Nine Inch Nails Album: “The Slip [Digipak]”

I've been a Nails fan since the Broken/TDS days. Yes, it's common knowledge that Trent's calmed down a little. It happens with age. Some people can't accept that. Thing is, Trent has continued to be on the cutting edge of music for the majority of his career. He doesn't care what you think. He doesn't make music solely for you. He makes it because he loves doing it and he's dedicated his life to it.

On to The Slip. It's a short album -- comparable in length to With Teeth. But that's where the similarities end. It's more of a straight up rock record at first listen. And you will hear a lot of Trent's signature lyrical pieces such as "Fading away," "I am here right beside you" and "put the gun in mouth." But that's part of the fun. Classic Trent. Classic NIN. This is fun little album with something for everyone on it. Two awesome instrumentals -- dark and eerie. A great piano/vocal song that could find a home on Still. And some really aggressive kickass rock songs. If you can't get into an album like this, I can't help you.

The Limited Edition DVD is well worth the price of admission. It contains rehearsal versions of five songs from The Slip. And the energy displayed here by Trent (with no crowd) is inspiring. The guy really loves what he does. And one of the things I love most about NIN is when you hear live versions of the songs it's never like listening directly to the CD. He throws in a lot of different touches here and there to his songs that just plain rock. Echoplex, Head Down and Letting You really capture the feel for me here.

If you're a fan of NIN, buy a copy. You won't be sorry.

This is a great NIN album. Each song is a masterpiece. But unless you're buying the physical cd, DO NOT pay for it!!! Trent Reznor has made a point of giving his music to his fans for free since leaving Interscope Records. Go to nin.com and download this entire album for FREE!

Three and a half stars.

You know, I'm not going to bore you here with the story of "The Slip", being that I don't assume that Nine Inch Nails has many casual fans anymore, and anyone is interested knows that it is availble for free on the groups website. Rather, let's for go that whole discussion and move directly to the record itself.

Being prolific, apparently, is very good to Trent Reznor. After having to wait five years for 1999's "The Fragile", and six years for its insipid followup, 2005's "With Teeth", I didn't expect a new Nine Inch Nails record, going with their average pace, until 2010. But here we are in 2008, and Reznor has released three strong records in a row, with "Year Zero", the instrumental collection "Ghosts "I-IV", and his newest record, "The Slip".

It is true that there isn't a whole lot new here. The record utilizes the things that Reznor has been doing pretty much every since the beginning: hard rock/ industrial, with some ambient instrumental pieces and "ballads" thrown in for good reason. This record is also a logical progression from his last "with singing!" LP, "Year Zero", as it boasts a (for him) more minimalist production sound and emphasis on big beats.

But you know what? For an artist who has been recording for almost twenty years, Reznor and his defacto project, Nine Inch Nails, can be forgiven for not reinvinting the wheel. The man never sounds bored on "The Slip", rather providing new colors for his already trademark sound.

"The Slip" starts off with a short ambient piece before launching into "1,000,000", a propulsive, driving song that sets the tone for the first half of the record. "Letting You" follows suit, all punchy drums and loud guitars crashing together with more enthusiasm than many of Reznor's peers and followers can put into an entire record. "Discipline" is flat out the funkiest song the man has ever commited to tape, going back to the disco-esque hi-hat work from his biggest hit, "Closer", with a bass line as tight and fluid as anything he has committed to tape (or, computer hard drive, as it were). "Echoplex" isn't as hard hitting as the earlier songs, but is still Nine Inch Nails rock, patented 1992.

On side B of the record, Reznor slips into his more subdued material. The instrumentals that adorn this part of the record are reminscent to what the man did with "Ghosts", and the ballad like "Lights in the Sky" has a tossed off feel that compliments the song perfectly, sounding vaguely like something off of "Still", the bonus disc that came with his live record, "And All That Could Have Been".

Now, I know I used a lot of references there to Nine Inch Nails earlier catalog. Again, "The Slip" is a piece of that catalog, and it's actually kind of comforting to hear Reznor hitting a groove. "The Slip" is also Reznor's most consolidated record since his debut, having just ten tracks and running under fifty minutes long. There is no overarching concept here, just a tight record, something new for Reznor.

