VIDEO: The trailer for Nine Inch Nails - Year Zero
The new, improved, clean, sober, and buff Trent Reznor is no longer wrestling with downward spirals. No, there will be no more long waits between NINE INCH NAILS albums. Instead, he’s sticking to the With Teeth (2005) approach and making albums the way most other artists do, which is to say without ripping his guts out for a period of years. The new Trent, Year Zero (Interscope), arrives April 17. And he promises to be on time.
It’s going to be a big spring for Britpop here in the States. For one, Pulp frontman JARVIS COCKER’s solo debut, Jarvis (Rough Trade), which came out last year in the UK, is scheduled for an April 3 release on this side of the pond. But the big news from the UK comes in two installments: first, on March 27, there’s the next big Brit thing, the KLAXONS, with their US debut, Myths of the Near Future (DGC). And then on April 24, the ARCTIC MONKEYS will do their best to follow up their smash debut with Favourite Worst Nightmare (Domino). Oh and those neo-new-wave KAISER CHIEFS have a new one ready for release March 27, Yours Truly, Angry Mob (Universal). And one new-new-wave act who didn’t quite get a foothold in the US the last time around will have another go of it — MAXIMO PARK with their Gil Norton–produced Our Earthly Pleasures (Warp, April 3).
As its title might lead you to suspect, the new JENNIFER LOPEZ album, Como ama una mujer (Epic, March 27), is not in English. Meanwhile, producer extraordinaire TIMBALAND had no trouble pulling together a guest list that’s nothing short of ridiculous for his new Shock Value (Interscope, April 3): Justin Timberlake, Nelly Furtado, Elton John, Jay-Z, Snoop Dogg, the Hives, Fall Out Boy, and She Wants Revenge.
MACY GRAY’s Big is due on will.i.am’s Geffen/Interscope imprint — also known as will.i.am — March 27. It features production by a bunch of folks, including will.i.am, as well as guest spots by Fergie, Natalie Cole, Nas, Justin Timberlake, and, would you believe it, will.i.am. That same week, GOOD CHARLOTTE try to stay on a pop-punk roll with Good Morning Revival (Epic). HILARY DUFF opts for a dignified title for her new disc, Dignity (Hollywood, April 3); it gets production help from Richard “Humpty” Vission, Tim and Bob, and Manny Marroquin.
Cassadaga (Saddle Creek, April 10), the new BRIGHT EYES disc, is so indie that it’s actually on an indie label. Neo-folkie songstress LAURA VIERS isn’t wasting any time: it’s only been like a year since her last disc and she already has a new one, Saltbreakers (Nonesuch), due the same week as Cassadaga. Also on the shelves that week, Nick Cave’s new project, GRINDERMAN, a band with Warren Ellis, Martyn Casey, and Jim Sclavunos and a debut of the same name on Epitaph’s Anti- imprint.
AVRIL LAVIGNE releases an album designed to have something to please everyone, The Best Damn Thing (RCA, April 17), just a couple of weeks before TORI AMOS drops her new American Doll Posse (Epic, May 1). The Mascis/Barlow reunion has officially survived a recording session; the result, DINOSAUR JR.’s Beyond, is scheduled for Fat Possum May 1. That same week, PATTI SMITH is back with an album of cover tunes, Twelve (Columbia). WILCO’s Sky Blue Sky is due from Nonesuch May 15. But what we’re all eagerly — or at least bemusedly — awaiting is the debut from Perry Farrell’s new project with Boston’s Extreme shredder, Nuno Bettencourt, SATELLITE PARTY; Ultra Payload (Virgin) is also due May 15.
