I didn't even know about
The Talkhouse until I read of Lou Reed's passing and how he had reviewed
Yeezus earlier this year for the site. But now I can deliver unto you all this review of
HR by Rick Moody.
http://thetalkhouse.com/reviews/view/rick-moody-nine-inch-nailsI agree with him on a few things, like how the album is a better experience for headphones. He also makes the same point rynne did about hooks (which just goes to show how smart we all know N is). But then he takes this
huge left turn and I'm a grown-up and all but I can't agree with his grown-up view of what Trent should be. Not that I disagree about the value of happy songs because I am a child of the 1970s, but because he doesn't really get what Trent represents. But this is why Moody wrote the review, the site is all about the juxtaposition of artistic viewpoints and not meant to be anyone attempting to explain and interpret someone for the rest of us.
Moody does raise an excellent point regarding the nature of "the truth." I think some artists do guard their own emotional truths as a subset of their right to privacy. It's
all persona, we know this even as we don't want to discuss it or admit to it. And yet, Trent's persona is as much based on his assertions that he's been telling us the truth all along as it is on whatever actual "truth" he's managed to impart. I was thinking that his existing problem had to do with being happy and fulfilled and centered and yet...he'll look at a clear blue sky and spot the one cloud practically up in outer space.
We can't see it, but
he can. He's always a downer at the subterranean level. But I accept that it's likely just my own projection of not only myself, but what I have always perceived him to be, what I needed him to be in order to have that connection with his persona.
One of the reasons I appreciate
Year Zero is that in the narrative you have any number of emotions expressed and because it's not Trent in his persona - it is the voice of the various characters - it is so incredibly effective and freeing for him and he can emote as the needs of the work dictate. I know y'all are tired of me banging on now about how he has become the Gen X version of Roger Waters but it is so true: that desire to tell big stories and act them out and create a persona which furthermore gives him permission to do so. When Trent is composing in regards to the persona, there's just shades of one emotional color dominating, and he's not being fair to his abilities to do so, and I think that is one of my issues with this album.
