Rollin’ Down a Disturbing ‘Highway’

Trent Reznor is arguably the most exciting--and complete--artist in American pop these days. It’s a tribute to his influence on the ‘90s music scene that you feel as compelled to check out a soundtrack with his name attached as you do a new release by his band, Nine Inch Nails.

Reznor rewarded that interest in his dark, startling 1994 musical companion piece to Oliver Stone’s “Natural Born Killers,” and he delivers another anxious and disturbing work to accompany David Lynch’s new film, “Lost Highway.”

David Bowie and Lou Reed are artists who have told us through the years about scary monsters and taken us on some walks on the wild side--and Reznor employs tracks by them (along with the Smashing Pumpkins and Marilyn Manson, and compositions by Angelo Badalamenti and Barry Adamson) in this album.

Yet Reznor proves again that he is the real frightmeister of contemporary pop, focusing on jarring and unsettling textures that amplify dangerous and forbidden areas of human experience. His “The Perfect Drug”--the album’s peak moment--is as harrowing a tale of alienation and obsession as “Burn” from the earlier soundtrack.

Reznor, however, is betrayed by his commercial instincts, including underwhelming tracks by the Smashing Pumpkins and, especially, his hokey sidekick Marilyn Manson, that seem simply sales bait.

For the most part, however, “Lost Highway” is as unsettling as being awakened in the middle of the night and hoping that the feeling of enormous dread is just left over from a bad dream.

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