This week, Nine Inch Nails posted the following message on its website: AS THE NEWS SEEMS TO TURN EVER MORE GRIM BY THE HOUR, WE’VE FOUND OURSELVES VACILLATING WILDLY BETWEEN FEELING LIKE THERE MAY BE HOPE AT TIMES TO UTTER DESPAIR — OFTEN CHANGING MINUTE TO MINUTE … MUSIC — WHETHER LISTENING TO IT, THINKING ABOUT IT OR CREATING IT — HAS ALWAYS BEEN THE THING THAT HELPED US GET THROUGH ANYTHING — GOOD OR BAD. WITH THAT IN MIND, WE DECIDED TO BURN THE MIDNIGHT OIL AND COMPLETE THESE NEW GHOSTS RECORDS AS A MEANS OF STAYING SOMEWHAT SANE. As I admitted to a friend on the phone later that day, getting out of bed and discovering the release of new Nine Inch Nails material is one of the best things I could have possibly woken up to at this strange, isolated point in my life. What’s more is that these two new albums aren’t exactly standalones. They are sequels to Ghosts I-IV, an ambient instrumental album that recently turned 12 years old and marks a fascinating turning point in the band’s career. Ghosts I-IV is something of a toy box for Trent Reznor’s most introspective musical ideas. In stepping away from the realm of industrial rock, the frontman demonstrated the haunting power of his compositional abilities. In fact, a few tracks from the album went on to score what I consider the greatest movie of the 2010s. Reznor and Ross would hardly pause from writing film and TV scores after Ghosts I-IV. One piece, “34 Ghosts IV,” was sampled by Lil Nas X to become Billboard’s longest running No. 1 song, ultimately winning Reznor his first (and likely last) Country Music Award. With all that said, while Ghosts V: Together and Ghosts VI: Locusts lack the gritty, combustive charm of their oddly imposing predecessor, they are mature and deeply affecting additions to the Nine Inch Nails canon. Both albums sacrifice that distinct, thrummy intensity of previous NIN records, trading this quality in for a focus on an all-consuming atmosphere. And yet, the albums could not differ more in tone. Ghosts V: Together is a warm yet unsettling hug. The best way to listen to the album is with your eyes closed and your head down, allowing Reznor’s bouts of ethereal humming dissonance to fill your mind. Like the best NIN records, Together weaves through slow and rewarding apexes with intensity, drawing one in completely before unleashing the naked core of its ideas. Both “Letting Go While Holding On” and the title track achieve this gradual release expertly. There is no shortage of what I call the “NIN chord” here, (a major third on top of a flat seventh, if you’re dying to know), a conflicting set of notes that thrive in the band’s typically ambiguous emotional settings. If you’ve listened to some NIN, you probably know what these notes evoke — a reluctant, fleeting smile. Reznor appears to cite composer Vangelis (“Blade Runner”) with the patient depth of tones; each layer of sound feels both vividly human and distantly digital at the same time. This is a theme that Together relishes in, most notably on “Your Touch.” Despite the tactile impressions of the track’s title, its melodies are wispy, warped electronic phrases. It made me consider what human connection often feels like in a global pandemic: faces as grainy laptop camera images, voices as feeble phone speaker audio, conversation as iMessage notifications. If Together in an album that exists outside of time — bleary, pulsating and digital — then Locusts is a panicking, frazzled human heart crushed by urgency. Look no further than its opening track, “The Cursed Clock,” to understand how drastically morbid everything becomes. Cool vibrating synths are replaced with a piano and strange whirring. The minimalist uniformity of the notes would make John Carpenter proud: If one were to insert them into a “Halloween” movie, I don’t think anyone would question it. Here, musical ideas are no longer nine-minute waves of sweet kinetic force — they are indecent little trios of short notes that attack like hornets. It’s no secret that NIN writes dark music, but never before has it been so overtly present in the band’s musical direction. NIN often coats its bleakness in grimy headbangability, but Locusts takes a far blunter approach to the abyss. Moreover, not since 2002’s Still has NIN tried to feel so intimate. The rendition of “Something I Can Never Have” on that record makes it sound as though Reznor’s voice is echoing in a tiny room. That effect is attempted here, though without vocals we merely hear the pianist’s rustling and breathing. Locusts continues with many of these same components, sinking deeper into its listener with unbending claws. Aside from its ambient backgrounds, most elements of Locusts are organic; Reznor brings out some brass on top of the piano, delving further into the bumpy noir style he employed on the “Watchmen” score. The newest installment of the Ghosts series certainly breaks new ground. But the question of where it will take Nine Inch Nails is an open one. Trent Reznor is so utterly capable of musical