Nine Inch Nails – The Slip Review

Posted by Ben Czajkowski on 07.22.2008

Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails stunned the music world (again) on May 5, 2008, when it was announced that The Slip was available to download. For free. However, is he—is he tough enough, or is Reznor wearing down, down, down, down, down. The results may shock you into a vegetative state.

First of all, many of you might be wondering, “Wait, this album is free? Where can I pick it up?” The answer to that: head on over to http://dl.nin.com/theslip/signup. You need to enter a valid email address, however, so don’t enter “[e-mail]”! There are also various formats to appease all you audiophiles out there. And I suspect there are many of you.

Here’s the track listing that will by the syllibus for this album review:

1. 999,999
2. 1,000,000
3. Letting You
4. Discipline
5. Echoplex
6. Head Down
7. Lights in the Sky
8. Corona Radiata
9. The Four Of Us Are Dying
10. Demon Seed

Length: 43:45

The Slip is licensed under a creative commons attribution non-commercial share alike license. So, use it in wherever after you pick it up: podcasts, blogs, remixes, etc. Sweet deal. According to the NIN website, this “one” is on Reznor. Works for me.

However, is this download worth it? Let’s take a look.

Throughout this 45 minutes of brand-spanking-new NIN, you’re going to find a lot of sounds that are very reminiscent of With Teeth and Year Zero. There are many of the same riffs and electronic loops, similar lyrics, and definitely many of the themes from Year Zero. Is this a bad thing? Depends on what you want in a Nine Inch Nails album. I find a follow-up to The Slip's predecessor, not comforting, but satisfying.

This is, by far, nothing like The Fragile. Reznor and company have moved away from giving us that almost-grunge, industrial feeling to a more electronic and eclectic, garbled instrumental, mixed with lyrics that discuss revolution, conformity, submission and death. Sounds like my last relationship.

Morbid.

That’s what we should feel. How could you not? Example: The first “real” track contains the lyrics: “Blow my fucking brains out/pretty patterns/on the floor.../I jump from every roof top/so high/so far to fall/I feel a million miles away/I don’t feel anything at all.”

Immediately, the tracks that are going to stand out are “1,000,000”, “Discipline”, “Head Down”, “Lights In The Sky”, and “Demon Seed.” These are the charged, pumped, polished pieces that are going to pleasure your ear holes. They are going to dazzle you with Reznor’s lyrics, range, and experience in knowing how to present his work for the listener. These are, for lack of a better description, at this moment, the tracks that are going to potentially make it to radio.

Let that not distract you from tracks like “Letting You,” which, if played live, is just going to rip a room apart. At no point, on this CD, is the energy higher than during this song. And I say that, sadly; not really as a compliment for The Slip. When this track ends, this album has reached its energy epitome only three tracks in. “Discipline” levels off the potency built up, almost mockingly so of the power that “Letting You” delivers. You’ll feel what I mean; trust me. And as that bleeds into “Echoplex”, you’re moving into territory of the middle half of Year Zero, where tracks are more mellow and reminiscent of what Trent has brought us int he past.

“I need your discipline/I need your help/You know once I start/I cannot help myself.” The chorus for “Discipline.” This track beautifully blends Josh Freese’s drum work and a few layers of electronic work with a pretty piano piece throughout the song. It gives off the same strength as the single “Only”. And, like “Only,” “Discipline” does not reach above that mediocre level. It does nothing special to set it apart from the rest of the NIN catalog. Yes, it works as a single, but it’s also so...mainstream.

Unless you look at the music video, of course. Then it’s just hilarious. While, I have no confirmation on whether or not this album is a follow-up to the Year Zero themes, the video points in the direction that it does. As do many of the song lyrics on The Slip. “Heads Down” speaks, “And this is not my face, and this is not my life, and there is not a single thing here that I can recognize, and this is all a dream, and none of you are real.” I found myself recalling “The Matrix” trilogy, oddly enough; however, it is also, I found, a huge callback to “The Great Destroyer”, not only in the lyrics, but also in the ending instrumentals. Both are very similar, and I wouldn’t put it past Reznor if he just copy/pasted and adjusted from there. I bet someone on the NIN remix site remixes them. I know i would.

As many of you know, every NIN album has a pretty piano piece with depressing lyrics. This album is no exception. You find that in “The Lights In the Sky,” picks right up from Year Zero's "In This Twilight". Yeah, but you're dying, in the song, so, not much consolation there. "Watching you drown/I follow you down/I am here/right beside you/The lights in the sky/have finally arrived/I am staying right beside you."

When you make it to “Corona Radiata” and “The Four Of Us Are Dying,” you into for 11+ minutes of instrumental. I found the latter music more pleasing on the ears: better mixed, better sounds, and just all-together a stronger non-vocal work, for this album. “Corona” is more than 7 minutes long, and a track of this...caliber (definitely sarcasm) would have been better off as a two minute piece, in my humble opinion. I find this to be the only track skip-worthy, when listening all the way through. It doesn’t really pick up until the end, and that part is the perfect segue into “The Four Of Us Are Dying.” This piece is just darkly beautiful, with string work that sounds like it could almost be vocals. As I listened, I shut my eyes, and I pretended Reznor was crooning something foreboding to me, about death and the end of the world.

“Demon Seed” caps the CD on a high note after the instrumentals fell into an extended low point that lasted for more than 1/4 of the album. “It keeps growing/and I can feel it breathe/I have been trying to behave myself.” This track is very lyrically repetitive, and also destructive. This song finishes the new disc on the note that it should end on: somber, choleric, forewarning of the impending destruction.

So, to answer my question: "Is Reznor wearing down?" I say, No. Nine Inch Nails is still running strong. However, I don't see this "Year Zero" theme running into any more albums. I will be glad when the band starts putting out tracks like "All The Love In The World" and "Right Where It Belongs." For a potentially free album, I can't complain.

The 411: The bottom line is if you liked the previous two Nine Inch Nails CDs, you’re going to love The Slip. For a free album, Reznor and company makes it worth your while, continuing with the same themes and musical overtones new listeners are familiar with and old ones have grown accustomed to. As a listener, and a fan, you will be happy that Reznor isn’t waiting five years to deliver this to the public. It’s not going to reinvent the wheel, but Halo 27 adds another thumbs up the NIN catalog.

Final Score:  8.5   [ Very Good ]