(Album Re views

Nine Inch Nails “The Fragile” Nothing Records

I don’t know what the heck to do with this. It’s two new CDS (‘Left’ and ‘Right’), well over an hour and a half of new material, in 23 songs. One review I read on it said it was “Dark Side of the Moon” for the 90’s. I don’t agree, but on one side, the guy had a point. This stuff is so dense and different. You have to listen to it in a whole different way. They are songs, but they’re based more on moods and sounds than on melodies. It’s totally screwed up, but it’s immensely interesting, and quite engaging when you get into it. It’s loud and noisy, it’s quiet and ‘fragile’. It’s not overly dark, but it’s quite demanding. Don’t try to think about anything else when you listen to it. If you don’t like ‘noise’ and aren’t open to something different, you'll detest this release. I still feel a bit torn and confused about it, but I’d have to give it an (A), just for its size and guts. Also, congrats to Reznor on figuring out how to sound like Dave Grohl and WWF’s Chris Jericho at the same time on the first track.

-McQuaid

The Folk Implosion One Part Lullaby Interscope

Like the best of Lou

really being catchy, and sonically rich although sparsely arranged. In sits in direct comparison with the band whose name The Folk Implosion mocks with its own, The John Spencer Blues Explosion. Like Spencer, Barlow

believes in

burrying lyrics

under atmos-

phere. It works.

-Bruyneel

Barlow’s other band, Sebadoh, The Folk Implosion (B+) creeps up on you after pro- longed exposure. It is rythmic without

YC

Lookout! Records Forward Til Death Lookout! Records

Lookout! Records is celebrating its tenth anniversary. Is there any

better way to celebrate than

with a CD (B+) featuring your top artists, such as the Smugglers and the Donnas, performing rare and previously unreleased material? A great album of rockin’ punk, here’s to another great ten years for Lookout!

-O’Connor

Sloan

Between the Bridges Universal/Murderecords

Too much of a good thing can be bad, and that is

these N.S wonder boys.

exactly what has happened to

‘Three releases in eighteen

months is too much. “Between

the Bridges” (C) is disappointing. Recorded in a rush as to release it before the big 00’, it leaves an awkward aftertaste. This collection of left-overs from “Navy Blues”

Blink 182 Enima of the State

Three minute power chord pop music was not invented by Green Day but they cer- tainly are the snot

nose bantam weight champs of the form.

However Blink 182 (B-) makes a decent case to be the new frat boy head banger band with this album. It is a quick listen (40 minutes) with

several songs that resonate. The video wherein they run through scénés naked, including through a Gap ad, and that fact that they put a porn star “on the back cover wearing a rubber glove are the geo- metric equivalent to Green Day’s dentist chair video, eye- candy for the de- marginalized youth. A decent vision, decently realized. Bruyneel

Blinker the Star “August Every- where” Dreamworks

I wasn’t sold on this the first time I heard it. As time pro- gressed, bits of the songs would pop into my head from no- where. Done by anyone else, these songs may come off as nothing better than mediocre, but the treatment they give

them is pretty nice (B). Their brand of rock is rather ‘grand’, ina sense. The melodies are different. Strings, sounds, the vocals... the music is a bit ‘deeper’. It’s not so straightforward, and that is what makes a bit better than just average. I don’t know how often I'll play the album, but I do like it, and I dig the cover art. It fits the music. -McQuaid