CDVS: Neva Divona Vs. Nine Inch Nails

There's the shared gravitation here toward creepy, anatomically-themed cover art, but musically speaking, Neva Divona's alt-folk jangle is in clear opposition to NIN's early industrial onslaught; the difference between The Hate Yourself Change and Pretty Hate Machine is like the difference between slipping into an afternoon nap (breeze and sunlight through the window, distant children at play) and waking up from that nap (total confusion, sour mouth, dim recollection of someone trying to kill you with a lawnmower).

Not surprisingly, the two bands are worlds apart in terms of lyrical content as well, although maybe not in the way you'd expect. Look deeply now, into the topsy-turvy realm of CDVS, a stranger-than-fiction uber-perspective that only patchwork, utterly out-of-context lyrical excerpting can unlock:

The Hate Yourself Change features titles like "The Champion," "Can't Wait to See You," and "I've Got a Feeling." Songwriter Jake Bellows has some of Jeff Buckley's silk, but here's what's on his mind: "I love you but it doesn't matter... I got morphine in my sleeves... I'm drinking blood from a silver cup... I can't change, I don't want to change... I will not fucking try... Something's under my skin... The blackest heart you've ever seen... Unclean deserter, I dream of murder and you... I'm back to track you down and kill you myself... Sixty-five shells... No more kisses from the one I love... I don't give a fuck... The world's a shitty place and I can't wait to die."

Compare with the youthful idealism and shy, romantic sensibility of Trent Reznor on NIN's 1989 masterwork: "I'll give everything to her... Lay my hands on heaven and the sun and the moon and the stars... Kinda like a cloud I was way up in the sky and I was feeling some feelings you wouldn't believe... My favorite dreams of you still wash ashore... Kinda I want to maybe just for tonight... Nothing quite like the feel of something new... Anything you ask you know I'll do... And right now I'm so in love with you and I don't want to think too much about what we should or shouldn't do... Ringfinger, promise carved in stone, deeper than the sea... I'll do anything for you... Let's go dancing... You're going to get what you deserve."

Next week: the racism of Paul McCartney.--Dave Surratt