Nine Inch Nails
The Slip

THE REVIEW

The Nine Inch Nails, at least in the early phase of their career, never got us so used to such goodness. From 1988 (year of their founding by the charismatic leader Trent Reznor) to 2005, indeed, there are only four studio releases (plus the EP "Broken"); from 2005, the year of the controversial "With Teeth", to today, the albums released are another four (in just three years).

The latest studio effort by the American band, this "The Slip," has been released (for now) exclusively (and for free) through their official website; the physical release is expected around next July. The musicians involved in the project come from various backgrounds, among them the very Italian and faithful keyboardist Alessandro Contini, drummer Josh Freese, and guitarist Robin Finck (Guns N' Roses). At the controls are the in-demand Atticus Ross and Alan Moulder (the latter has a frightening resume, ranging from The Cure to Smashing Pumpkins, passing through Moby and My Bloody Valentine).

Let's say it right away; Reznor is in good form, both artistically and "productively", and you can feel it right from the sonic onslaughts of "1,000,000" (preceded by an instrumental intro, "999,999", which could well have been included in the last, overflowing "Ghosts I-IV").
After this positive beginning, the album rolls along smoothly, moving from the first single "Discipline", which seems influenced by certain less "corny" '90s dance music, to the very noisy and massive "Head Down". Absolutely unmissable is the dark "Corona Radiata" where Reznor seems to pour out all his anxieties, between a ghostly piano and a menacing electronic background, which also dominates in the following "The Four Of Us Are Dying". "Echoplex", already offered as a download prior to the album's release, is perhaps too similar to the old NIN productions, lacking somewhat in "personality". "Letting You" is the most frenetic and "acidic" of the bunch, contrasting with the sadness of "Lights In The Sky" (for piano and voice). "Demon Seed", on the other hand, closes the work by speeding up again.

Perhaps it's an album that doesn't excessively shake the listener, as often happens with Reznor's productions, but that sense of claustrophobia and inadequacy that you often feel listening to NIN's records is still well present on more than one occasion in the grooves of this new work. Ultimately, that annoying plastic taste present at times in "With Teeth" doesn't resurface (for example, almost radio-like episodes - ! - such as "The Hand That Feeds").
"The Slip" is a good piece of work, obviously not on the level of "The Downward Spiral" or "The Fragile," but it nevertheless confirms (as if there were still a need for it) the talent of Mr. Reznor and settles on more than respectable levels.

All this good stuff is welcome, then.

Key tracks: "1,000,000", "Head Down", "Corona Radiata"