Reznor, literally, is the leading man and front-runner for the evolution of today’s music industry.  He is the one that the labels and businessmen should look up to, following his example.  It began with Radiohead, when they released Rainbows online for free, allowing fans to pay whatever they wanted for the album.  This was the first time it was ever done, scaring the shit out of the industry.  It was a success for them, but at the same time it should have been better.  The majority of the fans got the album for free, a very minor percentage of them actually paid for it.  If you think about it, it’s not really that different from normal albums.  A big chunk of the music audience today steals all their music instead of paying for it.  But then again, times are changing, and each day, music comes one step closer to being completely free.

  

Reznor took the Radiohead idea and fixed it.  Practically the second he left Interscope, he began work on the album Ghosts which was a four disc instrumental experiment.  I didn’t review that album for a reason.  In a sense, it wasn’t even an album, only an experiment.  He expanded the Radiohead idea by letting fans download the first nine tracks for free, while only having  to pay $5 for the entire thing.  You could then pay 10$ for a two-cd digipack, 75$ for the deluxe edition (two audio cds, one data dvd including every song on the album in multitrack form, and a blu-ray disc of every song in high-def stereo with accompanying slideshow), or 300$ for a limited edition deluxe package with a everything included in the deluxe edition plus a huge booklet signed by Reznor and a very extravagant box.  The 300$ limited edition packages sold out within 24 hours; he had 2500 of them.  Since he was no longer on a label, he made 750,000$ within 24 hours on the limited editions alone.  It’s estimated he made around 1.6$ million in the first week.  Keep in mind, all this money goes straight to him, it’s not being filtered through a label.  It was genius!  

Keep in mind that Ghosts was released on March 2, 2008.  Only two months later, Reznor releases The Slip on May 5, 2008 for free.  Fans didn’t even have the option this time to pay whatever they wanted.  He made it a point to give it away.  He even gave a message on the Nine Inch Nails website saying “thank you for your continued and loyal support over the years – this one’s on me.”  It almost brought a tear to my eye!

The reason why, before With Teeth, Reznor only put out an album just about every 5 years, was because he worked his ass off on them (and possibly because he was on a lot of drugs).  Pretty Hate Machine came out in 1989, Broken in 1992 (some of his best work, but only a six-song EP), The Downward Sprial in 1994, and The Fragile in 1999.  So if you only go by full-lengths, there was a five year gap between each.  With Teeth came in 2005 as did a new, fully sober Reznor.

I said in my Year Zero review that Reznor was writing like crazy now that he’s sober. And I was proven 100% correct in the following year. It has reached a ridiculous point now. With Teeth in 2005, Year Zero in April 2007, Year Zero Remixes in November 2007, Ghosts in March 2oo8, and now The Slip in May 2008. I haven’t even finished listening to Ghosts!  Trent, I think you’re fucking amazing, but slow down. I think this may be it, though. He’s worked his ass off these past three years, and The Slip is his “thank you” and his appreciation for his fans’ devotion. 

With that said, I was a little disappointed by the album, but at the same time, I feel like I don’t have the right to be. He gave me something I didn’t even ask for, but knew that I wanted. So, I feel bad that I am only giving the album a 3 out of 5, but I feel I have to be honest and not be biased towards my undying idolization of Reznor.  The album is good.  But only good.  I was psyched to learn that he put out yet another album, but was hoping for a little more considering the man behind it.  Nine Inch Nails has always been the band to make their music sound like there are nearly a hundred separate tracks involved in a single song.  If you listen to The Fragile, you’ll notice that nearly each track builds and builds into its own individual masterpiece, encompassing what sounds like dozens of different tracks layered up each other and separated to give its epic feel.  But, I’m not expecting another Fragile anytime soon, or ever.  That is something that can never be replicated.  

The Slip sounds like songs he started writing but never finished.  As if he was only halfway done with the ProTools session and decided, “fuck it, I’ll just put it out.”  I’m sure thousands, if not millions, of people will download this album and many will love it simply because its another NIN album.  The songs are much more simple than usual, all of them having pretty much the same drum sample on a constant loop.   On the other hand, I was wanting a little more than what was given.  The album is only ten tracks, three of which are instrumental.  Trent, you just gave us 36 instrumental tracks two months ago.  We want your lyrics now!  

The reason I believe this sounds more sub-par than usual is because he doesn’t need anyone to tell him what to change in the songs and what not to (i.e. no more A&R label people).  Therefore, everything you hear from Nine Inch Nails now comes straight from Reznor without a filter.  This shows that A&R people at a label can either be the creative artist’s friend, or worst enemy.  They are the ones that say “hey, you need more vocals on this track” or “there needs to be a break after the second chorus, it calls for it.”  But at the same time, some of them are douchebags and say “I’m not going to put this out because it won’t do well on radio.  You need the chorus to be more catchy and you need to change the lyrics,” as if they were the artists themselves!  So, they can either be smart, helpful assistant types to the artists (which they fucking should be) or they can be power-tripping executives concentrated on radio-play and money.  Music like NIN, though it makes a shitload of money, is not about the dollar sign.  It’s about Trent’s art.  The fact that now he can release whatever he wants without an A&R rep to give him suggestions is both good and bad.  Good, in a sense that it’s Reznor, so you finally get to hear exactly what he wants you to hear, not what he’s edited in compliance with a label. Bad, because if the artist has the freedom to do this, they can be a little over-zealous and release something the moment its recorded, even if it still needs more work and they don’t realize it at first.  I can’t tell you how many times I’ve edited and mastered music myself, thinking it was good to go and perfect for release, only to find about two or three days later that there were a dozen more things I needed to change.

I’m not saying that Reznor didn’t spend any time on this album and just released it after only a couple of edits.  I’m sure he may have pulled all-night sessions on editing and mixing.  I just feel that some of these songs needed more time.  For instance, the song “Lights in the Sky” is a very simple song comprised of just Trent and his piano (almost like an acoustic “Hurt”).  I’m sure it would be an amazing song with deep meaning and poetic lyrics, if I could fucking hear it!  The volume on this song is far too low, and you can barely make out Trent’s vocals over the lightly played piano.  The vocals are my biggest peeve about this album.  They are too low on too many songs, you have to stop what you are doing and really concentrate if you want to make out the words.  Trent hasn’t been known to be the greatest singer, but rather a great lyricist.  His older stuff seems a little cheesy now, but at the time they were far beyond anything else going on.  Even on With Teeth and Year Zero he has great lyrics that young, fat gothic girls will be quoting for years.  On this album, your best bet is to look up the lyrics online.  

All in all, the songs are too basic to have come from Trent, and the mixing seems unfinished.  The fact that it’s only 10 tracks is also odd.  Since three of them are instrumental, it’s like you really only get 7.  Since it’s free, I feel that it would have worked better if he had released a 5 or 6 song EP instead of this.  Don’t get me wrong, I greatly appreciate Trent giving this for free.  Especially with his note, which seemed like he was speaking directly to me in an email.  So, once again, I feel bad for giving this the lowest review I’ve ever given to a NIN album, but I feel that reviewing it musically I have to be honest.  It was a great gift from Trent, I admire him even more now than I ever have, but he has put his bar of perfection so high that this, though still a good album, is just not up to standard by any means.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luslE8vH1BI]