Nine Inch Nails – The Slip

FYI Year Zero and The Slip Definitive edition LPs are showing "coming soon" on nin's official store

From what I about the original digital release it WASN'T free, it was "pay what you want" (Trent's exact wording in his original announcement). You were allowed to pay zero, but a decent amount of people paid more.

re: alternating_bit... There is no "filler" on The Fragile. At worst it's lyrically immature but there is not a scrap of bad music on there. Maybe instrumentals aren't to your taste but I find it to be one of only two "perfect" NIN albums (the other being The Downward Spiral, of course). Since then he's simply not put the same amount of effort into the soundscaping aspects that made TF in particular so brilliant and, also, everything post-2005 has a far more commercial sound to it (with the exception of his fantastic Ghosts album).

edit: I guess I should comment on The Slip as well, seeing as this is on that page... As a long-term NIN fan, I feel this is a severe disappointment. The songs are half-baked and the entire thing has a rushed feel to it (which is understandable; TR claimed he wrote the album in two weeks and recorded it in a month) and it displays none of his usual genius for sound design (even With Teeth - which is a pretty bad record - had some brilliant sound design). The second side is a little darker and more textural and thus slightly more interesting than the extremely obvious rock styled songs on the first side but it still has little substance. No newcomer to NIN should listen to this album until they have thoroughly digested the back catalog.

I cannot read realmdemagic's review and not comment. For one, I must say he/she has written a profound and all-encoming review of NIN's material, and I slaute that. I also find the descriptions of the last four albums quite accurate, however to state that The Fragile is NIN's greates work is, I think, a huge mistake.

When it comes to music, everyone will have an opinion, of course, but I think that if a poll was taken that the highest scoring (and best selling I may add) album by NIN is The Downward Spiral. In fact, though my personal favorite NIN album is Pretty Hate Machine, The Downward Spiral was much more ground breaking than The Fragile was. To me The Fragile would have been a much better album as one CD and not two, which feels like a lot of 'filler' material was added. And though going from Pretty Hate to Broken was a greater contrast, Downward Spiral still brought to the table a whole new experience in emotion and sound that Reznor has never since recaptured.

I am spending way too much time in this section writing about someone else's viewpoint, and not even about the album The Slip, and I apologize for that. As far as The Slip goes, I think it is a decent album. Between the time of With Teeth and The Slip, Year Zero is my favorite, with The Slip coming in a close second. Indeed Reznor has not reinvented anything with these albums, but for die hard fans, "more of the same" never is bad in my opinion.

The Slip is the eighth proper studio release for NIN. The music here resembles types of songs from With Teeth, Year Zero and Ghosts. So in that sense, it is a bit disappointing. Reznor is generally known for taking big steps forward. Although he is alienating some older fans and gaining new ones, he is always ensuring NIN's longevity. The Slip is a very good record. I would say it is the worst of the bunch, but still worthy. Let's take a look at the progressions of NIN.

-Pretty Hate Machine (Synth Pop meets Industrial. This one gains high recognition and even more so after the release of the The Downward Sprial)

-Broken (From Synth to Metal...Ministry anyone? This is the start of the heavy sound of NIN)

-The Downward Spiral (Again, completely new territory. The hook was closer, the rest was an exciting, yet dark musical experience)

-The Fragile (Reznor's best work. Taking the techniques of the TDS to the next level, Reznor displays both the past and future sound of NIN. If there is one definitive record to tell you what NIN sounds like, this would be it.)

-Still (Although same may claim it is a companion or a live piece, it actually contains several new tracks and a few great reworkings, make it an album on its own. This is all ballads and piano pieces. Reznor has planned this one for years and always described "making an album for a rainy day")

-With Teeth (A step backwards in my opinion. The songs here are more stripped down, but really don't give us anything new musical wise. These tracks also sound like a radio version of NIN, which isn't necessarily a bad thing. This even has some of Reznor's best songs, which makes this a very noteworthy album.)

-Year Zero (Great concept and an exciting new direction. No slow songs here, which is a bummer. Great release though.)

-Ghosts (Well, here are all those slow songs you wanted! NIN's first instrumental and highly experimental album to date. Also one of his best. This really is "music for daydreams")

-The Slip (This is more on lines of With Teeth. A step back and not forward. But I understand that even Reznor needs a break from being epic every once in a while. These songs sound more like outtakes from the last three albums, which one should question. It generally doesn't take Mr. Reznor just a few weeks to complete a new album. The songs are good, especially the ballad and instrumentals. Demon Speed is a completely new type of song for Reznor. I will be buying the CD version when it comes out)