasureable pop experience.
His melancholy lyrics can be affecting, as in the detailed meditation on lost comrade Elliott Smith that is “Late” and the charming portrait of mother-and-childhood that is “Gracie.”
When Folds takes a quirky look at a tattooed boy’s youth on “You to Thank,” he backs it up with pastoral jazz. And his previous stabs at gospel are brought to fruition here, most prominently through the harmonies of “Jesusland.”
So either Folds isn’t a jerk anymore, or I am.
A.D. Amorosi, Philadelphia Inquirer
New Order
“Waiting for the Sirens’ Call” (Warner Bros.) ••••
With its trademark blend of guitar-driven post-punk and synth-driven dance music in full bloom, New Order’s second album since its late-‘90s re-formation is thoroughly satisfying, hitting the peaks of the group’s finest work.
Guitarist-vocalist Bernard Sumner, bassist Peter Hook and drummer Stephen Morris were members of Joy Division, the gloomy, powerful band from Manchester, England, led by vocalist Ian Curtis. They morphed into New Order in the wake of Curtis’ 1980 suicide and hit big with 1983’s “Blue Monday,” still the best-selling 12-inch single of all time.
The group had an acrimonious break up in 1993, but reassembled five years ago for some well-received live shows, releasing the decent comeback “Get Ready” in 2001.
“Sirens’ Call” begins with Sumner’s brash, incisive guitar work center stage on “Who’s Joe” and “Hey Now What You Doing.” Electronic textures become more prominent on “Krafty” – which, yes, sounds a little like Kraftwerk – and “Morning Night and Day,” a cautionary tale about the effects of 24-hour partying, something New Order did a lot of back in the day.
The hard-rocking “Working Overtime,” with Morris’ drumming at full throttle, sounds like the Who crossed with the Stooges, closing out this inspired, superbly crafted album with a healthy shot of adrenaline.
Martin Bandyke, Detroit Free Press