Let's be blunt, this promised to be an utter shitfest. With only ten tracks, every duffer is a tenth of the album rendered purposeless. With Anthony Hegarty- dubious winner of the 2005 Mercury Prize- guest appearing on two tracks, that's potentially a fifth gone. And then there is the appearance- hey, I'll make a whole paragraph for it, of

Timbaland.

This man has seemingly put his stamp on every fucking release to appear in HMV's "Urban" sectionin the last five years with frequently narcoleptic results. And it seems here he's on three further tracks. Hmm.

Thus far, every other reviewer I've come across has generally concluded something along the lines of this album essentially sound Bjorkesque despite all this. It is, but that seems like a simpleton conclusion that wouldn't help any Bjork fan. The other observation is that Bjork has essentially returned to a pop sensibility, but this ain't accurate either; often, the a capella setup and occasional song in Icelandic on Medulla was essentially a way of a) adding further idiosyncracity and b) scaring the shit out of anyone who finds Keane to be edgy. If Vespertine had just added a few amped-up elements to the arrangements it'd also have been an easier listen. Volta may be tighter in its songwriting, but it still isn't that removed from its immediate predecessors. The inevitable few negative reviews for this album have, on the whole, missed the point. The general tone seems to, "where's the tunes?". Well, tough. No-one gets ten singles out of a Bjork album- not even the six-single Post had every tune sounding lovely and radio-friendly.

Arguably, the closest relative to Volta would have to be Homogenic, with the beats'n'strings approach effectively replaced by beats'n'brass. Lead single "Earth Intruders" is effectively a slight misnomer, but a storming one. Bjork has clearly realised that the key to any great song is a thumb piano or three, and so drafting in Konono No. 1 has proved inspired. More typical of the album is "Wanderlust", which, to be honest, gets slightly overshadowed as a result. Yet the real acid test arrives with "Dull Flame of Desire", the first song involving Mr. Hegarty.

It ain't bad, actually. And there I refer to Anthony's performance alone; it's occurred to me that understatement is actually a card he should play more often, because the song opens heavy whup-arse on "Hope There's Someone". The rise of fall of the horns (oi- no sniggering) gives it an anthemic quality- the sort of anthem played before sporting events, rather than at rock concerts. And given the length of previous songs such as "Unison", it's no surprise that the 7:30 length doesn't seem excessive.

The second half is never as immediate- apart from "Declare Independence", which shatters all illusions of a quiet, relaxing listen with the most fookin' loud synths and drum bashes going. It probably even beats the aggro of "Pluto" on Homogenic. Overall, though, there's no outright bad songs. The bad points to the whole album are generally thus "Pneumonia" stands out by not standing out- it's the only somewhat anonymous track here; "Hope", great instrumental track though it is, has a clumsy lyric over the top of it; there's a totally unnecessary remix tacked onto this UK version (why no proper song?); and the packaging must be the result of terrorists bombing an ergonomics department. Yet it's somewhat pedantic to mark an album down because of packaging. The simple truth is, it can't quite join the twin masterpieces of Homogenic and Medulla, but it fits into a mighty fine third place amongst her six albums to date.

Judgement:

>Lyrics/Songs 17
No, you can't have ten pub singalongs. But Bjork does seem to have a better grasp of English than plenty of English bands these days.

>Mood 19
A pendulum between the grand and the reserved.

>Technical 23
With the involvement of some mighty horn players.

>Production 20
Again, we have to mention Homogenic and Medulla, and say that it isn't as revolutionary. But it doesn't seem to be the main focus.

O: 79
S: 89

There's a horrible irony to it; the new Nine Inch Nails record is released on the day of America's worst college shootings. It's either a mark of how NIN have progressed, or how they've declined in cultural significance, that Reznor's general nihilism wasn't the cause this time; nonetheless, it'd be appalling if it was. Because this record is actually about something other than directionless nihilism- to be trite about it, it's nihilism that's directed and justified. And as a result, it's actually a solid album.

It's actually a surprise to me that Nine Inch Nails is a) the first 2007 album I've bought, and b) the first NIN album I've bought. Much I like to believe I'm some sort of intellectual about music, in the end some gimmick like thrashing guitar, feedback, a really odd sounding synth, will always work somehow anyway. And NIN work on both of these levels; yes, it thrashes with apparently wild abandon, in the manner of, well, a psychotic college student. But there's so much detail within the noise, and endless elements entering at various points, single, especially processed beats carefully placed. The other suprise is, of course, that it was two years in the making. Anyone not paying attention would have been praying for a 2010 release, rather than 2011. Which is not far off the crux of the album.

Essentially, Reznor has now chosen to abandon the endless self-hatred and go for politics. Essentially, he's come up with the grimmest possible future for the US; it's 2022, and the Republicans have been re-elected. Well, seriously, a highly authoritarian, Christian fundamentalist government of some kind got in, the US is a police state, oil is running out, the population are on drugs, supposedly to prevent bioterrorism but mainly to keep them under control, and the War on Terror has lost all subtext and is now the endless religious fundamentalist dick-wagging it seems to be at the moment. And credit where credit's due- there's no simpleton message of "war is bad". And there are two sides to this story too- "Capital G" and lead single "Survivalism" representing the government forces. It's clear where Reznor stands, but to be objective would really be to miss the point.

The whole album is also very cohesive, despite songs that obviously make for singles. Perhaps the major flaw is that, at 16 songs and over 62 minutes- what our parents in the days of getting music from plastic discs would have called a double album- it can't be fantastic throughout. Indeed, the first half is quite obviously better, and the third quarter in particular is generally inferior to the rest of it. And maybe Reznor's desire to get away from inspiring high school massacres is a bit too much of a tangent- chucking "revisionism" into a chorus does not instantly render you a political academic.

Frankly, though, it all works, and the above flaws seem forgivable, especially with some of the moments. "My Violent Heart" and "The Great Destroyer"'s outro nobly takes the fight to Autechre, and throwing in hip-hop beats with touches of piano, brass, electronics, guitars and anything else Reznor spots lying around all works to great effect. With "Zero Sum", NIN might well have a new "Hurt". They probably don't, though. Reznor's innings is now 18 years, and that's how things seem to work- NIN isn't a new act anymore, and their popularity may well have declined too much.

Apparently, there's more on the way. The whole campaign- from the ARG floating around that I can't say I want to get involved in, to the inevitable touring, etc.- is meant to last a total of three years. "Year Zero Part Two" - title may change- is seemingly due in 2008, and on the basis of this album, it's both promising and worrying.

Promising, because Part One is darn good. Worrying, because it might tarnish what would have been a perfectly gsingle album. Just have to wait...

Judgement:

>Lyrics/Songs 18
Often effective. Often a bit too blunt and lacking subtlety. Third quarter sags somewhat.

>Mood 21
Oh, it's grim alright.

>Technical 22
Nearly two decades of arsing around with faders and laptops doesn't count for nothing.

>Production 22
Almost on a level with Massive Attack. And that's Olympic standard, if the IOC saw potential in such a sport.

O: 83
S: 83