The Slip (album)
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| The Slip | |||||
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| Studio album by Nine Inch Nails | |||||
| Released | May 5, 2008 (Online) | ||||
| Recorded | 2008 | ||||
| Genre | Industrial rock | ||||
| Length | 43:45 | ||||
| Label | The Null Corporation – Halo 27 | ||||
| Producer | Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross, Alan Moulder | ||||
| Professional reviews | |||||
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| Nine Inch Nails chronology | |||||
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The Slip (also known as Halo 27) is the eighth major studio release by American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails. The album was released free of cost on May 5, 2008 via digital download on the official Nine Inch Nails website. The album was made available without any prior notice or advertisement, and in a similar fashion as the band's previous release, Ghosts I–IV, released two months earlier. The album was produced by Trent Reznor alongside Atticus Ross and Alan Moulder.
The album was released under a Creative Commons license, allowing fans to remix the album via the official NIN remix website. Critical reception to the album has generally been favorable, as well as the album's distribution method.
Contents |
[edit] Recording
After a month of songwriting, The Slip was performed and recorded in three weeks of studio time at Reznor's in-home studio.[1] The album was produced by Atticus Ross and mixed by Alan Moulder. Instrumental performances were contributed by live-band members Josh Freese, Robin Finck, and Alessandro Cortini. During the album's recording sessions, Reznor personally sent the album's first and only single "Discipline" to radio stations before the album was completed. According to Reznor, the track listing and lyrics were finished on a Wednesday (May 1), the final mix and sequencing on Thursday, the mastering on Friday, artwork on Saturday, and the album was released on Sunday (May 5).[1] Reznor reflected on the quick turnaround by saying "That was fun... You never could have done that before", referring to his previous struggles with his record labels.[1]
[edit] Release
Before the release, a single, "Discipline" was released freely on the official Nine Inch Nails site, and another song, "Echoplex", was released for free download from iLike. The ID3 tags of these MP3 files indicated that fans should visit the Nine Inch Nails website on May 5, 2008. On May 5, a free direct download link to the album in MP3 format was posted on the official Nine Inch Nails webste, with a message from Reznor that said: "thank you for your continued and loyal support over the years - this one's on me".[2]
Like the previous Nine Inch Nails studio album Ghosts I–IV, The Slip was released under a Creative Commons attribution-noncommercial share alike license, in effect allowing anyone to use or rework the material for any non-profit purpose, as long as credit is provided and the resulting work is released under an identical license. The website further expands by saying "we encourage you to remix it, share it with your friends, post it on your blog, play it on your podcast, give it to strangers, etc." [3] As with Ghosts I–IV and Year Zero, multi-track audio source files of the album were also made available at remix.nin.com.
[edit] Release versions
The digital download is available in five different audio formats. The lowest quality is VBR V0 MP3, followed by two lossless formats, FLAC and Apple Lossless. Also released were 24-bit, 96 kHz FLAC and WAV files. According to official Nine Inch Nails website, physical copies of the record will be released to stores around July 2008.[4]
As with Ghosts I-IV each album track features its own art. The lyrics for each track are embedded using ID3 tags, allowing for their viewing in supported media players.
