May 10, 2008


















np: "Discipline" - Nine Inch Nails


What a great year for Trent Reznor, and more importantly - fans of Trent Reznor. First he gets tons of great publicity for taking the Radiohead album sales concept one step further, creating a tiered pricing structure for the release of his instrumental project, Ghosts I-IV. Then, he releases a brand new album pretty much out of the blue. The tracks "Discipline" and "Echoplex" started floating around, and then, BAM! there was The Slip all ready for NiN fan listening pleasure. The best part? Trent's giving it away, free, in varying qualities of downloadable digital files.

Sounds pretty damn good, right? Trent's always recognized and appreciated his rabid and loyal fanbase, but giving away an entire album for free is a pretty bold step. Maybe he is still feeling giddy from all that cash he cleared from Ghosts.

But is it any good? Fair question. I mean, free must mean a bunch of outtakes and leftover demo crap, right? Don't be so sure. I'm only on my second listen, but I think this may end up being my favorite NiN full-length since The Fragile. Lots of great beats and textures, with quite a few poppy moments, especially on the aforementioned "Discipline" and "Echoplex". There are some noisier tracks, some ambient experiments, and some early 80s synth-pop flourishes, but it all flows together really well. I like to think it has something to do with the return of Robin Finck, always one of my favorite parts of the NiN live experience back in the mid-90s. Head on over to theslip.nin.com and download the album for yourself. Reznor is on a roll.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I really enjoyed your review. It seemed honest and to the point. I really like this album "The Slip" it's so beautiful but yet sad to me. I don't know why it makes me feel that way but I love it as well as loving Trent. I'm still trying to evaluate why a couple of the songs play with my inner thoughs and result in me having deep emotions ( Head Down) for sure. I did not think anything can make me feel this way.
My fav album by him is "with teeth"
I really enjoy Ghost also