New Politics -Vikings

The New Politics first release was a bit punk-pop rock with attitude, their second was more dance rock with radio sensibility, and with their third release, Vikings, the Danish rockers have found a happy medium between the two styles.  Every time I listen to this album I feel like I am hearing the perfect New York City end of summer soundtrack.  The New Politics have the rare ability to capture the intensity and fun of their live shows in the studio recordings.  Kicking off this party is “Everywhere I Go” with it’s fist raising opening.  Full of attitude, the lyrics are basically a thank you to their fans and a fuck you to their detractors.  The beat is so good, you struggle with whether you should dance or jump around to the song.  The sound lowers right before the chorus giving the listener a chance to catch their breath, then right back up to jumping around.  “West End Kids” follows it up with infectiously catchy lyrics that I dare you to try not to sing along to.  Even with it’s slower tempo, the song really makes you want to move long with the beat.  Clocking in at just over three minutes, like most of the songs on the album, you never get a chance to find the song repetitious but just short enough to leave you wanting some more.  Perhaps the most danceable track with it’s total sex vibe is “Girl Crush.”  It definitely has a clap along quality while David Boyd is singing about a girlfriend falling in love with another girl.  Everything is up tempo and electric, including the beats.  My favorite track is “Lovers In A Song.”  A slightly western-esque guitar with a bit of crooning while the beat keeps a slightly faster tempo.  It is a unique mix of sounds that work.  There is a very brief electric change in the music, then back to mellow while “morning comes the sun is yours, but I’ll be gone so dry your tears we still lovers in a song.”  I’m not sure that I can say why, but every time I hear “15 Dreams” I feel transported to NYC.  Opening fast with it’s almost rap-like verses, the choruses slow things down, then right back up again.  There is a very vivid dream chasing feeling to the words that the music compliments near perfectly.  The easiest way to describe most of their music is fun and that is exactly what “50 Feet Tall” is.  A sex-as-a-drug-addicted song, the guitar has an old school seventies sound with more danceable beats.  This is another album highlight that requires multiple listens.  “Pretend We’re In A Movie” has a very familiar sound to it, like you have heard it before.  An acoustic opening that quickly turns into a sing along song.  While not my favorite song, it completely succeeds in capturing a live recording feel to it that connects with listeners.  In the same style and vibe as “Everywhere I Go,” “Loyalties Among Thieves” arrives with a very aggressive sound that lends itself more to the punk influences.  Once again, there are parts that scream for you to sing along while keeping that rebellious sound.  The only real problem with the song is that they have mastered the danceable punk sound so well that if there isn’t something additionally unique to the song, it can become forgettable.  A bit of a love song, “Stardust” uses all of their musical weapons.  Beautifully timed piano, synths that pull the listener in, and lyrics that tell a dreamy love story.  I wouldn’t be surprised to see this as a single sooner as opposed to later.  Then things go in the other direction on “Aristocrat.”  Back to the harder punk sound, this song has more of that attitude found on their first album.  The opposite side of the love song, this one has that “Miss Penthouse dynamite is cyanide” not exactly the kind of girl you want to bring home vibe.  But somehow they make it still sound fun and danceable.  Rounding out this short thirty some odd minute release is “Strings Attached.”  A total hard hitting drums in your face punk song lasting about a minute thirty, the rest of the near twelve minute track sounds like a bunch of guys goofing around in the studio having a blast doing what they do.  Maybe not the best way to end a rather impressive album, but at least you know these guys don’t take themselves too serious and can still have fun.  While comparisons can be drawn to bands like Panic At The Disco and 30 Seconds To Mars, the New Politics bring their own twist to that sound.  David, Soren, and Louis may not write music for every audience, but they certainly understand the one they are writing for.  Vikings is fun and worth the listen.  Every song matches the energy of their live shows, which you should also check out if there are in a town near you.

