VNV Nation – Automatic

I can't believe we're already coming up to the 10 year anniversary of Automatic, and that inspired me (an impetus to fight! Ha!) to finally give this album the credit its due all these years later. But first, I want to say something about VNV Nation. Sure, they became the darlings of the EBM and later futurepop scene many years ago, and like Apoptygma Berzerk, their popularity kind of segregated their fans into two groups: "IT HAS TO BE AGGRO INDUSTRIAL RAAAARRGHGH" and "Hey, this is kind of catchy and fun." Even to do this day, I see the for VNV and it's the same thing I was reading 15+ years ago. Let's just put all that to bed and recognize that Ronan really did do something special in this often cliched, boring, and way too serious genre, and whether you like the music or not, at least give credit where credit is due. It's incredibly difficult rising above the average industrial/EBM slog and making a name for yourself, and VNV was able to accomplish that rare feat. So congrats Ronan & co.

Now, on to Automatic. To me, this is easily their 3rd best record after Empires and Praise The Fallen, and it might even be neck and neck with PTF. The songwriting is on point, music and production are solid as always, vocals are strong and hooks are catchy, beats are hard and relentless, and even with the kind of mainstream trance sounds peppered in, it still retains a very VNV feel from start to finish. I love the lyrics, especially in Gratitude - one of my all-time favorite VNV songs and to me the crown jewel of this album. It's the kind of album you put on and next thing you know your wife is dancing in the kitchen while she's cooking (OK, maybe that's just us). Catchy does not automatically mean bad, nor does trance automatically mean it's not "alternative" or "deep." VNV is one of the rare acts that can actually take those normally annoying aspects of modern electronic music and spin them into something meaningful and lasting. And when you listen to Automatic, start to finish, you're probably going to want to go back and listen to it again. Which is the very definition of "lasting."

While Empires and PTF will probably always be VNV's most cherished albums and for good reason, Automatic was an incredibly powerful challenger to those legendary entries in the catalog, and I think time will be the best judge, even swaying some of those GOTTA BE AGGRO industrial fans. Highly recommended for anyone who enjoys dance music with ion and emotion.

Wow. I will it: I was skeptical after the last record (whatever it was called, I can't and don't much care, sorry), which may inflate my impression of Automatic. Even so.

This record is easily the equal of Empires or Futureperfect and manages to challenge even the emotional and songwriting highs of PTF. "Space and Time," "Resolution," and "Streamline" are energetic, inventive VNV anthems; "Control" is a powerful banger in the vein of "Voice" and "Entropy"; and "Radio" is one of those great forward-thinking future-pop epics of the style they invented on "Airships," though it's better even than that song.

The indisputable highlight—the hair-raisingly, goose-bumpingly, fist-pumpingly, just-got-somethin'-in-my-eye-man AWESOME centrepiece—is "Gratitude," and it's from another fucking planet, dude. Ronan found this song in the same place he found "Solitary" and "Fearless." In fact, it feels almost like a completion of that journey.

I could go on, but I'll spare you: HEAR THIS RECORD. Given how underwhelming VNV's last couple records were (I liked "Nemesis" a lot, but other than that I couldn't name a single song off either of the last two that I feel compelled to listen to again), you'll be doing yourself a favor in picking up where you left off. I'm gonna say it: this is their masterpiece.