They're both a gigantic regression from the amazing compositions and layering on the fragile (the first disc especially) and both have a lot of bouncy catchy chorus-driven stuff in the vein of Pretty Hate Machine, the way their sound was produced or what the lyrics are is kind of besides the point imo.
I´d leave WT from this, because it obvilously was a comeback album and it practically doesn´t matter anymore.
Although I get (and party agree, because The Fragile is my favourite NIN album as well) what you mean, it´s necessarily not completely accurate.
Trent Reznor stepped away from the layering simply because he doesn´t feel that way anymore. In fact, he used all those layers and precisely picked composition just because he was extremely insecure (mostly due to his addiction). I don´t say I wouldn´t like to hear more of this detailedness again, but it´s definitely good to see him trying out new directions. Also, I don´t need another Fragile and it´s much better to try new things then recycling one idea over and over (which is basically the biggest problem of curent mainstream rock and metal).
Year Zero is compared to The Fragile much more mature album with an actual substance in it. True that it´s rushed, but then again it´s meant to be experimental and it what the hell would you expect from an album written on a road with a fucking Macbook?
It doesn´t suffer from tumidness (which, frankly, is the biggest problem of The Fragile) and lyrical immaturity. Where The Fragile is an elaborated artistic masterpice (I don´t use this term much often, but here I feel like I can) Year Zero is more like a collage of sounds with thought-out concept and accomplishment.
I am not trying to compare or convince you that Year Zero is such a great album (in fact is has quite a few mistakes/imperfection that are enveloped by the YZ there and the very unique ARG campaign) just that you should choose diffeernt measures and angle to judge this album.
As for the PHM/YZ chorus-driven comparison...that´s basically just because they both these albums are more pop oriented, that´s the only thing they actually have in common.
You CAN´T put the sound or production aside. (I guess you mistook the production for a procedure here, othewise it does´t make any sense) They way that any of NIN albums was put together is the most important and in the end the most obvious part of the creative process.
As for the lyrics...Yeat Zero basically stands and falls with the lyrical theme, so it´s definitely not a thing you can overlook.
