Free Nine Inch Nails album - The Slip

Downloaded it a few hours ago and it is solid. I am listening to it as background music as I write a term paper but it is growing on me. The artwork is really good.
If anyone is wondering, it includes Discipline.

Downloading the FLAC as we speak, since the super high quality one will take like 14 more hours to torrent.

I'm all for the new dance oriented happy good time Trent, just please tell me there is at least one track with some screaming. Or at least mild irritation, or righteous indignation.

I'm on track #3 right now, 'Letting You', and it will fulfill your needs. That song alone is better than just about 95% of YEAR ZERO.

Trent was trying way too hard with YEAR ZERO. THE SLIP sounds much more focused and visceral.

Like it a lot. My thoughts are in the other thread.

I'm downloading the zip file, since I don't use torrents, hopefully the quality is decent enough.

I listened to this while I was at the gym earlier, and I have to say I really like it for the most part. It's definitely a solid album, but I kind of agree with Tom about Corona Radiata. Maybe that should have been the first track on the album, or possibly the last. Anyway, I need to give it a few more listens, but my first impression is that it's pretty good. The fact that it was free certainly doesn't hurt either.

Really enjoyed the first half on the first listen (zip file btw, so I can vouch for the quality)...I'll have to get back on the rest of the album, since I had to come to work.

I'm thinking that, like most NIN stuff, this'll make a great workout playlist. That's not an insult...right?

I've only listened once, but it seems great.

Tracks 7 and 8 remind me of side B of Bowie's "Low". Trent's Eno/Bowie fascination started back with "A Warm Place", and continued with the synth sounds of YZ and much of Ghosts. Now it feels like he's finally decided to split his album into distinct sides in the Low/Heroes tradition.

Discipline has grown on me after 3 listens and now that it is in rotation on WOXY, I'll probably love it even more.

I copied my download from my computer at home to my computer at work, but the track titles didnt carry over. weird.

It's short, but sweet. Agreed that the ethereal tracks kinda fuck up the flow of what's otherwise a damn catchy album, but on its own terms, Lights In The Sky is way too amazing to hate.

Oh, and has anyone mentioned IT'S FREE?

Track #3, 'Letting You,' is kicking my ass right now. Best song he's written since the Broken EP.

And no one should be complaining, because its free! If theres even ONE song you like on this album it was worth it.

I don't think the price of an album should have any influence on how you evaluate or experience it. The whole point of the free release is to get away from music as a product.

I consider my time and brain processing at least as valuable as money.

'Head Down' rocks.

I'm pretty confident in stating that The Slip is Trent's best work since The Downward Spiral. I never would've expected it.

That's a bold damn statement.
I still haven't listened to it enough to throw my hat in the ring yet, so I'll shut up. Just had to chime in on that.
Right now I'm placing it in between With_Teeth(my least fave NIN) and Year Zero(like it a LOT). I don't have the names in front of me, but track 6 is great.

No. It's a good album, but no.

The Downward Spiral
With Teeth
Broken
Pretty Hate Machine
The Fragile
Year Zero
The Slip

Since I'm bored, as if anyone cares...

The Downward Spiral
Broken
Year Zero
The Fragile(the "right" disc slightly derails, some filler, etc. AMAZING mixing/production)
Ghosts I-IV
Pretty Hate Machine(I still love it, but it's aged a lot in the production department)
Quake(do NOT listen to this while on suicide watch)
With_Teeth(I like some of it, don't get me wrong, but the bad is SO bad that it kills the disc for me)

The Slip will fit in here somewhere at a later date.

Can you actually get the Quake stuff? The game is usually too punctuated by gunfire to actually enjoy the music and I'd love to listen to it.

Buy Quake(the PC game) off ebay, I'm sure it's cheap. Pop it in a normal CD player and skip the first track as fast as you can(it's all data, and sounds like static), then it plays the entire soundtrack like a normal CD, starting with the rocking title screen music and quickly turning into an evil ambient nightmare.

*edit- Make note of how I said ambient. Think DOOM 64 if you've ever played that. The Quake soundtrack, other than the title screen, isn't really musical. It's mood, sounds, a factory in hell. Perfectly suits the game, but I doubt you'll be rocking it in your car.

Holy shit. I'll have to do that. Thanks man.

No prob. I edited after you posted, it might seem obvious, but it's the PC one you want.

It makes the darker tracks on Ghosts sound like Spongebob Squarepants music by comparison. The title screen track is a lot like "Driver Down"(I think that's the title) from Lost Highway.

That may be another reason With_Teeth disappointed me so much. When I was younger, Nine Inch Nails was my favorite band, and Grohl was my favorite drummer at the time. It should have been my favorite thing ever. Just wasn't meant to be(for me, anyway, a lot of people love it. more power to them).

