Allow me one trite cliché: the best things in life are free. That's how the saying goes, but often enough we can blow that logic to pieces with the knowledge that cash is not the only thing we expend to get what we want. In the case of Nine Inch Nails (hereafter referred to as NiN in this article for the sake of space), if you want to give their 8th studio album a listen you'll need to visit their website (http://theslip.nin.com), sign up your e-mail address and then download the sucker in the format of your choice, ranging from ultra-high quality to standard iPod-ready mp3's playable on your computer. I fell for the offer about a week ago and still haven't received any junk mail, so I feel confident spreading the word.nnWhat about the album, though? Does it live up to expectations or merely prove why Trent Reznor, the dark audile genius (and sole ruler) of NiN, chose to give the album away free? We'll get to that, but let's take a tour first, shall we? Our journey through the blackened apocalyptic wasteland of Reznor's artistic reality begins with a 6 digit number.nn999,999 begins The Slip instrumentally. That's six 9's - get it? We're slide through that track into a number one digit higher: 1,000,000. Now we're in familiar territory: Reznor's bottomless pit of angst! In case you were wondering if he could still pull it off - he does so with finesse. While it's not the strongest track on the album, with lyrics such as, put the gun in my mouth. Close your eyes, blow my (explicit) brains out. Pretty patterns on the floor, that’s enough for you but I still need more, we're getting not only what we've come to expect from NiN, but actual perspective on the longevity of NiN and and their genre's relevancy today, exactly 20 years after the group emerged.nnWith that introduction, Reznor floors it and we race through Letting You. I find it almost subliminal that the chorus goes we are letting you get away (get away with it!) That strikes me as a comment on the fact that they're allowing us to download this album for free, leveraging our collective embrace of their music into a powerful slap to the face of the music industry. As if that weren't enough, Discipline comes next and you'll immediately understand why this track served as the only single the radio stations have been offered from this album. We've got Reznor either crying out for help or merely admiring a hero - it's difficult to say for sure. One thing I'm positive about: he's asking himself if NiN remains relevant. Are they still tough enough? Cool enough? I dare say indeed they deliver on that fierce, emotionally charged image.nnThen we drift down into Echoplex, a song that shifts into a more introspective mode where the vocals rise over the softer background music to provide a sharp contrast that paints a bleak, if familiar, portrait of individual despair. Next, it's Head Down, a catchy beat featuring more in-your-face lyrical style before Lights in the Sky takes us down, down, down into a haunting atmosphere. Reznor makes use of the piano here as he's proven himself prone to and again, it works to create that desolate feel he frequently seasons his songs with. Corona Radiata lets go of the rope and we drop into a deeper trance, an almost 'inner hum', that evokes the sensation of ritualistic Zen chant - it's seven and a half minutes of instrumentals that seem to attempt hypnotizing the listener.nnThe cryptically titled The Four of Us Are Dying conjures up strange images for me. It's another instrumental that's well, jazzy. It sounds like what you might imagine an alien could produce in some far-flung galactic club, swaying to the music with a strange version of a saxophone and dark sunglasses. Yes, I was sober, folks - it's simply that bizarre and cinematic of a song! nnFinally, we're dragged into Demon Seed, the final track of this album, where Reznor confesses that he's merely an avatar for an infernal supernatural entity. Okay, maybe not but it's great music that presents him promising to destroy everything with his voice as well as his fists. What more could we ask for from one of the planet's more famous industrial death machines?nnThat's a wrap on the tracks for The Slip, but it's not all I have to tell you. Each track comes embedded with the album art specific to that track and the lyrics, too. Not only are you encouraged to download the album for yourself, NiN also invites you to remix it yourself for free on their site (http://remix.nin.com) and then share it with friends, post it on your blog or do whatever the hell you'd like to with the music you create. Pretty sweet deal, right?nnBy this point, I might as well say it: I've always found Trent Reznor to be a bit of fascist dictator and whiney sap. I still think that, but at the same time with this album he's proven that he not only knows what he's doing - he's capable of producing even better stuff than the initial albums (Pretty Hate Machine, Broken, The Downward Spiral) which hooked my interest in the first place. If you give this music a chance, I'm betting it'll make a fan out of you, too!
