ALEX CHADWICK, Host:

Back now with DAY TO DAY and these guys.

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CHADWICK: It's Nine Inch Nails. It's the band that put dark, industrial rock on the map and the pop charts, and they're back. In this age of iTunes and the stand-alone song, Nine Inch Nails point-man Trent Reznor has created a kind of an old-school concept album, and it's called "Year Zero."

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CHADWICK: Here's DAY TO DAY music critic Christian Bordal.

CHRISTIAN BORDAL: Reznor's industrial touches have always helped conjure dark, dystopian landscape in his songs, but until now, that landscape has been mostly internal, dealing with his own haunted demons and desires.

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TRENT REZNOR: (Singing) (Unintelligible).

BORDAL: "Year Zero" is a political album. The landscape it describes is a world 15 years in the future, wracked by widespread violence, environmental devastation and moral and spiritual anarchy.

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REZNOR: (Singing) (Unintelligible).

BORDAL: This elaborate promotion has spawned a minor cottage industry of obsessive fans digging for and sharing over the Internet all the clues, music and videos they're discovering. Cynics are calling it a giant marketing strategy, but Reznor says it's all part of the art, that the CD is like a soundtrack to a movie that hasn't yet been made.

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REZNOR: You have set something in motion much greater than you've have ever known.

BORDAL: But whether or not you want to take the time to investigate the wider, multi- platform promotion surrounding the CD, you'll find that the music itself has a lot to offer.

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REZNOR: (Singing) (Unintelligible).

CHADWICK: The CD is "Year Zero" by Nine Inch Nails. Music Christian Bordal joins us from member station KCRW in Santa Monica, California. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.