excellence that the question isn’t a matter of if, but how. Is this full-throated evil going to remain a part of the band’s songwriting? I’m curious to see how that would play with its more digestible material. The thesis of Nine Inch Nails is something like, “The world is a void and nothing matters, but it’s OK to feel that way.” I’m guessing that sentiment is not an unpopular one right now. Together and Locusts managed to amplify all the feelings I had about living inside all day while the world seems to have halted. By embracing the tenet that made them who they are, NIN did us all a favor by expediting this release. Monday, March 30, 2020 — 5 Arts The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com FLICKR ANISH TAMHANEY Daily Film Editor Surprise ‘Ghosts’: a reminder that Reznor’s still king ALBUM REVIEW This is it. A little over a year since Netflix pulled the plug on the critically-acclaimed Latinx- centered family sitcom, “One Day at a Time,” and after numerous fan campaigns and a last minute save by POP TV, the show has finally returned to our screens. Regardless of whether you’ve watched the series from the beginning — either the 1975 original created by Norman Lear or the reboot in 2017 — or are only discovering it for the first time, the premiere is very aware of its need to appeal to both audiences. Becoming the first ever show to be saved by a linear television network from a streaming platform, the Cuban- American Alvarez family has no problem sticking it to their old platform with the son Alex (Marcel Ruiz, “Breakthrough”) declaring, “there’s nothing good on Netflix anymore.” The premiere focuses on reintroducing us to the Alvarez family, who have all changed over the course of the last three seasons, while still retaining their most beloved qualities. Penelope (Justina Machado, “Jane the Virgin”) is still a hard- loving single mother, now a nurse practitioner. That doesn’t stop her mother, Lydia (Rita Moreno, “West Side Story”), from trying to retain her status as the matriarch of the household. Elena (Isabella Gomez, “Big Hero 6: The Series”) remains an overachieving, lovable and preachy high school dork. Alex is a cool teenager (seriously, that’s all there is to him), while Dr. Leslie Berkowitz (Stephen Tobolowsky, “Silicon Valley”) and the Alvarezes’ landlord Schneider (Todd Grinnell, “Grace and Frankie”) are the opposite of that and are the essential not- blood-related overstay- their-welcome family members. With the show’s transition from a streaming service to cable channel, episodes are shorter, as they must fit within the 21-minute window. Unfortunately, that meant cutting the addictively catchy theme song down to a simple title card. Aside from that, “One Day” maintains its balance of socially conscious storylines with family comedy, like when Ray Romano (“The Big Sick”) had a cameo role as a census taker. Penelope slams the door in his face while Elena stresses the importance of participating in the census, highlighting the generational gap. Or Penelope grappling with the fact that being a single “badass feminist” and wanting to be in a relationship because you’re feeling alone aren’t always mutually exclusive. It’s also not always subtle in its messages — like when Romano reminds the Alvarezes that the census does not ask about citizenship. It’s these kinds of conversations that make the Alvarezes uniquely Latino and entirely American. It’ll be interesting to see how the rest of the season unfolds, given that its move to cable also means episodes will be released on a weekly basis, rather than all at once. This makes the show feel too structured at times, as a certain amount of the plot must be accomplished within a specific amount of time before the commercial break. One of the things that drew me to “One Day” initially was how it differed from most multi- camera sitcoms in that the episodes were a little longer, and how it perfectly balanced season-long arcs with episodic storylines. While I wouldn’t expect the latter to change, the shortened episode run times give the impression that the writers are racing against the clock to fit into unnatural feeling act breaks. This could simply be due to fans of the show having to get used to the new format. One thing that was obvious, however, was the lack of balancing plotlines outside of Penelope’s. Still, it’s safe to say that the humor and heart of “One Day at a Time” has been captured. With the coronavirus pandemic halting production on several television shows, who knows how many more episodes we’ll get. Even if there are some elements that we’ll miss — like the slightly longer episodes — it’s better than no new episodes at all. All I have to say is thank you to POP TV for taking a chance on a show I will excitedly tune in to every week. TV REVIEW ‘One Day at a Time’ returns, triumphantly, on cable JUSTIN POLLACK Daily Arts Writer POP TV Ghosts V: Together & Ghosts VI: Locusts Nine Inch Nails The Null Corporation One Day at a Time Season 4 Premiere POP TV Tuesdays @ 9:30 p.m.