Related Songs
Nine Inch Nails - Yellowcard
Complication - Nine Inch Nails
Pilgrimage - Nine Inch Nails
The Frail - Nine Inch Nails
Ripe (with decay) - Nine Inch Nails
March Of The Fuckheads - Nine Inch Nails
Slate - Nine Inch Nails
Another Version of the Truth - Nine Inch Nails
The Frail (Version) - Nine Inch Nails
Reptilian - Nine Inch Nails
Driver Down - Nine Inch Nails
Something Blue - Nine Inch Nails
Happiness In Slavery (remix) - Nine Inch Nails
At The Heart Of It All - Nine Inch Nails
Help Me I Am In Hell - Nine Inch Nails
Down In It (singe) - Nine Inch Nails
A Warm Place (live) - Nine Inch Nails
You Know Who You Are - Nine Inch Nails
Eraser (live) - Nine Inch Nails
This Way Out Is Through - Nine Inch Nails
Starfuckers, Inc. (Version C) - Nine Inch Nails
Starfuckers, Inc. (Version A) - Nine Inch Nails
Run - Within Temptation
Suck (Nine Inch Nails Cover) - Goteki
Reptile (Nine Inch Nails Cover)...
Sin (Nine Inch Nails Cover) - Razed In Black
Heresy (Nine Inch Nails Cover)...
Hurt (Nine Inch Nails Cover) - Leona Lewis
Hurt (with Nine Inch Nails) - David Bowie
Nine Inch Nails- "Terrible Lie" - Wrestling Lyrics
No Man Is An Island - Losers
The The World Went Away - Nine Inch Nails
The Perfect Drug (Nine Inch Nails)...
Nine Inch Nails / The Perfect Drug...
The Day The World Went Away (porter ricks mix)...
Dead Souls - Nine Inch Nails
'69 - Deep Purple
'69 - Deep Purple
999,999 - Nine Inch Nails
Theme for Tetsuo: The Bullet Man - Nine Inch Nails
Fist Fuck [Mix] - Nine Inch Nails
Slate (Intro) - Nine Inch Nails
Underneath The Skin - Nine Inch Nails
Atmosphere - Nine Inch Nails
Zoo Station - Nine Inch Nails
Down in It [Skin] - Nine Inch Nails
Sin [Long] - Nine Inch Nails
Sin [Dub] - Nine Inch Nails
Sin [Short] - Nine Inch Nails
Down in It [Shred] - Nine Inch Nails
Down in It [Single] - Nine Inch Nails
Gave Up [Mix] - Nine Inch Nails
Wish [Mix] - Nine Inch Nails
Head Like a Hole [Clay] - Nine Inch Nails
Head Like a Hole [Copper] - Nine Inch Nails
Head Like a Hole [Soil] - Nine Inch Nails
Head Like a Hole [Slate] - Nine Inch Nails
Gave Up (Broken Machine) - Nine Inch Nails
Scary Monsters - Nine Inch Nails
The Perfect Drug [Spacetime Continuum]...
Hurt [Live] - Nine Inch Nails
The Day the World Went Away [Quiet mix]...
Hyperpower! - Nine Inch Nails
Erased, Over, Out - Nine Inch Nails
32 - Nine Inch Nails
31 - Nine Inch Nails
36 - Nine Inch Nails
35 - Nine Inch Nails
34 - Nine Inch Nails
33 - Nine Inch Nails
14 - Nine Inch Nails
13 - Nine Inch Nails
24 - Nine Inch Nails
23 - Nine Inch Nails
26 - Nine Inch Nails
25 - Nine Inch Nails
22 - Nine Inch Nails
21 - Nine Inch Nails
18 - Nine Inch Nails
17 - Nine Inch Nails
28 - Nine Inch Nails
27 - Nine Inch Nails
16 - Nine Inch Nails
15 - Nine Inch Nails
30 - Nine Inch Nails
29 - Nine Inch Nails
20 - Nine Inch Nails
19 - Nine Inch Nails
12 - Nine Inch Nails
11 - Nine Inch Nails
2 - Nine Inch Nails
1 - Nine Inch Nails
6 - Nine Inch Nails
5 - Nine Inch Nails
8 - Nine Inch Nails
7 - Nine Inch Nails
10 - Nine Inch Nails
9 - Nine Inch Nails
4 - Nine Inch Nails
3 - Nine Inch Nails
Crushingly Close - Nine Inch Nails
The Life You Didn't Lead - Nine Inch Nails
Survivalism Opalheartclinic Niggy Tardust...
Appendage - Nine Inch Nails
The Four of Us Are Dying - Nine Inch Nails
Corona Radiata - Nine Inch Nails
Only [CD-ROM Track] - Nine Inch Nails
TOH (Top of the Hour) - Nine Inch Nails
The New Flesh (from thingsfallingapart.com)...