Nine Inch Nails -Pretty Hate Machine

Some artists are defined by musical movements and some albums are considered cornerstones to musical movements, but rarely is it the other way around.  Nine Inch Nails’ debut album Pretty Hate Machine is one of those rare exceptions that does both.  The industrial musical genre would be nonexistent without this 1989 groundbreaking release.  Trent Reznor, the soul member of NIN, literally forged a new sound that has since been oft imitated, but rarely matched.  Think new-wave pop meets metal with catchy riffs.  Opening with an intense assault on the sense, “Head Like A Hole” quickly establishes the entire theme of the album.  Angry, aggressive, and unforgiving.  Synths turned heavy and lyrics go dark.  With “god money” the lead on the verses and “bow down before the one you serve, you’re going to get what you deserve” repeated in the choruses, Reznor holds nothing back lyrically.  The drum machine tempo is perfectly timed to match the lyrics and the guitar is the right kind of pissed off during the chorus.  Following the opener is the very accusatory and self questioning “Terrible Lie.”  Haunting and repetitious beats are the backdrop for the “hey god?” questioning throughout the song.  Between verses the synths create a sense of schizophrenia and confusion, while verses bring back the clarity.  As it was back when I first heard this album in ’89, “Terrible Lie” is still one of my favorite songs from Pretty Hate Machine.  Even today, you can hear new elements to the layers of this song with each listen.  The almost danceable “Down In It” and mostly spoken word hide the self loathing underlining the lyrics.  “What I used to think was me is just a fading memory” sum up the idea of a person just falling “down in it.”  The ‘it’ in question being the machine that is life.  Ordered perfectly, “Sanctified” follows with it’s bass driven verses.  Once you arrive at the choruses, the guitar and effects literally sound like blades slicing through your soul.  As the lyrics insinuate, you find yourself totally submissive to the sounds just before the complete bottoming out from the next song the music fades into.  “Something I Can Never Have” is one of the most hauntingly honest and raw songs ever recorded by Reznor.  Mostly piano and synths, the words are lost and longing for love and release.  During the chorus, drum machine effects begin to build to climaxes, and then gone with nothing but the piano left in their wake.  The vocals have an almost whispered in a room filled with echoes quality adding to the emptiness.  Working the listener like a pro, “Kinda I Want To” brings you back from the edge of despair to another near danceable beat.  Very sexual in both sound and lyric, as the rhythm builds.  Once the words have given in to temptation, the guitars and computer effects completely take over.  Again, showing almost near perfect sequencing, “Sin” follows with it’s price-to-pay for giving in lyrics.  A more intense rhythm with its Depeche Mode sounding influence, there is more submissiveness driving this song.  Less abandoning hope and more giving in while you try not to find yourself wanting to move to the commanding beat.  More regret is served up in “That’s What I Get.”  Lots of catchy effects turn into very subtle sounds during the verses while gaining moment building to the choruses.  Reznor shows an uncanny understanding of how to construct a song the invokes so many different emotion in the duration of just one song, much less an entire album.  Another of my favorites, “The Only Time” has the funkiest bass on the whole album, while still maintaining a sense of darkness.  Another sexual song about totally giving in, it also has some of the more unforgettable lyrics.  “The devil wants to fuck me in the back of his car, nothing quite like the feel of something new” sticks with you long before he wrote “Closer.”  Closing the album is a song about bringing it all together, “Ringfinger.”  After the emotional ride of the previous nine songs, “Ringfinger” is all about total commitment.  The synths bounce back and forth from speaker to speaker while words like “severe flesh and bone, offer it to me” fill the spaces of sound and it all comes together in a complete guitar, synth, drum machine collision.  Then it just ends.  As the listener, you are both spent and craving more.  If you have a copy of the remastered version, you get a nearly unrecognizable cover of Queen’s “Get Down Make Love.”  That is a good thing, too, because Reznor’s reimagining of this song is very layered and sexual.  The birth of a genre and an album that still holds up maybe even better today than it did when it first came out, Pretty Hate Machine is required listening for any music lover.