With Teeth: Nine Inch Nails: My Album Review
oint
An auteur is someone who audaciously crafts single-handed art using all possible tools at his disposal.
They consciously invent with the use of all things within grasp...break new ground, bend and distort the rules to perfection gucci handbags.
Trent Reznor is an auteur.
Trent Reznor = Nine Inch Nails.
It's been six years since the last NIN album, "The Fragile"- a collective opus in the post-tormented nineties of dissafected youth. The Fragile was perhaps NIN's most atmospheric work--it's a swan song to the Bill Clinton "safe" era.
If techno formula and it's redefinition is to Depeche Mode-- deconstruction is to
Nine Inch Nails. While both share the propensity to take drum machines and bit-processing synthesizers further
into stretchdom, credit the latter for taking the machine and whatever remains of it's chirps and bleeps to Hell and back. Nine Inch Nails is industrial music's Event Horizon. The skipper is Reznor; proud as ever to have taken the devil with him on few occassions.
Ever seen the movie 7even? Listen to the soundtrack. Classic Reznor.
I came across Nine Inch Nails during 1994. Being a grunge/indie/college radio enthusiast---the only band I felt that could pull off a full length show and totally get away with it using a full orchestration of synth and keyboards were Depeche Mode. Exceptions were occasionally handed out to 80's synth god Howard Jones and Thomas Dolby.
Then I chanced upon "The Downward Spiral" from a CD that our band's drummer "bootlegged" from somebody's CD player. Perhaps it was out of sheer curiosity that made me listen to noise being looped endlessly into a wider spectrum of more noise. If 16 tracks of noise could give you tinnitis, you have no idea what 36 tracks of pure scratching, gnashing and banging, hissing melodic noise would do. It appears that at one point during the last part of NIN's "Mr. Self Destruct" I swear I could've heard the sound reverberating into my medulla oblongata. As a result, 3 songs into the "The Downward Spiral"-- I was a convert. I have never heard nor witnessed such vast amount of genius ever put into magnetic/ digital format. The sound was tormenting yet liberating; 3 parts cyberpunk anger, 1 part mozart. 3 parts scream, 1 part whisper.
This was the start of my worship. And six years of waiting seemed like an eternity to witness rock music's second coming.
"With Teeth" is Nine Inch Nails 4th non-independent studio album. A homecoming of sorts.
If you expect the same familiar Dante's infernal journey to noise and more noise then "The Downward Spiral 2" it's not.
"With Teeth" captures the atmosphere and post-apocalyptic angst on a post 9/11 note without being political. The album takes us back to hell, not in a high school kind of way. It brings us closer to a "real hell". old age, escapism, nihilism, getting in touch with the non-safety and the terror we've successfully brought to ourselves. It's an album that encompassess all genres, embraces them and weaves them into wounded, tattered sonic frontispiece. The landscape is devoid to whisper to a scream, it's either ALL SCREAM or devastatingly soft whispers of falsetto rage. This time, sonic bliss is not achieved thru badass I don't give a rat's dick scrape the wallpaper off noise. Surprisingly, the angriest sounds are the sweetest.
Standout Tracks:
The Albums opener "All the Love in the World" sounds like a cross between a Billy Joel littany and that pepsi techno sundown commercial. The piece is danceable almost too sweet to remind us of pitchforks and horns. Reznor speaks of "Watching all the insects march along/Seem to know just right where they belong.", as he expresses disgust to those who can easily conform, fit in, and find their safe place in society....all for the sake of being posers and pseudos. The song reaches perfect sardonic sarcasm at the end of the last note..when a scream finally cements the hate, the retribution of unfair and unjust hero worhip.
"You Know What you Are" literally and figuratively hammers the same message of poser self-introspection. Shades of Dostoyevski's Notes from the Underground. This song also heralds Dave Grohl taking over the skins showing the drum machines who's boss.
"The Hand that Feeds" is one of the most accessible NIN tracks to come out in years. Much like the MTV friendly 1990 single "Head Like a Hole", this multilayered sound blitz is a subconscious tirade against the Bush war campaign. "Inside your heart it is black and its hollow and its cold", is a reference to the political apathy and lack of concern of many Americans during the Iraq war. The beat is infectious, trippingly danceable with a dangerously tagged ringmaster tailend-- "Will you bite, the hands that feeds you, will you stay down on your knees".
