Nine Inch Nails : The Slip
 

I will change the artwork when I get a 400 x 400 pic of the artwork.

The album can be downloaded for free from the official NIN site:
nine inch nails: the slip

I only got hold of it yesterday but it got three plays at work as I was impressed. Their best work for a while. Review from myself in a couple of days.

I'd rate it as average. Its a bit of a dissapointment, just not as good as previous works. The first 3 tracks do nothing at all for me and the album doesn't really kick it until the 4th track. But hey then again the album was free so i shouldnt comlplain too much.

I'm going to listen now. I guess I'll be the first to start the in rainbows comparison/discussion. While waiting for this to download I read through some reviews, seems like more of an album for fans then first time NINers. I'm hearing alot of "Well its the best you can expect since its free" type comments that I never heard about In Rainbows (I'm aware you could pay but for the sake of discussion lets say it was free.) But on the other hand I'm also hearing its freeness as a cause for the music being better...Which I find kind of interesting. I guess all those it could've been a bad album and had the same effect type comments weren't as true as everyone thought. Maybe its just a simple case of Radiohead being much more relevant than NIN but I think if this the future route of music its going to call for a slight step up in quality to avoid the free stigma or maybe on the other side of things it will be cause for a step-down in quality because bands think they can get away with it.

I've never liked Trent Reznor's voice, particularly when he does that whisper over mellow music (Lights in the Sky) type thing. Some of these songs seem fairly repetitive to me but the percussion is pretty nice. I don't care for the production though, I'm voting Poor.

I will personally disregard the fact that the album is free and judge the album as an official paid for release. I think the general consensus amongst fans is that no matter how good Trent Reznor is a songwriter, vocally he is not the best. The track HURT addressed this somewhat until Jonny Cash's superlative version knocked this down a peg or two. However this should not distract from what is a fairly good NIN release.

Echoplex has a monotonous, spiky quality that has Joy Division written all over it and Letting You is a typical NIN chunky riff played over a repetitive drum pattern that echoes their early work. There are similarities with their debut Pretty Hate Machine on here minus the bleeps and squelches of a keyboard, which is no bad thing at all. Despite all the external noises and F/X that NIN sometimes bury themselves under, the fact stands that Reznor can write catchy accessible hooks and melodies that would not out of place on some pop albums.

What seperates Reznor from pop banality (ignoring the distorted adornments for a while) is the ability to write atmospheric and mournful tracks that still fit into an easy song structure.

The Four Of Us Are Dying carries itself on a simple drum loop/bass line and yet it manages to build atmosphere and album closer Demon Seed uses an off kilter drum pattern coupled with the lazy NIN riff we all love. A simple bass line appears a minute in and adds to the tracks simplicity yet charges the complexity of the song.

I personally think this is better than their official release Year Zero and although it will not win points for originality these days it is still comprehensively a solid NIN album.

I like the album a lot, but it doesn't touch any of stuff on Broken/Downward Spiral/Fragile. So far I'm more partial to the 2nd half of the album, in particular songs 5-10.

As a NIN fan, I like it a helluva lot more when Trent stays away from the super electronic drum loops. The stuff on Downward Spiral probably had the best percussion since he had Stephen Perkins do loops for him on a real drum set.

However, I love the production on everything else in the album. My personal favorites are probably Demon Seed, Letting You, and The Four Of Us Are Dying

It was pretty much average and just not new or exciting...it's like "With Teeth" all over again.

better than Year Zero, and possibly better than With Teeth.

I'm seeing NIN at a festival in a couple of months. I have no idea what to expect, because I'm not really a fan. No doubt they'll play a lot of their new stuff, and from what I've read on this, shouldn't be too bad...

Expect a few classics and lots of broken equipment. NIN are great live :D

one of the greatest bands in the world

i love everything that nin does