Nine Inch Nails - The Slip

I never listened to Nine Inch Nails much besides the obvious singles. I'm not that big into industrial but Trent Reznor seems to know what he's doing. I kind of wanted to give them a real try, I just hadn't gotten around to it. It's a little easier to give a band a shot when they give you an album for free. It started a couple months ago with Ghosts I-IV. They released the first part online for free, and it seemed kind of interesting, but the site was going really slow when I tried to download it and I didn't try again. Then they gave it another go with a more traditional album, this time completely free, and I managed to listen. It's pretty good. My mom didn't like what she heard, but I wouldn't really have expected her to.

I can't say whether this is really the formula or not, but The Slip is a nice mix of chaotic, loud noise and more melodic, atmospheric stuff. "999,999" is an ambient instrumental that leads into "1,000,000" (Get it?), introducing the harsher side of the album's sound. "Letting You" is really aggressive, almost unmusical in some ways, with a screeching chorus. "Discipline" is the single in name, and is much more pleasant than the last couple tracks. "Echoplex" is another enjoyable track with a nice chorus. The next couple songs are solid, variations on already established tones. There's a long instrumental track as the album gets more electronic and experimental near the end. The finale is a bit more traditional, and wraps up a pretty solid batch of free music. The Slip has definitely gotten me more interested in the band, and I just might be stupid enough to put down money for a physical copy of this when it gets released in a few months because I love physical copies so much. Which makes it hard to explain why I like Steam.