Please excuse if this rant is so banal. I just want to express some feelings of mine with a usually favorite band of mine, Nine Inch Nails.
The first album I ever listened to by NIN was "The Fragile". This being the first one, I guess it had the greatest impact on me. I loved it to death. Now after some reflection I realize it definitely isn't the strongest of his work; it is really a mess, and Trent has even said so, and apparently shows embarassment over the album. I think the album is a mess because he left a lot of the work on the album to his producers in terms of arranging the album; it was a double disc album because Reznor just made songs without thinking about their quality and had someone else try to put it together somehow. Back in 1999, that worked for me. Now, it doesn't. In comparison to "The Downward Spiral", it is definitely a weaker cousin. TDS is definitely his strongest work music-wise. It's the most complex of his albums. Differing subjective tastes aside, objectively it's the most "satisfying" of his work, IMO.
So, after another five years of basically nothing, save a remix album, some soundtrack work, and brief dabblings in some other band's work, NIN is finally released a new album, With Teeth. The album originally had a different name, but I forgot what it was, but it was better than this. At first, I was afraid it was going to be a political album, especially with something like "The Hand that Feeds", but after hearing it, and being disappointed in it, I really think that's the least of the new album's problems. Well, you can some low-rez samples of the songs here and see for yourself:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?ty...dcmp=rdr0000019
"Elementary" doesn't seem like a strong enough word. The lyrics are banal, and there's this pretentious notion that since "NIN re-invented pop music, we can mingle with its more superfluous aspects and still make it deep". What the hell?
I'm glad that Trent is now sober, but then to take a diva-like stance to make up for lost time isn't exactly a great outcome. I know that he's playing smaller venues and whatnot, but that's because he can afford to play at smaller venues and basically everyone knows that people will still buy a ton of copies of the album when it comes out.
Ok, I'm not being very specific in my critique, but that's because I'd like to hear what you guys think first. I also feel that Tori Amos, who is often compared to NIN, is also in a decline - The Beekeeper is not exactly one of her best works. But I can stand Tori a lot more because at least the music is sincere and Tori seems to be honest with the quality decline of her work : she's now a happy mother enjoying her family but she still wants to make albums. Maybe she should think a little more about what she wants to write for her upcoming albums, but fine by me. NIN really needs to figure out what the fuck made their early work so good.
So, I lost this post towards the end. I hate when that happens. So, what do you guys think?
The first album I ever listened to by NIN was "The Fragile". This being the first one, I guess it had the greatest impact on me. I loved it to death. Now after some reflection I realize it definitely isn't the strongest of his work; it is really a mess, and Trent has even said so, and apparently shows embarassment over the album. I think the album is a mess because he left a lot of the work on the album to his producers in terms of arranging the album; it was a double disc album because Reznor just made songs without thinking about their quality and had someone else try to put it together somehow. Back in 1999, that worked for me. Now, it doesn't. In comparison to "The Downward Spiral", it is definitely a weaker cousin. TDS is definitely his strongest work music-wise. It's the most complex of his albums. Differing subjective tastes aside, objectively it's the most "satisfying" of his work, IMO.
So, after another five years of basically nothing, save a remix album, some soundtrack work, and brief dabblings in some other band's work, NIN is finally released a new album, With Teeth. The album originally had a different name, but I forgot what it was, but it was better than this. At first, I was afraid it was going to be a political album, especially with something like "The Hand that Feeds", but after hearing it, and being disappointed in it, I really think that's the least of the new album's problems. Well, you can some low-rez samples of the songs here and see for yourself:
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?ty...dcmp=rdr0000019
"Elementary" doesn't seem like a strong enough word. The lyrics are banal, and there's this pretentious notion that since "NIN re-invented pop music, we can mingle with its more superfluous aspects and still make it deep". What the hell?
I'm glad that Trent is now sober, but then to take a diva-like stance to make up for lost time isn't exactly a great outcome. I know that he's playing smaller venues and whatnot, but that's because he can afford to play at smaller venues and basically everyone knows that people will still buy a ton of copies of the album when it comes out.
Ok, I'm not being very specific in my critique, but that's because I'd like to hear what you guys think first. I also feel that Tori Amos, who is often compared to NIN, is also in a decline - The Beekeeper is not exactly one of her best works. But I can stand Tori a lot more because at least the music is sincere and Tori seems to be honest with the quality decline of her work : she's now a happy mother enjoying her family but she still wants to make albums. Maybe she should think a little more about what she wants to write for her upcoming albums, but fine by me. NIN really needs to figure out what the fuck made their early work so good.
So, I lost this post towards the end. I hate when that happens. So, what do you guys think?