"Only". One of the standout tracks that jettisons us back to eighties when new wave was cool and Devo ruled college radio. The groove is mostly influenced by Jackson's "Billie Jean" interspersed with a tinge of Level 42's "Something about You". Be warned however that this song is also the darkest, most honestly brutal take on nihilism..."there is no you, there is only me, there is no fucking you, there is only me...only...only...only. It is also by far, a testament to Reznor's genius to fuse industrial noise murmurs/whispers into the bridge..."I just wake you up, to hurt myself" repeatedly, like it was Santa's gift to zoloft nation.
"Getting Smaller" sounds like punk being molested by techno. The song is perhaps the closest Reznor could get to deny old age...."I'm just a face in the crowd, nothing to worry about...I'm getting smaller. I just behave and obey, I'm afraid I just might fade away."
"Line Begins to Blur" feels like it was sung from a megaphone, a much visceral take on abuse and escapism.
"Beside you In Time" is a Bowie-esque ala fatboy Slim "Bird's of Prey" homage to electronica. It' Reznor's way of saying "Who's your Daddy?".
And the best track in the album by far is the closer "Right where it Belongs". The track boasts of a simple melancholy piano loop reminsicent of a straightjacketed Brian Wilson. The 4 minute piece is a journey to both spectrums of sound, at first seemingly from beneath the grave and finally ending in a concert hall amidst the cheers of thousands. Knowing Reznor, it could be a metaphor for rebirth, much so as it is a backmasked metaphor for the chilling reality of life's meaningless fear of the unknown. It is pure poetic genius. "You keep looking but you can't find the woods / While you're hiding in the trees" is such a beautiful line for the often complicated task of soul-searching.
There are smaller quests you can go on with a single song, or you can take the whole ride and listen to the album. "With Teeth" is no different. Sometimes I find myself lost in the soundscapes... feeling like they could wisk me away to another, fantastic or even frightening place. Other times I just enjoy the mashes. Let's face it. There is an endless amount of CRAP out there right now. It's hard to find any kind of honesty in music these days. Because of that, I find myself listening to a lot of hard stuff.. just for the mash of it. Reznor's music IS honesty to the core in my opinion. He does what he wants to do, a true auteur.
Unfortunately, I'll probably be waiting until I turn 38 for the 3rd coming.
By that time Trent Reznor will be 46.
-George
(review taken from my multily site--2005)
An auteur is someone who audaciously crafts single-handed art using all possible tools at his disposal.
They consciously invent with the use of all things within grasp...break new ground, bend and distort the rules to perfection gucci handbags.
Trent Reznor is an auteur.
Trent Reznor = Nine Inch Nails.
It's been six years since the last NIN album, "The Fragile"- a collective opus in the post-tormented nineties of dissafected youth. The Fragile was perhaps NIN's most atmospheric work--it's a swan song to the Bill Clinton "safe" era.
If techno formula and it's redefinition is to Depeche Mode-- deconstruction is to
Nine Inch Nails. While both share the propensity to take drum machines and bit-processing synthesizers further
into stretchdom, credit the latter for taking the machine and whatever remains of it's chirps and bleeps to Hell and back. Nine Inch Nails is industrial music's Event Horizon. The skipper is Reznor; proud as ever to have taken the devil with him on few occassions.
Ever seen the movie 7even? Listen to the soundtrack. Classic Reznor.
I came across Nine Inch Nails during 1994. Being a grunge/indie/college radio enthusiast---the only band I felt that could pull off a full length show and totally get away with it using a full orchestration of synth and keyboards were Depeche Mode. Exceptions were occasionally handed out to 80's synth god Howard Jones and Thomas Dolby.
Then I chanced upon "The Downward Spiral" from a CD that our band's drummer "bootlegged" from somebody's CD player. Perhaps it was out of sheer curiosity that made me listen to noise being looped endlessly into a wider spectrum of more noise. If 16 tracks of noise could give you tinnitis, you have no idea what 36 tracks of pure scratching, gnashing and banging, hissing melodic noise would do. It appears that at one point during the last part of NIN's "Mr. Self Destruct" I swear I could've heard the sound reverberating into my medulla oblongata. As a result, 3 songs into the "The Downward Spiral"-- I was a convert. I have never heard nor witnessed such vast amount of genius ever put into magnetic/ digital format. The sound was tormenting yet liberating; 3 parts cyberpunk anger, 1 part mozart. 3 parts scream, 1 part whisper.
This was the start of my worship. And six years of waiting seemed like an eternity to witness rock music's second coming.
"With Teeth" is Nine Inch Nails 4th non-independent studio album. A homecoming of sorts.
If you expect the same familiar Dante's infernal journey to noise and more noise then "The Downward Spiral 2" it's not.
