Year Zero

As narrator, John Hodgman captures the thin and often wry tone of Nick Carter, an aspiring copyright lawyer tasked with saving the planet. Aliens have come to earth because they love our music, and they're not quite sure whether they should work through painful negotiations around our complicated and obtuse music copyright laws--or simply induce the planet's self-destruction and take the music. Apparently, human music is pure bliss to the rest of the universe, but our laws proportionately obnoxious. Hodgman keeps provides a good vocal momentum for the prose, and he shines in the character voices. He adds just the right amount of personality to these intergalactic characters. Without overdoing it, his deadpan exaggeration makes this an amusing production. L.E. © AudioFile 2012, Portland, Maine

May 7, 2012
Internet innovator Reid (Listen.com) makes his sci-fi debut in a shaky but funny sendup of the music industry and the lawyers who feed off it. Aliens love music, but are dreadfully untalented. When they discover human music, they’re ecstatic, until they realize they’re on the hook for millions in licensing fees. Their natural plan is to destroy the Earth, but some aliens decide to recruit music lawyer Nick Carter (not the Backstreet Boy) to arrange licenses and avoid disaster. His sexy folk singer/paralegal neighbor, Manda, and his boss, Judy, also get pulled into their misadventures, which are filled with footnotes and musical references galore. Much of the satire is sharp, although how much longevity it has is debatable (sequences making fun of Microsoft Office, AT&T’s lack of coverage, and Foursquare already feel obsolete). Still, anyone frustrated by the labyrinthine and often Machiavellian machinations of the RIAA and similar groups will get plenty of laughs, and the comedy more than covers for the relatively thin characters. Agent: Alice Martell, the Martell Agency.