Music : The Slip + DVD

Rating: - No one likes to pay to hear somone jam
In a discussion recently I remarked to a friend how Nine Inch Nails are the only band who [in my opinion] have never made a bad album. However, I now take my comment back. While the production of the album is first rate, the songs fall far from the industrial noise come conceptual evolutions that have propelled Trent Reznor through the last decades. The opening track (999,999) gives intriguing promise, only to give way to the disappointing melodic electronica that doesn't subside. There is one diamond in the rough though; The Four of us in Here Are Dying. However this instrumental is not enough to rescue the sinking ship that is 'the slip'. Ultimately this album feels little more than Trent Reznor and friends jamming in their studio. Full marks for being bold enough to try a new direction, but this time the goods are simply not delivered. Buy this album to fill up your collection, but if you want to experience NIN [Trent] at his best, go buy The Fragile

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Rating: - 3 1/2 out of 5
hey i felt that the first 1/3 of the album was a bit weak personaly but the second half is right up there with the rest. i can't help but feel like this release is just a colection of year zero B-sides though. still worth a looking inbut if your new to the bend start else where.

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Rating: - NIN come up with the goods once again - great album!
Barcode: 0766929934627

I've seen a fair few reviews across the media referring to The Slip as 'Nine Inch Nail's most accesible album', and i a way i can see what they're getting at. The way the album was made available as a free download (a good way for new fans to try out some of the band's material), a catchy lead single in the form of Discipline and at only 10 tracks long, the final product comes across as a slick, modern and concise demonstation of Trent Reznor's intent.

Crucially though, it also explores a large number of facets of the NIN sound. As with the masterpiece Year Zero, The Slip begins with an eerie instrumental that builds to full volume over a minute and a half. As always with NIN material, each track is a carefully constructed soundscape, every element there for a reason and what i love most about The Slip is that it displays this element of the band at it's best while at the same time delivering some of the band's most instant material to date.

1,000,000 is the first example of this. With a pulsating, distorted hook and a classic angsty vocal from Trent, screeching siren-esque sounds add to the relentless energy and power that emmanates from tracks like this and Discipline, building on the template displayed in previous tracks like The Hand That Feeds and Survivalism but giving it a new rawness that only adds to the tracks' appeal.

Letting You takes this rawness to practiaclly bestial levels while Discipline is a slick number seeing NIN at their most commercial. It is songs like this that show the true genius of Trent Reznor, his skill at writing a song with as many hooks as this that worms its way into your mind and upon the first listen already sounds like a classic.

Echoplex is another highlight, a rhythmic guitar line packed over an infectious beat. We soon come to Lights In The Sky, which marks a change in the mood of the album. The first half is fast and relentless while the second half is slower, moody and altogether more atmospheric.

Lights In The Sky is a beuautiful track, just Trent and a piano. This is The Slip at it's most intimate, haunting and melancholy. This then leads into the 7 and a half minute slice of electronica that is Coron Radiata. These two tracks together bring to mind the song Another Version Of The Truth on Year Zero and while those new to the band might find this aspect quite daunting, the fact it is so open to interpretation only serves to intice you further into the music. The album is then nicely bookended by the sleazy grind of Demon Seed.

So, on the whole, i think Year Zero was a better album, but then, presented as a concept piece - it was meticulously planned whereas The Slip sounds like Trent Reznor, free from his old record label, exploring himself and the world around him with complete freedom. Year Zero presented a cold, frightening picture of an alternate future whereas The Slip is about the right now, the present, is full of an untamed fire and passion that sees NIN on top form. Whether you're new to the band and want to try some of their material out or whether you're a long-time fan, The Slip is well worth getting your hands on. The fact it's a limited edition of 250,000 copies and comes with a bonus DVD featuring live material is even more incentive to get this brilliant album.

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Rating: - Another Gift!
I just wanted to point out that what Mr Reed said in a previous review:

'"Discipline" features a vocal mistakenly introduced (and hastily silenced) a bar too early due to a rushed mix'

is clearly incorrect! Do you really think trent would have allowed a mistake to remain on a song?? (let alone the lead single!)It is clearly an intentional stutter meant to add more realism to the mood of the song. Just thought i'd clear that up.

(it's a great album by the way)

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Rating: - Heresy - 85,601 / 250,000
Is the hand on Mr.Reznor's shoulder, on the front cover artwork of my
individually numbered CD/DVD set (and how lucky am I feeling about that?),
keeping him in the same place or preventing him from moving forward ?

The dilemma of continuity versus development stands at the still beating
heart of Nine Inch Nails' most recent offering 'The Slip'.

I have long been an admirer of Mr Reznor and his vision.
I emphasise admirer rather than devotee, many of whom would appear
to have made a happy home here on Planet Amazon.

Devotees are, by their very nature, absorbed by and committed to the
understanding and discussion of minutiae.
There is of course nothing inherently wrong with obsession but it
sometimes inhibits the sufferer's ability to stand back and see the
whole picture for want of examining each individual brushstroke.

Against a back catalogue including such peerless gems as 'The Downward Spiral',
'The Fragile', 'With Teeth' and the sublime 'Year Zero',
'The Slip' is a somewhat desultory affair.

Creative freedom is not a cast iron guarantee of quality control.

These ten tracks contribute little to the body of work that we have
come to know and love.
The electricity is still there intermittently...but only just.

Opening track, '999,999' made me sit upright with raw anticipation.

I held my breath too soon.

'1,000,000', 'Letting You' and 'Discipline' are then trundled out in
workmanlike fashion. Drums forward, voice mixed way back.
The heart of these musical ideas however is essentially recycled.

'Echoplex' is an undifferentiated mess.

'Head Down' and 'Demon Seed' almost approach past glories.

'The Four Of Us Are Dying' is a tired and banal instrumental interlude.

For my money (...and yes I did buy it) 'Lights In The Sky' and its'
umbral echo 'Corona Radiata' are technically and emotionally riveting.

The saying "if it ain't broke don't try to fix it" carries some
credence but I'm really beginning to feel that the NIN formula
is running out of steam.

There's nothing wrong with continuity of course.

Palindromic cohorts ABBA managed it within their own world for years.

A little development would none-the-less have been warmly welcomed.