Just wondering what people think of the new Nine Inch Nails album; it’s not out yet in most places, but I know many of you must have been listening to the whole thing via the official online stream (or have acquired it in more illicit ways).
Personally, I was impressed and rather pleasantly surprised. With Teeth had lowered my expectations, but this is a real step up. The songs have a “groove” like I didn’t expect, it’s nice to see Trent whining about politics (well, Bush) instead of whining about himself (though the brights spots in this respect are just spots, with his lyrical stylings mostly still kind of embarrassing and full of the usual dark tortured cliches*…), and, dammit if The Warning isn’t catchy as all hell. It’s like the distorted sonic texture wonderfulness of The Fragile wrapped around the punchiness that With Teeth was supposed to deliver. If I had to give it a grade, I’d say B+. There’s a certain “it all sounds the same”-ness to it if you’re not paying much attention, and I couldn’t really call it anything terribly innovative or eye-opening in terms of sound, but it’s quite well done and enjoyable and hits most of the buttons I expect Nine Inch Nails to push. And coming so quickly after the last one with so much improvement makes me really excited for the future.
Like I said, my favorite track’s The Warning, though many are up there. My least favorite is Survivalism, which has a sort of Broken/March of the Pigs vibe, and I never cared for Broken all that much.
Well, that’s my opinion. What about yours?
(*: Also, what is Reznor’s obsession with the phrase “on your knees”? How many songs is that in by now? March of the Pigs, The Hand That Feeds, The Beginning of the End… Closer had “Within my stomach, scraped off my knees”, My Violent Heart has “On hands and knees we crawl”, Capital G has “Now, I’m on my hands and knees”… Seriously, expand your repertoire, man.)
I really love this album, even though I have to admit I’m starting to get sick of it, but only because I’ve listened to it twice a day for the past week and a half. My favorites are In This Twilight, Zero-Sum and The Good Soldier.
Well, I guess we’re the only two NIN fans on this board. Still, now that the CD is actually out most places, I suppose I’ll optimistically bump this thread.
I’ve been out of touch with NIN for the last few years. I was an obsessive fan for many a year. This was recommended to me by Amazon the other day but they didn’t have the soundfiles up yet so thanks for the streaming link.
Maybe he’s been a naughty boy and wants some discipline. mrowl
I’m a hardcore NIN fan since PHM. Spiral member, all halos, etc… I picked up Year Zero first thing Tuesday morning and the fact that I’ve only listened to it 2X since then is not a good sign. I thought Survivalism was all right, and given NIN’s history of releasing 1st singles that aren’t necessarily indicative of the rest of the album (March of the Pics, TDTWWA) I had hoped that the rest of the album would surpass it. Unfortunately, Survivalism so far appears to be one of the few highlights.
For one, I think it has too many instrumentals. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll take a NIN instrumental over anyone else’s in a flash and in moderation they can enhance an album. “A Warm Place” worked perfectly within The Downward Spiral. But too many and they start to slow the album down. I’ll listen to them now because it’s new NIN music, but I can already start to feel myself impatiently wanting to skip past them to get to a song with lyrics.
And so far, the lyrics don’t seem that great. I think it has to do with this being his first “concept album”. The lyrics are too expository. It feels like the song is an afterthought to the story he’s trying to tell and may not stand well on their own.
And that moment when he yells out, “I am the Great Destroyeeeerrrr” (you know the one) is the first time I’ve been embarrassed to be a NIN fan. There is no way I can defend that.
That said, I’ve only listened to it twice and I liked it more the second time than the first, so by this time next week maybe I’ll love it thoroughly. But by my second listen of With Teeth, I had at least a couple new favorite NIN songs. So far from Year Zero there are, well, “Zero”.
Though I listen with a breadth and to a calibre of music that should cause me to be an anti-NIN snob [please don’t take that the wrong way], I’ve always had a soft spot for Trent and his music. I haven’t listened to the new record yet, but I intend to ASAP. I’ll probably even buy it rather than just downloading it, because they always do great stuff with the packaging and presentation.
I do think that he’s completely lost it, though (relevance and creativity, that is). With Teeth was an embarrassment, a wholly mediocre collection of quite simply subpar, immediately forgettable chaff. The songs were weak, stupid, and (most offensively) sonically boring and conservative.
I’ve heard better things about the new one, and the one song I heard (“my violent heart”) had some cool stuff going on with the production. I really don’t have much hope for Trent '07, though, just like I don’t have much hope for Corgan '07 (and Zeitgeist is probably my most anticipated record of the year).
I think that the main problem with those two guys - and perhaps Manson to a lesser extent, though he never burned as bright - is that they made their best records at a time in music history when their stuff could and would be top-40, and even top-10 material, and that time has quite simply passed. Corgan in particular has never gotten over this; when the band released Adore in '98 and it “only” went gold the first week instead of double-platinum, he went on a tirade and accused the fanbase of “abandoning” the band. Once these guys got a taste of that level of fame, it was like pandora’s box; they’ll be forever trying to recapture it at whatever the cost, regardless of whatever artistic sacrifices they have to make. With Teeth was the epitome of that attitude at work, with safe and conservative “top-40 metal” attempts at heaviness and wrath.
I think that Trent’s last genius moment was “The Perfect Drug” - it really showed NIN evolving both sonically and conceptually in a direction that they quite frankly should have continued in.
I like the album so far, but still haven’t gotten into it the way that I hoped I would. There are several tracks that I really like (“Me, I’m Not”, in particular, especially the end noise solo) and several that haven’t really hit me. I did throw it in while I was in the car earlier today and the tracks I listened to rocked, so maybe I just need a little more time.
I mostly agree with your assessment of With Teeth and The Perfect Drug, and, well, everything else. I was also pretty much expecting nothing much from Year Zero. (In fact, it was my feelings on My Violent Heart, when it was released a while ago, that made me first timidly hopeful.) But when I actually heard the album, I was bowled over, not with creative genius, which may be a lost cause, but with the simple competence of it. It was enjoyable again, as opposed to With Teeth. Like I said, it hit all the buttons I wanted as an old NIN fan, albeit at the cost of doing little sonically new. So, perhaps you’ll find it the same way.
I think NIN is great, and this album will be the first CD I’ve bought for a long time.
NIN has done some damn innovative gimmicks/marketing with this album. The CD starts off black, and turns white when it’s exposed to the heat of your CD player. There’s a hidden binary message that when translated takes you to http://www.exterminal.net.
I also read that 50 people were invited to a meeting of some NIN-related club, and were actually treated to a NIN show. 50 freaking people, I’d kill (ok not literally) to see NIN in a small venue.
