Taking Stock of a Grim Year in Rock

Kurt Cobain’s suicide last April tore the heart out of contemporary rock ‘n’ roll in ways that haven’t begun to be repaired. One life does make a difference.

Nine Inch Nails and Hole delivered terrific, four-star albums during the last six months, but neither they nor any other release has filled the emotional void.

For all the alienation and anger in Cobain’s music, Nirvana’s records offered a sense of celebration and hope--even if those qualities weren’t strong enough in Cobain’s own life to eventually save him.

With Nine Inch Nails, Trent Reznor makes music that is largely without hope--an examination of despair that starts where Cobain left off. If Cobain were still alive to balance Nails with his more uplifting music, Reznor’s journey into the darkness would have been compelling enough to reach a wider audience. The album, a masterpiece of the genre titled “The Downward Spiral,” should have been a runaway hit.

With Cobain’s death, however, the record became almost unlistenable. It remains an absorbing work, but this is a time when even the most hard-boiled fan wants some comfort--and it’s not surprising that the Nine Inch Nails album has spiraled rapidly down the charts.

Hole, the Seattle quartet led by Cobain’s widow, Courtney Love, has run into a different problem. Because she was known outside the rock underground more as the notorious Mrs. Cobain than as the major talent she is, the new album was viewed with suspicion by much of the rock public.

In addition, Hole’s record company, DGC, was powerless to promote the album, “Live Through This,” because it would have smacked of exploitation. Love was also in no condition to tour, so the band was not able to state its own case live.

Hole was dealt yet another blow last month with the death of bassist Kristen Pfaff. After just two months, the album is out of the Top 100 on the nation’s charts.

While the following albums stand as the 10 best works so far this year, it may be several more months before any album (Pearl Jam? Neil Young? R.E.M.?) rekindles the spark and finally helps remove the black armband that continues to surround contemporary rock.

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1 Nine Inch Nails, “The Downward Spiral,” (Nothing/ TVT/Interscope). Trent Reznor explores human emptiness and despair with chilling fearlessness in this landmark collection. “I am the pusher, I am the whore . . . I am the need you have for more,” he snarls in one especially sobering passage that focuses on contemporary obsessions and addictions. Rather than a celebration or acceptance of nihilism or decadence, the album stands as an anguished cry for something to believe in.

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2 Hole, “Live Through This,” (DGC). This album virtually gallops with imagination and spirit--a work that combines in its best moments the rock self-affirmation of Patti Smith with the intimacy and candor of Leonard Cohen. Though far more accessible musically than the band’s 1992 indie debut, Hole has sacrificed none of its individuality or bite. Love’s voice and words fluctuate between abrasive and caressing as she explores both matters of personal commitment and private doubt.

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3 Pavement, “Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain,” (Matador). There are dangers when a band reminds you of too many influences (think Counting Crows), so it may be waving a red flag to suggest that Pavement offers echoes of everyone from Lou Reed and Gram Parsons to Elliott Murphy and Thurston Moore. Yet Pavement doesn’t use the influences to prop up its music. The tracks here assert a convincing sense of genuine youthful optimism and discovery.

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4 Bikini Kill, “Pussy Whipped,” (Kill Rock Stars). Anarchy for the Northwest? This Olympia, Wash., band, with its punk defiance and feminist declarations, recalls the revolutionary command of the Sex Pistols. Like that classic British band, Bikini Kill brings together two seemingly contradictory elements (pure sonic rawness and songwriting savvy). The result is music that seems inaccessible on first listening, but ends up sticking with you like the Pistols’ best.

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5 Beastie Boys, “Ill Communication,” (Capitol). Eight years after proving in “Licensed to Ill” that white boys can rap, the Beasties--who combine a sort of Three Stooges goofiness with streetwise hip-hop resolve--return with another extraordinary party record. The heart of the sound is in the irresistible beats, but the talk is fun, too, touching on everything from music (Lee Dorsey and Bob Marley) to hoops (Bobby Knight and Anthony Mason) without missing a step.

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6 Sonic Youth, “Experimental Jet Set, Trash and No Star,” (DGC). The problem with some acclaimed veterans (dare we say Elvis Costello?) is their work begins sounding labored, as if making music has become a responsibility. The wonder of these acclaimed veterans is they still make music that is joyful and alert.

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7 Beck, “Mellow Gold,” (DGC). “I’m a loser, baby / So why don’t you kill me” is as inspired a snarl for the ‘90s as Dylan’s “Like a rolling stone” chorus was for the restless ‘60s--all the better because Beck’s line can mean anything to anybody. The rest of the folk/hip-hop union is no “Blonde on Blonde,” but Beck has a quirky, questioning intelligence and spunk.

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8 Johnny Cash, “American Recordings,” (American). One of the cornerstones of modern pop music steps back into the creative forefront with an album that is as simple (just voice and guitar) as it is affecting--tales of sin and redemption delivered with the intimacy and urgency of someone who has learned his lessons well.

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9 The Auteurs, “Now I’m a Cowboy,” (Virgin). Luke Haines, the suffering poet who guides this English outfit, writes about desire and doubts and bizarre relationships with the kind of sweeping sentimentality and awe that has been absent from the heart of rock since Bowie did it in the ‘70s.

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10 Latin Playboys, “Latin Playboys,” (Slash/Warner Bros.). Los Lobos’ Louie Perez and David Hidalgo join with Mitchell Froom and Tchad Blake for more of the experimental World Beat sounds that made “Kiko” such a soulful and spirited work. The tone is primarily playful and relaxed.