Review Summary: How to Destroy Angels you ask? I wish somebody would figured it out already.
Listen, here's the deal: Trent Reznor is one of those rare people who played a major role in re-defining the somewhat basic term "music". He changed it, he released stuff that 40 years ago would be considered as "traffic noises gone wrong" but he made it listenable, enjoyable and therapeutic at times. I have nothing but the utmost respect for the guy.
That said, every great artist has his ups and downs and then eventually he drowns (rhyme is not intended, it just reads that way). The key is to know when to stop. A good example is Kurt Cobain who realized that his one trick pony is starting to limp after the In Utero, so he really made sure that he doesn't start making the same albums over and over again. He did a damn good job preventing repetition and after In Utero we barely heard any new Nirvana songs.
Trent is not of the same caliber. He - at times - just doesn't know when to quit, but that is good at times (see KoRn) and sometimes not so good (see Radiohead).
"How to Destroy Angels" is a prime example of when to just call it quits. Wikipedia states that HTDA are post-industrial, experimental, electronica, which begs the question "what the hell is post-industrial" and "do we really need more post- tags for the same genres that have been around since forever?" but that is out of the scope of the Trent Reznor and Mariqueen Maandig (his wife, just in case you've been living in Afghanistan for the last few years) duo.
The self-titled album which goes by the name from the first release by the seminal industrial band Coil, feels forced. Feels unnecessary. Feels like they just got married and Trent said "hey, you know what'd be a good idea?" (after massive amount of sex, of course). In a way, one wonders: why make this record? Why not just let the marriage sink in, take some time off, I don't know, whatever. Don't rush it, because it feels rushed. Well, the only explanation I could find was, they needed money. Badly. Basically everyone who bought this poor album is kind of paying for Trent's wedding expenses. In a way, you know? Not like literally "here you go Mr. Trent Reznor, here's little something from me" but as in "I'll give money for this album" but then the money goes directly to the "wedding expenses" jar, that Trent probably put somewhere in the kitchen.
So what do they offer in exchange for your fortune?
"The Space in Between" is probably their single, since it's got an official video for it. The video is classic Trent: high heels lying on the floor which represent sex (yes, high heels are rarely associated with anything else than sex, however, more studies need to be done in this area to provide empirical data that would somehow confirm or reject this hypothesis). But as everything with Reznor, nothing is at is seems; indeed, there's blood on high heels. So it's like "yes, this is sex BUT with a twist". Nice twist if I might add.
His wife is bloodied and still somehow manages to sing. She seems pretty with the blood on her face, but it's probably just kind of image enhancer to modify her face, because sincerely she's not that pretty in real life. Back to the video: her singing and the actual voice are out of sync and I don't think I've watched a corrupted version of the video, since it's from their official youtube. Then, everything goes bananas. B-A-N-A-N-A-S. Some kind of violent fire breaks loose, burning everything, even her. But she still sings, which is kind of farfetched. I mean, when Th*ch Quảng Đức burned himself, I don't think he was singing. Still, it's just a video, I know, but silly things like that really bother me.
Oh, there are shots of two people that absolutely make no sense or connection to the video and Reznor is lying on the floor, bloodied and probably dead, but there's no proof for that. Still, the video manages to grab the attention away from the music, which is – in all fairness – pretty horrible. That said, the video probably makes sense, because Trent & Mariqueen Maandig combination brings out the most uninspired sound I've heard in a while: no wonder somebody wants to kill them. But I want to go on the record and say that I don't condone murder, I'm just saying that if someone DID decide to murder both Trent and Maandig because of what music they make together, I wouldn't be too surprised. Still, murder is never the only answer.
From the begging to the end, the entire album plays out like some unfinished NiN material, that should be on B side. All songs, and I do mean all songs sound unfinished, empty, monotonous. And when it manages to get a bit out there, it has NiN semen all over the place.
"A drowning" is indeed drowning the listener in uninspired singing, backed up by some mediocre rhythm section, and on top of that there's a classic "Fragile"-era NiN melody. No, I kid you not, listen to this song. Go on, do it. Youtube it. It will sound like classic NiN, except for the female vocals. It's almost as if Trent gave up on NiN, realized that he just lost his touch and wants to blame the bad songs now on his wife. And I think she realizes that, thus including her desperation in the lyrics:
"Please, anyone?
I don't think I can
Save myself...
I'm drowning here, please"
We are too. We are too.
"Fur Lined" IS a NiN song. Call me repetitive but "Fur Lined" sounds EXACTLY like "Discipline". Even her voice almost sounds like Trent's. It's sad to see that there's nothing innovative about How to destroy angels, but the album is really depressing when you think about it. I think she realizes the sadness in this album, too. Hence the chorus: "Is this really happening?".
I can imagine only a handful of people enjoying this, namely hardcore NiN and Mariqueen Maandig fans. But I'm not really sure about hardcore NiN fans, since even if you enjoy everything Trent ever made, you'll find this album hard to swallow. You will feel like somebody took your favorite NiN songs and raped them, brutally, violently, carelessly.
Actually it comes as no surprise that hipsters liked this album, because it offers you nothing (musically), thus by faking to enjoy this album makes you instantly against the majority who will dislike it, because it's really not good. And that's what hipsters need and feed on; artifacts, gadgets and music that majority just doesn't like for objective reasons.