You lost me by the time you listed the title track as excellent. Hehehehe. To each their own, most everyone here hates my music taste anyway I think.

For a guy who used to spend years crippled by self-doubt and second-guessing every minor detail of his music, Trent has gotten amazingly prolific of late. Two albums, including a double album, this year. And it's the first week of May!

"Head Down" should be the next single, it's awesome. I like the shift from the barking aggression of the verses to that despairing chorus, and when it goes instrumental it's incredibly anthemic. I really hope this becomes a live staple. "Corona Radiata" seems to be getting some hate for being a lengthy instrumental, but I love Trent's ear for soundscaping, and there's lots for me to enjoy in that (like those really deep booms late in the song.

I've said it before, but will someone fucking hire Reznor to do a film score NOW?

There won't be a day when a 7 out of 10 free record by NIN fails to get me excited.

I can't really stress enough how important NIN have been regarding my taste in music. There are two songs that completely clicked with me and steered my tastes in new directions. The first one was listening to One on the radio back when I was 13 which instantly turned me into a metal-head. The next one was listening, again on the radio, to Head Like A Hole. Nothing since has touched these two songs in significance for me. So I'll always look upon NIN a little more favorably than other bands.

To Tom...
Sorry to keep derailing your thread.

For me The Fragile(right disc) was "the beginning of the end" for Trent, and one of the things I loved most about Nine Inch Nails was the meticulous production(which the Fragile had in spades).

With_Teeth was a throwback to Pretty Hate Machine in many ways. It's a bit more personal, less abstract, but it went for a stripped down sound I was not a fan of(totally disregarding that many of the songs were ass, and a few were great).

Year Zero was also stripped down and simplified, but it was a messy record, something I had never heard from Trent. It was like the financial "failure" of the Fragile made him decide to go "poppy"(aka radio friendly) again with With_Teeth(aka inferior PHM 2 in my book). With Year Zero, although it wasn't "heavy", I got the notion that he just didn't give fuck anymore in many ways. It's sloppy, but there are a lot of amazing songs on that album. A sign he'd dropped his perfectionist attitude altogether, and I still loved it.
He can do whatever the fuck he wants now. If I get 3 great tracks a year(and I've already gotten more than that), it totally beats waiting 4 years for a new disc, and I am a happy fan.

And to stelios...
Yeah, one fateful day in high school a friend loaned me the "Head Like a Hole" single and Broken. It changed my musical outlook the most since a few years prior, when I found my brother's tapes of The Real Thing and Appetite For Destruction. Other than Nirvana, no band had that impact on me back then, when I was essentially "tasteless".

My first was The Downward Spiral. Mr. Self-Destruct blew my mind and I haven't been the same since.

Same here. I had heard Marilyn Manson's Smells Like Children EP and was intrigued by the very fucked-up production, saw Reznor's credit on that CD, and being aware that Reznor was NIN, blind-bought The Downward Spiral. I grew out of Manson but NIN has been a constant ever since.

I have just started discoverying NIN. I am familiar with many of the bigger songs, and some random ones, but his latest renaissance of output has really drawn my interest. I love Ghosts and The Slip and now I think I'm going to go back and sequentially listen to the albums. I just have to find their order somewhere, shouldn't be too hard.

There you go, champ.

Awesome, thanks! Both of ya's....

While some of the remix albums are definitely worth skipping, I would highly recommend Further Down The Spiral and the Year Zero Remix album.


Not only should Trent score more movies, I would also like to see him produce some more rap albums. I always thought his style would mold well with certain rappers. I remember a few years back there were rumors that he was producing the Zach de la Rocha solo album. Later on I found out that apparently some of it was true, and a few songs were actually completed. I would love to hear those someday.

Oh, and Broken is my personal fave. But TDS is my favorite full length album. Check out the SACD if you really wanna get your ass kicked.

1. The Fragile--Not much a fan of the filler on the second disc, but that first disc alone is a fucking dark masterpiece (The Day The World Went Away IS the soundtrack to the Apocalypse, accept no substitutes), and when it works, the second disc is one of the only times Trent's been able to balance danceable with edgy without either sticking out like a sore thumb.

2. The Downward Spiral--A few songs have ceased to work for me (Heresy and Ruiner, in particular), but the album has the band's most dizzying high (March of the Pigs) and their saddest most beautiful low (Hurt). Those two alone make the damn thing almost age proof.

3. Year Zero--There's plenty of weak spots, but I'm a fan of concept albums where the concept is actually, well, good. Also, Zero-Sum's the best ending to a NIN album since Hurt.

4. Broken--The movie redeems it, but generally, whenever I pull this album out, it's pretty much just for Wish, Gave Up, and Suck. Still, those three tracks alone make that album's existence worthwhile.