The Greater Good [Instrumental] - Nine Inch Nails
The Warning [Real World Remix] - Nine Inch Nails
Non Entity - Nine Inch Nails
Perfect Drug (Remix) - Nine Inch Nails
Gave Up (live studio) - Nine Inch Nails
"Starfuckers, Inc." - Nine Inch Nails
Head Like A Hole (Copper) - Nine Inch Nails
Head Like A Hole (Clay) - Nine Inch Nails
Head Like A Hole (Soil) - Nine Inch Nails
Head Like A Hole (Slate) - Nine Inch Nails
Hurt (Live) - Nine Inch Nails
Self Destruction, Pt. 2 - Nine Inch Nails
Becoming - Nine Inch Nails
Sin (Dub) - Nine Inch Nails
Just Like You Imagined - Nine Inch Nails
Running - Nine Inch Nails
Gunshots By Computer - Nine Inch Nails
Starfuckers, Inc. (Version B) - Nine Inch Nails
Sanctified (live) - Nine Inch Nails
Piggy (live) - Nine Inch Nails
March Of The Pigs (live) - Nine Inch Nails
Hurt (live with David Bowie) - Nine Inch Nails
Piggy (Nothing Can Stop Me Now) - Nine Inch Nails
Fuck You Like An Animal - Nine Inch Nails
Terrible Lie (Sympathetic Mix) - Nine Inch Nails
Wish (remix) - Nine Inch Nails
The Perfect Drug (Spacetime Continuum)...
Down It All - Nine Inch Nails
March Of The Pigs (Clean Version)...
March Of The Pigs (LP Version) - Nine Inch Nails
Sin (Short) - Nine Inch Nails
Terrible Lie (Empathetic Mix) - Nine Inch Nails
Ruiner (Demo) - Nine Inch Nails
Self Destruction, Final - Nine Inch Nails
The Art of Self Destruction, Pt. 1...
Sin (Long) - Nine Inch Nails
Closer (Further Away) - Nine Inch Nails
Physical - Nine Inch Nails
I Want To Fuck You Like An Animal...
Liar - Nine Inch Nails
Heresy (Demo) - Nine Inch Nails
Sancitified - Nine Inch Nails
Gunshots By Computer (Saul Williams)...
Heresy (Blind) - Nine Inch Nails
All The Pigs, All Lines Up - Nine Inch Nails
A Violet Fluid - Nine Inch Nails
Zero Sum - Nine Inch Nails
Self Destruction, Part Two - Nine Inch Nails
Where Is Everybody? (Version) - Nine Inch Nails
Get Down Make Love - Nine Inch Nails
Gave Up (remix) - Nine Inch Nails
10 Miles High (Original Version) - Nine Inch Nails
Came Back Haunted (Single) - Nine Inch Nails
The Day The World Went Away (Quiet)...
The Perfect Drug (Original Version)...
The Hand That Feeds (Straight Mix)...
March Of The Pigs (white room) - Nine Inch Nails
Down In It (live) - Nine Inch Nails
All the Pigs, All Lined Up - Nine Inch Nails
Terrible Lie (live) - Nine Inch Nails
The Only Time (live) - Nine Inch Nails
Closer (deviation) - Nine Inch Nails
Wish (live) - Nine Inch Nails
Closer to God - Nine Inch Nails
The Art Of Self Destruction, Part One...
Down In It (Skin) - Nine Inch Nails
Deep Radio Edit - Nine Inch Nails
Deep Album Version - Nine Inch Nails
The Wretched (Version) - Nine Inch Nails
You Know What You Are? - Nine Inch Nails
Right Where It Belongs (Version 2)...
Down In It (Shred) - Nine Inch Nails
The Hand That Feeds (Ruff Mix) - Nine Inch Nails
Complications Of The Flesh - Nine Inch Nails
Down In It (Demo) - Nine Inch Nails
Hurt [Multimedia Track] - Nine Inch Nails
Hurt [DVD] - Nine Inch Nails
Starfuckers Inc. - Nine Inch Nails
pinion - Nine Inch Nails
Fist Fuck - Nine Inch Nails
We're In This Together - Nine Inch Nails
That's What I Get - Nine Inch Nails
Something I Can Never Have (Bleak Mix)...
Liar (Reptile Demo) - Nine Inch Nails
I'm Looking Forward To Joining You, Finally...
Self Destruction Part Two - Nine Inch Nails
Self Destruction Final - Nine Inch Nails
No You Don't - Nine Inch Nails
Me, I'm Not - Nine Inch Nails
Eraser (Over Out) - Nine Inch Nails
All The Pigs All Lined Up - Nine Inch Nails