Tuesday, May 06, 2008

"The Slip."

Yesterday I mentioned you could grab the new Nine Inch Nails album, The Slip, for free. Chad created a much better write-up about the release, which I encourage you to read here.

Even better, The Slip is the shit. It has a old-school NIN feel about it, kicked off the by lead single "Discipline," which has an almost Pretty Hate Machine vibe to it. But what stood out to me the most about this album was the grand finale.

After kicking things off with six more traditional NIN rockers, we reach "Lights in the Sky," a somber, piano-driven song that shifts the tone of the album. Instead of then shifting back to the harder stuff, though, we then reach "Corona Radiata," a lengthy, trippy soundscape, which is followed by another instrumental track, "The Four of Us are Dying," which feels like one of the tracks from Ghosts. Then, finally, we are confronted with the breakbeat-style march of "Demon Seed," which closes the album.

Now, the four songs that close The Slip aren't the best NIN songs I've ever heard by any means, but they are incredibly enjoyable for the subtext. To me what these songs communicate is that Trent Reznor is no longer making music for record companies (who would probably object, conceptually, to the final sequencing and the general "indulgence," shall I say), but for himself. When I listen to these last four songs, I feel like I'm listening to someone that's really feeling the music they are making and putting it out there with no boundaries. It feels natural, and it's a beautiful thing to hear music like this.

1 Comments:

Blogger Chad said...

Amen, brother.

You've name-dropped all of my favorite tracks (save for "Echoplex," which I also love.)

Great stuff in principle, and just as great in reality.

2:39 PM  

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