There once was a time when the world had to wait up to five years at a stretch for a release of all-new studio material from Trent Reznor. In the past couple of years, that practice has changed, and his creative juices have certainly run wild and into three new albums, as well as producer credit on Saul Williams’s freshman effort. Though fans must be glad to have all this new music, The Slip proves that quantity is not always followed by quality. With the impressive and refreshing Year Zero in 2007, fans found a new view on NIN, because Trent took a political stance and laid down his sword on lyrics dwelling on his emotional woes with his trademark industrial ferocity. To follow that artistic political statement, and with some surprise, he put out the broad two-disc collection of so-so instrumental work known as Ghosts I-IV with mixed results. In mid-2008 The Slip shows a return to familiar lyrical expression, and in turn the vibe of the record exudes a bit of exhaustion, making the album’s title very appropriate.
Not that there aren’t some diamonds in the rough with the catchy electronic percussion laced throughout “Echophlex” and the downtempo piano number titled “Lights In The Sky.” Even the first single, “Discipline,” deserves a mention for its pop-tastic industrial angst, but stylistically it’s a step back with its echoes of the largely forgettable With Teeth album in 2005. However, overall, The Slip sounds like a rushed project that, thankfully, was being passed around for free digitally by Reznor himself since he’s now releasing albums on his own and doesn’t have to answer to the powers that be as much, but he did succumb to putting out a physical copy again for the sentimentalists such as myself.
Many halos later, Trent Reznor continues to be at the top of his game, and even with a few minor latter-day efforts among a number of grand ones in the span of his career, inching its way towards twenty years, he still proves to the masses why he gets to make his music at this level and in the vein of a largely ignored genre. Heavy weighs the crown.
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