The Orange Lining
Posted on June 22, 2008 - Filed Under Music |
I wrote this a few days ago while I was in a bod mood and listening to Broken. I guess if the whole medicine thing doesn’t work for I can always go write for Kerrang! or some other childish music magazine…
Being in a bad mood, by definition, is not enjoyable. However, it is only under such conditions of dejection that one can truly appreciate certain music, such as that contained on Nine Inch Nails’ Broken.
Broken is never quite metal, but describing it as rock music is almost equally misleading. Is it vicious industrial-rock with some high tempo numbers? Synth-laden alternative-rock/metal? Labelling music with such terms is not particularly helpful in more straightforward cases, and it’s especially useless here, and so this post is about describing Broken in an altogether different manner.
Via the slow but forceful rising volume of intro-track ‘Pinion’, and into the slabs of guitar distortion in ‘Wish’, Broken flings the listener straight into a angry state of mind which doesn’t subside. The relentless verse beat of ‘Last’ perfectly captures the monotony of melancholy, while ‘Help Me I Am in Hell’ pulses with restrained frustration, which then bursts through in ‘Happiness in Slavery’. ‘Gave Up’, the last of the album’s listed tracks, bristles with yet more fury and aggression. The two hidden songs on Broken provide a change of pace; the cover of Adam and The Ants ‘Physical’ is slow and ultra-heavy, while the funk-inflected verse of ‘Suck’ contrasts deliciously with its incandescent, album-closing chorus.
Broken is the soundtrack to every bad mood I’ve ever been in, and ever will be in. Broken is where low spirits are assaulted by anger. Broken is when you feel like crashing your car into an oncoming truck. Broken is the little angry amber flame keeping your mind warm in a world of rotten-carcass-marionettes. Broken is the black dog in a red mist. Broken is perfect.
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