After Radiohead’s release of their album In Rainbows last fall for any-price-you-want-to-pay, Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor decided to take the formula one step further: Why not just give the album away for free?
After breaking off from his record label last year over their overpricing of Nine Inch Nails records, and subsequently winning the hearts of anti-mainstream-label enthusiasts worldwide, Reznor independently released the seventh studio Nine Inch Nails LP The Slip as a free download off the Nine Inch Nails Web site, nin.com, on May 5.
And not only is The Slip great music, it shows Reznor is one of the few musicians who understands that changing technology means the records of the future won’t have to be the passive listening experience they’ve been in the past. He’s set up a place on the NIN Web site for fans to remix the album’s tracks encouraged them to put the songs on their blogs to discuss them.
The Slip’s music itself isn’t as immediate as its marketing. It’s underwhelming at first, with few hooks sticking out and none of Reznor’s trademark seductive obscenity. It’s more noise than "industrial," and it’s almost all real instruments, unlike NIN’s mostly computer-enhanced 2007 album Year Zero.
But those hooks that seemed initially bland start repeating in your head, and before you know it, they’re stuck in there. On further listens, the intricacies of the arrangements and Reznor’s underplayed virtuosity start to show themselves.
The Slip does, however, fall short of amazing. It doesn’t have the vulgar sexiness of 1989’s Pretty Hate Machine and 1994’s The Downward Spiral, nor is it as intellectually stimulating or intricate as Year Zero. Some of the songs seem incomplete – most notably the first post-intro track "1,000,000" – and could have benefited from a bit more time before Reznor released them to the public.
Nonetheless, Reznor deserves major applause for understanding change in the music industry. And when the physical copy of The Slip comes out in July, it will definitely be worth buying.