"With Teeth" captures the atmosphere and post-apocalyptic angst on a post 9/11 note without being political. The album takes us back to hell, not in a high school kind of way. It brings us closer to a "real hell". old age, escapism, nihilism, getting in touch with the non-safety and the terror we've successfully brought to ourselves. It's an album that encompassess all genres, embraces them and weaves them into wounded, tattered sonic frontispiece. The landscape is devoid to whisper to a scream, it's either ALL SCREAM or devastatingly soft whispers of falsetto rage. This time, sonic bliss is not achieved thru badass I don't give a rat's dick scrape the wallpaper off noise. Surprisingly, the angriest sounds are the sweetest.
Standout Tracks:
The Albums opener "All the Love in the World" sounds like a cross between a Billy Joel littany and that pepsi techno sundown commercial. The piece is danceable almost too sweet to remind us of pitchforks and horns. Reznor speaks of "Watching all the insects march along/Seem to know just right where they belong.", as he expresses disgust to those who can easily conform, fit in, and find their safe place in society....all for the sake of being posers and pseudos. The song reaches perfect sardonic sarcasm at the end of the last note..when a scream finally cements the hate, the retribution of unfair and unjust hero worhip.
"You Know What you Are" literally and figuratively hammers the same message of poser self-introspection. Shades of Dostoyevski's Notes from the Underground. This song also heralds Dave Grohl taking over the skins showing the drum machines who's boss.
"The Hand that Feeds" is one of the most accessible NIN tracks to come out in years. Much like the MTV friendly 1990 single "Head Like a Hole", this multilayered sound blitz is a subconscious tirade against the Bush war campaign. "Inside your heart it is black and its hollow and its cold", is a reference to the political apathy and lack of concern of many Americans during the Iraq war. The beat is infectious, trippingly danceable with a dangerously tagged ringmaster tailend-- "Will you bite, the hands that feeds you, will you stay down on your knees".
"Only". One of the standout tracks that jettisons us back to eighties when new wave was cool and Devo ruled college radio. The groove is mostly influenced by Jackson's "Billie Jean" interspersed with a tinge of Level 42's "Something about You". Be warned however that this song is also the darkest, most honestly brutal take on nihilism..."there is no you, there is only me, there is no fucking you, there is only me...only...only...only. It is also by far, a testament to Reznor's genius to fuse industrial noise murmurs/whispers into the bridge..."I just wake you up, to hurt myself" repeatedly, like it was Santa's gift to zoloft nation.
"Getting Smaller" sounds like punk being molested by techno. The song is perhaps the closest Reznor could get to deny old age...."I'm just a face in the crowd, nothing to worry about...I'm getting smaller. I just behave and obey, I'm afraid I just might fade away."
"Line Begins to Blur" feels like it was sung from a megaphone, a much visceral take on abuse and escapism.
"Beside you In Time" is a Bowie-esque ala fatboy Slim "Bird's of Prey" homage to electronica. It' Reznor's way of saying "Who's your Daddy?".
And the best track in the album by far is the closer "Right where it Belongs". The track boasts of a simple melancholy piano loop reminsicent of a straightjacketed Brian Wilson. The 4 minute piece is a journey to both spectrums of sound, at first seemingly from beneath the grave and finally ending in a concert hall amidst the cheers of thousands. Knowing Reznor, it could be a metaphor for rebirth, much so as it is a backmasked metaphor for the chilling reality of life's meaningless fear of the unknown. It is pure poetic genius. "You keep looking but you can't find the woods / While you're hiding in the trees" is such a beautiful line for the often complicated task of soul-searching.
There are smaller quests you can go on with a single song, or you can take the whole ride and listen to the album. "With Teeth" is no different. Sometimes I find myself lost in the soundscapes... feeling like they could wisk me away to another, fantastic or even frightening place. Other times I just enjoy the mashes. Let's face it. There is an endless amount of CRAP out there right now. It's hard to find any kind of honesty in music these days. Because of that, I find myself listening to a lot of hard stuff.. just for the mash of it. Reznor's music IS honesty to the core in my opinion. He does what he wants to do, a true auteur.
Unfortunately, I'll probably be waiting until I turn 38 for the 3rd coming.
By that time Trent Reznor will be 46.
-George
(review taken from my multily site--2005)
posted by The Bystander at
2:04 PM
1 Comments:
This is really a cool band! The first song I heard on MTV is "Perfect Drug" :P
"The Hand That Feeds" is really good too <3
- Joan
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