[edit] Music
IGN commented that "Discipline" and "Echoplex" channeled "bits and pieces of Depeche Mode, Bauhaus, and even some Siouxsie and the Banshees."[5] Richard Cromelin of the Los Angeles Times called The Slip "murkier and less catchy than the last couple of regular NIN albums", but that "Reznor blends the jarring sounds of the industrial rock genre ... with a terse, punk-like attack, bringing an insistent, sometimes claustrophobic feel to his scenarios of alienation".[6] The Cleveland Free Times commented that "The Slip more or less sums up the terrain Reznor's covered in his nearly two-decade career", and went on to compare the album sound with the "edgy but irresistible beats" of Pretty Hate Machine and The Downward Spiral, and "the elusive atmospherics" of 1999's The Fragile.[7] The New York Times commented that "the music revives Nine Inch Nails’ past, from stomping hard rock to dance-club beats to piano ballad to inexorably building instrumentals."[1]
[edit] Critical reception
Critical response to The Slip has been generally positive, with an average rating of 76% based on eight reviews on Metacritic.[8] IGN gave the album an 8.8 out of 10, stating "Simply put, The Slip is an amazing record".[5] The SputnikMusic review, while generally positive, described the album as "more like a collection of songs than an album. There is no real point to it".[9] The Toronto Star stated, The Slip is "hardly a throwaway, this seems a sincere gift to fans".[10] Pitchfork Media gave the album a 7.5 out of 10, observing "Reznor's unique capacity to commingle raging industrial bangers with ballads and ambient instrumental passages appears in its best form since The Downward Spiral, and here gains much of the focus and restraint that many remember used to be his calling card."[11] LA Weekly said "Musically, it’s his most adventurous work since The Fragile, and his business model is inspired — if unsustainable."[2]
Like with Ghosts I–IV, the album's unorthodox distribution methods also garnered the attention of various news agencies. An ABC News op ed questioned if consumers would "ever pay for an album again" stating "with NIN now in the game, its hard to argue that this is anything but a harbinger of the future".[12] Commenting on the distribution of the album, Dave LaGesse of U.S. News & World Report said "The move seems an even purer play than what Radiohead did with its most recent album, In Rainbows".[13]
[edit] Track listing
All songs written and composed by Trent Reznor.
- "999,999" – 1:25
- "1,000,000" – 3:56
- "Letting You" – 3:49
- "Discipline" – 4:19
- "Echoplex" – 4:45
- "Head Down" – 4:55
- "Lights in the Sky" – 3:29
- "Corona Radiata" – 7:33
- "The Four of Us Are Dying" – 4:37
- "Demon Seed" – 4:59
[edit] Personnel
- Trent Reznor – performance, production, writing, art direction
- Josh Freese – performance
- Robin Finck – performance
- Alessandro Cortini – performance
- Atticus Ross – production, programming, engineering
- Alan Moulder – mixing, production, engineering
- Michael Tuller – engineering
- Brian Gardner – mastering
- Steve "Coco" Brandon – room tuning
- Rob Sheridan – art direction
[edit] References
- ^ a b c d Pareles, Jon (2008-06-08). Frustration and Fury: Take It. It’s Free.. The New York Times. Archived from the original on 2008-06-09. Retrieved on 2008-06-09.
- ^ a b Carr, Daphne (2008-05-28). Nine Inch Nails, Radiohead, Free Music and Creative Competition. LA Weekly. Retrieved on 2008-06-09.
- ^ Van Buskirk, Eliot (2008-05-05). Nine Inch Nails Gives Fans The Slip. Wired Blog Network. Retrieved on 2008-05-05.
- ^ Nine Inch Nails offer free album. BBC News. Retrieved on 2008-05-05.
- ^ a b Thompson, Ed (2008-05-07). Trent Reznor serves up some free goodies. IGN. Retrieved on 2008-05-09.
- ^ Richard, Cromelin (2008-05-07). NIN’s ‘Slip’ a free dive in dark waters. Los Angeles Times. Retrieved on 2008-05-09.
- ^ Pantsios, Anastasia (2008-05-14). "The Downloadable Spiral". The Cleveland Free Times 15 (54).
- ^ Nine Inch Nails: The Slip (2008): Reviews. Metacritic. Retrieved on 2008-05-17.
- ^ Bateman, Patrick (2008-05-07). Nine Inch Nails - The Slip. SputnikMusic. Retrieved on 2008-05-09.
- ^ Rayner, Ben (2008-05-11). Ben Rayner's Reasons to Live . . .. Toronto Star. Retrieved on 2008-05-22.
- ^ Harvey, Eric (2008-05-13). Nine Inch Nails – The Slip. Pitchfork Media. Retrieved on 2008-05-22.
- ^ Malone, Michael (2008-05-09). Will We Ever Pay for an Album Again?. ABC News. Retrieved on 2008-05-09.
- ^ LaGesse, David (2008-05-06). Nine Inch Nails' '100 Percent Free' Album. U.S. News & World Report. Retrieved on 2008-05-22.
