Amazon.co.uk Review
Having recently and radically reinvented themselves--and their business model--with recent album
Ghosts I - IV, Trent Reznor and team are back with another 45 minutes of brand new music.
The Slip, released free as a download and licensed again under the Creative Commons license, follows up musically and conceptually on themes already explored on
Ghosts I - IV as well as on older projects like
Year Zero,
With Teeth and
The Fragile. Ambient electronic loops mingle with dark lyrics and searing rock riffs to create a progressive and at times prophetic tapestry, which begins with the ambient "999,999", morphs into the scintillating rock of "1,000,000", and the post-disco of "Discipline" and ends with seven-minute meditations like "Corona Radiate". Along the way are some classic NIN moments. "Head Down" harks back to a more traditional sound, while "The Lights in the Sky" wont surprise anyone that knows Reznors fondness for blending pretty piano melodies with morbid lyricism. There are indulgences here--not least the eleven-minute "The Four of Us Are Dying"--but many will consider it a small price to pay for such beautiful sonic bravery.
--Paul Sullivan
CD Description
A mere three months after NIN's instrumental double-disc opus 'Ghosts I-IV' comes this physical version of their sixth "proper" studio album, which frontman Trent Reznor gave awayfree to fans on the band's website as a gesture of thanks for their support. Short, direct and uncluttered, it has beenhailed by fans and critics alike as possibly the best thingthey have ever done, combining grinding guitar grit, pummelling beats, depressive lyrics and lush electronic textures as only they know how.