Comments on: Nine Inch Nails—Ghosts I-IV in Review

By: Proj

Proj — Tue, 11 Mar 2008 00:31:45 +0000

Arsalan: I suppose we will have to agree to disagree. Though the self-indulgent finger pointing of With Teeth grew tiresome after a while it was hardly worse than most artists out there. As far as Year Zero goes, that was by far my favorite Nails album so far. You just have to keep in mind the context in which it was written. It’s a concept album, which are usually utter garbage, but this one wasn’t. There is so much texture in that album that creates an engaging tapestry of sound that you can’t find in mainstream music. The lyrics along with the music tell a cohesive story without sounding completely derivative, for me that speaks volumes.

I am a little surprised that everyone seems to prefer the drug-addled Trent to the clean and sober Trent of today. Nine Inch Nails has become more coherent, each song has a purpose and hits it’s mark. This is compared to say Downward Spiral which is a phenomenal album, but felt more like half of two albums mashed together for the sake of getting paid. When it hits track 10 it feels like something entirely different. I’m not saying that either half is better, personally I just lose interest in listening when that dynamic change up hits.

You mustn’t have entirely grasped what these Ghost albums are really about if you think that this is a sign of their “maturing gracefully”, these tracks are a culmination of a huge library of unused material that has been reworked and packaged for your consumption. I suspect we’ll see a lot more of these in the future along with the more tried and true Nails albums full of the dark screaming spiteful lyrics that I love.

By: Arsalan

Arsalan — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 23:33:30 +0000

I just realized the reviewer thinks Trent’s lyrics are “poignant”. If there’s any weakness Trent has it’s his lyrics, which have lately been quite terrible, especially since he got over his depression and addiction.

I have a suggestion for Reznor: for your next project, find a gifted singer and lyricist from the vaguely metal genre (or Tori Amos!!) to collaborate with. Your music is certainly brilliant, but your singing has been unappealing to many potential fans and your lyrics have recently lost many of your old ones.

It would help you move forward musically.

By: Arsalan

Arsalan — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 23:28:19 +0000

I’ve been a NIN fan for years, despite the embarrassing With Teeth/Year Zero epoch. This record is Trent en forme as he was during Spiral, Fragile, and Still. It’s such a great pleasure seeing an artist mature gracefully over the years. I encourage everyone to download the full album.

By: Proj

Proj — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 14:53:38 +0000

I will agree that the whole “Fragile” period marked a change in the tone of NIN’s music. I tend to disregard that period a little though, mostly because I was expecting something harsher from that album so I just didn’t listen to it all that much. I suppose I should pop that back in one of these day, it’s just a little hard since NIN has been making music that is so much better than that since then.

By: Pepper Messiah

Pepper Messiah — Thu, 06 Mar 2008 10:58:47 +0000

I’ve been listening to this nonstop since Tuesday morning. I thought IV had some Fragile riffs in them.

The first idication of this gentle, mature, seething NIN was on their limited edition Still EP (Halo 17 – CD2).

I now have to dust off my Bowie’s Low and Heroes, and Eno’s Music for Airports.