Free bird

It was Free Comic Book Day Saturday, and here on Monday, it's Free Album day.

Yes, all the hype is true, Nine Inch Nails dropped a very free yet unnecessary album to the utter delight of fans today. Only a few tracks short of a yawn-fest, things don't really start cooking until the third track, "Letting You", by far the most interesting thing on the album. The track is a continuation of the thread along the "Wish"-"March of the Pigs"-"Starfuckers"-"You Know What You Are" line. Mr. Reznor also goes into the old bag of tricks for a "Pinion" re-write to lead off the disc... wait, it's not a disc yet. That'll be in July. It's also his shortest major release since Broken.

Perhaps having Trent Reznor loose without a label isn't such a good thing. I think this whole adventure could have been more successful simply as an EP of strictly the electronic driven stuff, leaving out the painfully pedestrian "Discipline" and "Echoplex", both of which are getting radio airplay for some reason. The shortness of the EP format, mixed with the experimental (for him) nature of the music would provide a perfect jumping off point for whatever his little heart wants to do next. Just like Ghosts I-IV, this album is more interesting in terms of its delivery and distribution than on the merit of the music itself.

but let's hope the final three tracks on the album, beginning with the wicked-cool and tripped out "Corona Radiata", symbolize the rebirth of a star. Otherwise, this is simply a black hole.

Like they say, you get what you pay for.

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Suggested Playlist: The Slip EP

"Letting You"
"Head Down"
"Lights in the Sky"
"Corona Radiata"
"The Four of Us are Dying"
"Demon Seed"

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Haha... "Demon Seed", like "Discipline" are songs that sound like would-be b-sides of his from the early 90s. I'm reminded of the Beastie Boys' To the 5 Boroughs from a couple years back. The group took the same sort back-to-basics approach to scrape the bottom of the well, and since then have ostensibly quit the rap game.

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The great thing about being Trent Reznor is having your very own personal Weird Al. The dark prince himself seems to have come to terms with it too, embedding this very video on the official page days after its release.