RECORDINGS Quick Spins

Trent Reznor, second from right, brings some youthful spark back to Nine Inch Nails. Joseph Arthur, left, performs with the Lonely Astronauts on his latest. (By Jamie James Medina)

YEAR ZERO

Nine Inch Nails

Forty-one-year-old Trent Reznor could now bench-press the scrawny punk who sang "Head Like a Hole" in 1989. But on "Year Zero," the Nine Inch Nails' mastermind rekindles some of his youthful spark. Hindered by a downward spiral of substance abuse until recent years, Reznor apparently buffed up with Henry Rollins's neck routine, scooped a newspaper off the doorstep and found someone in the Oval Office to loathe more than himself.

If the concept is to rag on America's political climate, then "Year Zero" -- set in 2022, according to a unique marketing campaign -- is a concept album. Blood, corruption, propaganda . . . no, the dependable Reznor still won't be auditioning for Up With People anytime soon. What matters is that C3PO could break-dance to this puppy. Noisy electronic funk is the guiding LED light for sinewy synth struts like "Vessel" and "Capital G," on which Reznor raps, "I pushed a button and elected him to office, and he pushed a button and it dropped a bomb." Marilyn Manson would give up his blue contact lens for the wicked guitar squall of "The Warning" or the hissed chorus of "God Given."

Reznor infiltrates the mechanics of the empire, but not to rot it from the inside. He just wants us to hear every bolt shearing and circuit board frying. Occasionally, the CD's intricate ear-to-ear blips and screeches resemble a modem transferring a digitized Ebola virus. But juxtaposed against addictive dance-floor swagger, this formulaic return to industrial-rock form makes for a surprisingly satisfying headphones rush.

DOWNLOAD THESE: "Capital G," "Vessel," "God Given"

-- Michael Deeds

LET'S JUST BE

Joseph Arthur and the Lonely Astronauts