5. Ghosts I-IV--Might move higher when someone gets smart enough to score a movie with it.

6. The Slip--Again, solid stuff, but except for Lights In The Sky, it never reaches the heights of any of the above albums.

7. With Teeth--I have a love hate relationship with this album. If I'm in the right mood, it's a perfect pop rock album with some unexpected harder moments. Any other time, it's a strange, mainstream change of pace that only really strikes gold in a few spots (the gospel breakdown in All The Love In the World, Only, the badass Billie Jean vibe of Sunspots). I like it, it's just very inconsistent.

In both these moods, however, I end up thinking the title track is balls.

8. Pretty Hate Machine--I try. I really do try to like this album as a whole. I still dig Head Like A Hole, Something I Can Never Have, and Sin. Terrible Lie works much better live. Down In It has to catch me in the right mood. Other than that? It just doesn't do anything for me.

Just downloaded this and I'll be spending the next few hours taking it all in. Gotta say this is a great fucking time to be a Nine Inch Nails fan.

And reading peoples fond memories of being introduced to NIN makes me long for those days as well. The first song I heard was March of the Pigs and it totally rocked my world, I was floored. Picked up The Downward Spiral as soon as I saved up enough weekly allowance and spent the next few months buying every Nine Inch Nails related item I could afford. A Sin T-shirt from Spencer gifts, a baseball cap from Record Town. Magazine's that featured my 2nd God Trent (I worshipped at the altar of Kurt Cobain for many years, so he was my number 1).

Interesting little side story: I wore my NIN baseball cap to school one day - I think that was in 9th or 10th grade - and almost got jumped because of it. It was all black with the NIN (backwards 2nd N) embroidered on it. I'm walking down the hall when all of a sudden I hear someone say "Hey, his hat means white power!" I turned to look to see who had the KKK mask on when I realized everyone was staring at me. So every big black dude in the hall starts walking towards me and I'm freaking the fuck out. One of 'em, says to me "your hat mean white power man?" I weakly explained what it really stood for, honestly ready to just shit myself. Thankfully he accepted it and that was it. I never wore that hat to school ever again.

I was late to the whole NIN thing, but I'm younger than most of you guys. I remember hearing "Head Like a Hole" and "Closer" a lot on the radio when I was younger, but it just didn't really click for me...

Until freshman (or sophomore) year of HS, when I watched the Fragility DVD at a friends house shortly after it came out. Needless to say, after watching that, I immediately immersed myself in all of NIN's catalogue. I've only seen them live once, but thats going to change this summer since I just purchased tickets to two of the shows, the one at the IZOD center and the one at the Spectrum. Can't wait!

Oh, and does anyone know whatever happened to the DVD edition of 'Closer?' I have the VHS tapes and its really the only thing justifying me even having a VCR these days...

It's available as a torrent. The Closure DVD was tied up in a legal battle between Reznor and his ex-manager. Rumour is that Reznor leaked the Closure DVD on torrents himself last year. The way he's been releasing albums lately, it seems entirely possible.

Wow, I can't believe I wrote Closer. Well, drink a few beers and post thats what happens I guess. Anyway, thanks for the info! Bout to go search the torrent sites now.

Maybe I was in the wrong headspace at the time, but I downloaded The Slip yesterday afternoon and upon my first listen I thought it really sucked* I do appreciate Trent's gesture of giving the album away free regardless, though. I was having an especially good day yesterday, so maybe that was the problem. Today was rather shitty and sure enough - I'm enjoying it more on my second listening right now. I'm being totally serious about this. It's rare I'll ever listen to NIN if all is going good in my world. I get a lot more out of NIN (same thing with Tool) when I'm irritated, angry, or depressed. Anyway, I'll report back with my take on the album once I've spent some quality time with it.

Hey there Ray Abed, good to have you back! Where the hell have you been hiding?


*And I like all of the previous NIN albums - Ghosts being the exception, but I haven't begun listening to it yet.

I've given it enough listens, and I'd to say it's my 4th favorite of theirs. "1,000,000", "Head Down" and "The Four of Us Are Dying" are my favorites, and "Corona Radiata" I don't hate it, I occasionally like to listen Devin Townsend's ambient/sound scape albums, but I don't think it needed to be 7:33 long.

I love "1,000,000" and "Demon Seed" but I think that "Discipline" and "Echoplex" are my favorites.

I have mixed feelings about 3-5, but the rest is good stuff. I had a lot of "quality time" with the album in my car, and I really dig it. Just wish there were a few more tracks.

Next step? My good headphones.

I think "Corona Radiata" might benefit from a listen with headphones. That way you pick up on the different layers of sound.