Pat Jordan

The Nine Inch Nails have released yet another album via the Internet. This time it’s titled “The Slip” and it’s available, completely for free in multiple formats, from the Nine Inch Nails website. Their last Internet release, “Ghosts,” consisted in 26 completely instrumental tracks. Users were given the options of downloading some for free, paying $5 for the full album to download, and others including $300 for a limited edition. Unlike “Ghosts,” “The Slip” features vocals, is completely free, and is accompanied with a full PDF file of artwork (which did not come with my Amazon.com download).

When I downloaded “Ghosts,” I was unable to do it through the website the first day due to the sheer volume of traffic and bandwidth limitations. I resorted to paying my $5 to Amazon.com, which also offered the DRM-free tracks at high download speeds. This time, I had absolutely no trouble whatsoever and the 87mb zip file only took minutes to download. For the higher quality (and size) options, torrents are offered.

It seems that Trent Reznor, the brain and only constant member in the Nine Inch Nails, intends to create the direct relationship between the listener and the band. This, “Ghosts,” and his remix site are all admirable actions that shorten the gap between the musician and the listener. Luckily he has the resources and fan base of a band that has been quite successful since the late 1980s.

As for the album itself, I was not too impressed with the single, but then again, my opinion often changes after a dozen or so listens. If Reznor intends to keep churning out tracks directly from the studio, lets hope it’s all of quality.

The single, “Discipline”: