It’s nice to see an artist put his money where his mouth his. In 2007, shortly after the release of his album “Year Zero,” Nine Inch Nails’ mastermind Trent Reznor declared that he was done and disgusted with record labels—apparently, the inflated price of his albums in Australia was the tipping point. One year and an acrimonious split from Interscope later, Reznor has lived up to his ideals: with very little fanfare, the new Nine Inch Nails album, “The Slip,” was made available for free download from the NIN website on May 5, released by Reznor’s own Null Corporation label.
If you’re feeling some déjà vu, it’s probably thanks to Radiohead, who made headlines and history last fall by releasing its latest album, “In Rainbows,” online, similarly out of nowhere, with a “pay what you want” pricing system that went down to $0. Reznor has taken this formula and improved it, offering superior quality downloads to Radiohead’s lackluster 160 kbps.
A release stunt can only take an album as far as getting attention, so it’s lucky that “The Slip” is also one of NIN’s strongest releases. Avoiding the pitfalls of “Year Zero” and 1999’s “The Fragile” (too long), as well as 2005’s “With Teeth” (great second side, but front-loaded with crap), it’s nice to see how Reznor has matured on this release: he no longer feels the need to rely on creepy noises to shock (see “The Downward Spiral”), or gimmicks about the end of the world (“Year Zero’s” magnanimous “hand of god” imagery). “The Slip” may very well be a continuation of the loose story told by “Year Zero,” but it’s too vague to gauge this from listening to the songs. It would seem that Reznor is finally content to let his music stand on its own, without gimmicks or hype.
Sound-wise, Nine Inch Nails is as tight as ever, with seven of “The Slip’s” ten tracks presented as pummeling industrial-rock. Thankfully, Reznor’s lyrics aren’t as mired in teen angst as they used to be; he’s more preoccupied with some unspecific form of social protest now. When he screams, “We’re letting them get away with it!” on “Letting You,” he could be pointing the finger at Bush, Interscope, an imaginary demon; the list goes on, and it doesn’t really matter, as the lyrics this time around mostly give way to screeching, digital noise and pounding drums. “Discipline,” the album’s first single, finds Reznor slipping into a void over a surprisingly groovy beat, punctuated by legato piano phrases that have become a NIN trademark. To paraphrase Emma Goldman, don’t give him the decline of society if he can’t dance to it.
“1,000,000,” appearing appropriately after the ambient introduction “999,999,” is another highlight, taking NIN’s traditional buzz-saw guitars and crafting a song with leaner instrumentation, while Reznor’s vocals echo back on the listener. At the opposite end of the spectrum is “Corona Radiata,” a drawn-out piece of airy tones and texture, which evokes “Ghosts I-IV,” the four-disc collection of dark ambient instrumentals that NIN released two months ago (2008 has been a prolific year). Coupled with the slow, acidic follow-up, “The Four Of Us Are Dying,” “Corona” is a brief downtime before the album’s conclusion, “Demon Seed.” Over a repetitive, distorted guitar-and-drums backdrop, Reznor repeatedly declares, “Now I know/exactly what I am,” before “The Slip” ends abruptly, with no fade out.
When Reznor first announced his intentions to leave the major-label world, it was the climax of a career filled with bad blood in the label department. But as “The Slip” demonstrates, the new Nine Inch Nails will do what it damn well pleases, and, more importantly, do it well.
3.5/5 stars