Sleeping Under The Subwoofer

Nine Inch Nails Fan? New Album —–> http://theslip.nin.com/

Thanks to Trent Reznor’s hatred for major record labels, he’s making his new album (The Slip) available for free via the internet. And I, being a sucker for free music, have already abused the privilege to download it with actually permission from the artist. He’s pretty well asking you to take it, do whatever the hell you feel with it and throw it around at the next house party you stumble upon. I’d like to hear what other people do to this album. especially “Corona Radiata” and “The Four OF Us Are Dying“. The Slip is everything I’ve come to expect from the Nine Inch Nails as of late. I didn’t mind it but there’s only a handful of songs that I’ll end up listening to more than twice. at this point I’ve only really heard it all once, but why not decide how i feel about it before i really give it a chance?

I just wanna state that I have no album listening rituals. I’ve never bothered to make a set of rules for listening to my music that I know I’ll never keep up.
So
I’m on my living room computer, which isn’t to say that I have more than one computer just that the one I own happens to be in the living room. Ive just discovered that iTunes is my default player and that albums like these always fade in. I’m willing to bet that, without failure, the next three albums that Trent Reznor, Radiohead and Tool albums fade in. Meanwhile “999,999″ has managed to drift me off into a mood perfect for listening to NIN. although the lights are still on, I’m in a pretty good mood and I’m not adding on a second coat of black nail polish. These are things that I always end up associating with the Nine Inch Nails whether I want to or not.

“1,000,000″ is bound to be the first single. I say this hoping that it really is because Mr. Reznor has already sent out the single to pretty well every station out there in radioland. I like it, and i really dig the next track “Letting You”. Ive been told that Robin Finck (guitarist for The Downward Spiral and Fragile) appears on this album as well, but I don’t think I’d ever bee able to tell the difference between him and some other joker.

Ive now made my way into “Disciple” which means we’ve heard three pretty enjoyable tunes in a row.
(This sounds like The Downward Spiral hooked up with Thriller.)
Roughly midway through it becomes a complete pop opera but slowly(!) builds itself up to a well thought out Trent Reznor car commercial. at least thats all I can picture and if you’ve read this before listening to it, my guess is that its all you see as well. ends pretty abruptly though.

All throughout “Echoplex” the guitar is pretty sloppy. the solo seems really out of place and wierd. at this point I feel that i should like this man, but it isn’t until i listen to “Head Down” that I’m sure he’s my kinda guy. his tone makes it sound like the guitar is digging itself out from it’s own grave. Zombies with rock n roll on the brain socket.

(I think that The killers may have stolen an unfinished copy and re-wrote the chorus to every song on this album. Just a thought)

i could do without this piano ballad. the interesting part is that if a friend of mine had shown this to me and said “this is my brother, man” i’d probably have had a different reaction to it. sounds like a great demo for a new nin tune. Seems to be a common theme with certain parts of this album.

“Corona Radiata” and “The Four Of Us Are Dying” are pretty slow going, but don’t worry. You’ve been well prepared for this for the last 3 minutes. just ambience really. IT reallay one of those songs that make you go “oh, its still on. I figured we’d moved on by now”. it comes alive for a moment toward the end but dies back down again. both of these tracks have a sound and groove that seems to be the skeleton of a more superior song. I’ll probably only let these songs through the cracks to listen to while i read.

the end to all of these songs sound like their leading into a sweet song right after but it doesnt ever seem to be the song that appears next on the album. seems like this could be a frankenstein of musical interludes and ideas. I hear he spends all his spair time at his recording studio…and marineland. i guess I’ll just never understand Trent Reznor

I’m really diggin“Demon Seed”. it grooves like “Disciple” but as if “Disciple” was wippin’ down the highway, breaking 180 and maxin’ out the volume nob to White Zombie.

Give it a chance. I liked most of it. like every other NIN album, post track four of The Fragile, its got a lot of ups and downs, but we all have ipods now so picking and choosing isnt that hard.

If I had to rate it I’d give it a solid 7/10