I haven’t had a chance to listen to this one yet, but I think you’d be hard pressed to find an album worse than With Teeth (in fact, I was pretty much ready to write them off after that one). The Fragile has an album’s worth of material on it; shame about the extra disc it was printed on.
If you want to understand why people like NIN, you should listen to Pretty Hate Machine, Broken and The Downward Spiral.
Hm. Well. I’m on the road right now, so I’ll wait to download until I get home and can put it on my own computer (as opposed to the company-issued craptop).
But I wanted to make an observation. Similar to the music editor at Salon.com giving the new Portishead album (Third) a “meh” review, I think calling NIN watered-down industrial is sort of misleading.
I’ve seen NIN twice and it is always a kick-ass, impressive show. I love seeing this band live, regardless of whomever Reznor has playing with him in the line up.
(I’m getting to my point, bear with me.) There’s this local music writer here in my lovely town whose writing I despise. I know more about her and her personal tastes than I learn from her about music. However. She does one thing really well that I don’t do well at all. She can describe a song, an album, or a band without comparing it to another song, album, or band. She possesses the ability to evaluate a piece of music or a collection of works, on its own, just as it is. And she can describe it well so you can decide for yourself if you want to buy/download or whatever.
So, for me, comparing NIN to Front 242 or Skinny Puppy, or comparing this song to that song, or saying that NIN doesn’t cleanly or squarely fit exactly into your idea of what constitutes a given genre, IMHO, sells the music short. (I’ve arrived at my point.) Comparing Pretty Hate Machine against With Teeth, for example… is a lot like comparing apples to oranges. NIN has evolved over the band’s history. I see a journey from PHM, to Broken, to The Downward Spiral, to The Fragile, to With Teeth, to Year Zero… Each album is very different from the last. For me, each release serves a different purpose. Even aWitha Teetha fills a certain need when I’m in certain moods. I’ve said this about Led Zepplin and Tool and I’ll say it about NIN: there is a NIN song for any occasion, mood, or event. Typically, Reznor takes the tracks from the last album and reworks and remixes them and releases several other EPs each containing different interpretations of the ideas presented in the last release. This gives you even more options for deciding how you want to experience the music. Pissed off? Listen to Broken. Melancholy? Listen to The Downward Spiral. Bored on a plane? Ghosts is a nice choice…
Some NIN albums I listen to more than others. For example, for quite a while I basically ignored The Downward Spiral. When With Teeth came out, I went back to it. I’ve barely given Year Zero two thorough listens. I’ve only gotten about 1/3 of the way through Ghosts. It was really enjoyable on my recent flights though, as the background plane sounds really meshed well with the songs.
So I’m looking forward to The Slip, mostly because it will represent another step in Reznor’s journey. I do not plan to compare it to aWitha aTeetha (that’s the way he sings the titular words, makes me giggle). I plan to evaluate it on it’s own, as a stand-alone piece of art.
So put that in your pipe and smoke it.
I have no problem with sneering at NIN. But to use Ministry and Front 242 as counter-examples? Ministry is shallower and sometimes as poppy as NIN. Front 242 is practically a synthpop band whose (relative) popularity has always confused me. To say “oh, you MTV kids with your NIN… listen to some REAL industrial like Front 242” is laughably absurd to me.
I heartily admit using Front 242 as an example was a mistake. They’re more hard-core techno. Ministry’s “Twich” I’ll stand by, and I’d like you to name anything they did later that was “pop.” If you’re going to use quotes, quote something I actually said, though.
Reviving this not-so-ancient thread to see if anyone else has listened to the album yet.
I downloaded it a few weeks ago and have been trying to play it every now and then see if it grows on me. It hasn’t. This seems like the point of Trent Reznor’s career where he’s pulling a George Lucas “I’ve earned the right to make shitty work for the rest of my life” with the past 3 albums or so.
Just slipping to to praise Godflesh, Nitzer Ebb and KMFDM since we’re doing an industrial thread.
Haven’t listened to the new album yet. Not sure I’ve downloaded it, need to check my Incoming MP3 directory at home.
You know, the funny thing about free music, it makes me less eager to get it.