Now, the cons. Reznor still remains a fairly terrible lyricist. The man continues to write like a fifteen year old dissed by a girl in high school, all pent up rage at nothing in particular. His words continue to be a drag, and where "Year Zero" at least saw him trying to grow out of it and look at something outside of himself, here, once again, he points the finger right at Reznor, and doesn't come up with anything interesting to say.

Also, the sequencing is flawed. By putting all the rockers at the beginning and the ambient stuff at the end, it hurts any sort of flow that could have been accomplished by mixing it up, spreading it out, the record would have a stronger impact than it does.

"The Slip" is not the great Nine Inch Nails record. But it is a strong album from Reznor and crew, a worthy addition to their canon, and one that is worth adding to your MP3 library.

NOTE ON PHYSICAL EDITION: This edition comes with a 24 page booklet, digipack foldout, a bonus DVD that features the band playing five of the songs live in rehersals, and a nifty sticker pack for everyone's lunchboxes.

(This is a review of the product itself, not the music..)

Great album, not the strongest of Reznor's, but one of his most outright heavy efforts since "Broken" and a welcome follow up to Year Zero. Be warned, however, that the copy I received has a distinct warp on one edge of the vinyl. Although I should have learned my lesson after getting 5 warped copies of "With Teeth" from Amazon earlier this year I still clicked "buy" and took my chances. Due to returning what feels like too many warped LPs I just gave up on returning this one and am instead dealing with the frantic jumping of my sub-woofers from the first track on each side. It certainly doesn't help that this record has such a low volume in comparison to nearly everything else I own so it must be CRANKED to a ridiculous degree to get as wonderfully loud as the CD or digital download versions. I should feel like a sucker for buying a "free" album in the first place... this is the only NIN vinyl I regret purchasing. Music is great, packaging is gorgeous, sound transfer to vinyl is just "alright" (even at 180 Grams), and the product is borderline defective. Question to Amazon: "How are you storing these?!?!" Stick with the FLAC lossless available from nin.com. It's free and sounds superior to this usually mind blowing format. There is quite a bit of surface noise on the disc as well, likely due to having to turn it up so much. A few pops on first spin as well. I have decent equipment, so this is rather annoying.

This may not be news to you, prospoective buyer, but some digital recordings just don't translate well to vinyl. Bjork's "Vespertine" has hissing on the vocal "S" sounds, fuzzy hi-hats and distorted chimes. No good. Another recent Nine Inch Nails release, "Y34rz3r0r3m1x3d" translated wonderfully, having gorgeous range and depth with rich lows and crisp highs.

"The Slip" is more or less in the middle of those two examples in the way of transfer quality. Tolerable but not great.

If you're a hardcore collector then I suppose there is no swaying you. For a casual nin/vinyl enthusiast, I wouldn't recommend this music on this format merely on the grounds it just doesn't pound the same way the other formats do. Hope that helps someone out there.

All audio on the audio cd can be found for a free (band supported and sponsored) download on Nine Inch Nails' website:

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This product is for the dedicated NIN fanbase. It does not disappoint.

This physical verison of "The Slip" brings back meaning for "Limited Edition." The term has become somewhat of a marketing gimmick as many companies label their products as "limited" and yet they remain in production years later. I was very pleased to find a unique xxx,xxx / 250,000 printed on the back of the of casing.

Inside you'll find the complete slip audio cd, 3 random artwork stickers for tracks off the album, a artwork/lyrics booklet, and a rehearsal DVD featuring 5 tracks; 1,000,000, Letting You, Discipline, Echoplex, and Head Down. The rehearsal DVD is my favorite part of this product as I prefer to listen to Robin Finck play lead guitar on all of these songs live over the album versions (especially Head Down.) I look forward to extracting the audio from the live recordings.

This product is a must own for anyone who openly refers to themselves as a Nine Inch Nails fan.

If you haven't heard the album, I suggest you download it for free (above) before purchasing this and possibly lowering it's product rating with unnecessary ignorance.