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| The Slip | 
 enlarge | Artist: Nine Inch Nails
Label: The Null Corporation
Category: Music
List Price: $24.98
Buy New: $17.50
You Save: $7.48 (30%)
New (48) Used (9) from $13.08
Avg. Customer Rating:  91 reviews
Sales Rank: 1029
Format: Limited Edition
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 2
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 5.3 x 5 x 0.4
Model: HALO 27 CD-LE
UPC: 766929934627
EAN: 0766929934627
ASIN: B001B71NOI
Release Date: July 22, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Factory Sealed Ships The Same Day
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| Customer Reviews:
 Awesome little album from Trent. July 23, 2008
12 out of 14 found this review helpful
I've been a Nails fan since the Broken/TDS days. Yes, it's common knowledge that Trent's calmed down a little. It happens with age. Some people can't accept that. Thing is, Trent has continued to be on the cutting edge of music for the majority of his career. He doesn't care what you think. He doesn't make music solely for you. He makes it because he loves doing it and he's dedicated his life to it.
On to The Slip. It's a short album -- comparable in length to With Teeth. But that's where the similarities end. It's more of a straight up rock record at first listen. And you will hear a lot of Trent's signature lyrical pieces such as "Fading away," "I am here right beside you" and "put the gun in mouth." But that's part of the fun. Classic Trent. Classic NIN. This is fun little album with something for everyone on it. Two awesome instrumentals -- dark and eerie. A great piano/vocal song that could find a home on Still. And some really aggressive kickass rock songs. If you can't get into an album like this, I can't help you.
The Limited Edition DVD is well worth the price of admission. It contains rehearsal versions of five songs from The Slip. And the energy displayed here by Trent (with no crowd) is inspiring. The guy really loves what he does. And one of the things I love most about NIN is when you hear live versions of the songs it's never like listening directly to the CD. He throws in a lot of different touches here and there to his songs that just plain rock. Echoplex, Head Down and Letting You really capture the feel for me here.
If you're a fan of NIN, buy a copy. You won't be sorry.
Good news all around! July 22, 2008
8 out of 10 found this review helpful
Good news, part 1: I agree that this is Reznor's tightest set of rock tunes in ages. Part 2: Check out the rehearsal footage on the bonus DVD. The band is air-tight, tough and exciting as ever. This bodes well for the upcoming tour. Part 3: The most important thing here is what Trent has been accomplishing since he gave his record company the bird. Without the pressures of corporate B.S., he has been more successful and creative than ever. No major label would have touched an uncommercial experiment like "Ghosts I-IV", and this freedom has re-energized him into rocking like a M.F. on this terrific new release. And as the last laugh, these releases are raking in millions! This bodes well not just for NIN, but for all truly talented artists who are tired of working for stuffed suits and seeing fans get ripped off. Like I said, good news all around!
The Slip July 23, 2008
8 out of 10 found this review helpful
Three and a half stars.
You know, I'm not going to bore you here with the story of "The Slip", being that I don't assume that Nine Inch Nails has many casual fans anymore, and anyone is interested knows that it is availble for free on the groups website. Rather, let's for go that whole discussion and move directly to the record itself.
Being prolific, apparently, is very good to Trent Reznor. After having to wait five years for 1999's "The Fragile", and six years for its insipid followup, 2005's "With Teeth", I didn't expect a new Nine Inch Nails record, going with their average pace, until 2010. But here we are in 2008, and Reznor has released three strong records in a row, with "Year Zero", the instrumental collection "Ghosts "I-IV", and his newest record, "The Slip".
It is true that there isn't a whole lot new here. The record utilizes the things that Reznor has been doing pretty much every since the beginning: hard rock/ industrial, with some ambient instrumental pieces and "ballads" thrown in for good reason. This record is also a logical progression from his last "with singing!" LP, "Year Zero", as it boasts a (for him) more minimalist production sound and emphasis on big beats.
But you know what? For an artist who has been recording for almost twenty years, Reznor and his defacto project, Nine Inch Nails, can be forgiven for not reinvinting the wheel. The man never sounds bored on "The Slip", rather providing new colors for his already trademark sound.
"The Slip" starts off with a short ambient piece before launching into "1,000,000", a propulsive, driving song that sets the tone for the first half of the record. "Letting You" follows suit, all punchy drums and loud guitars crashing together with more enthusiasm than many of Reznor's peers and followers can put into an entire record. "Discipline" is flat out the funkiest song the man has ever commited to tape, going back to the disco-esque hi-hat work from his biggest hit, "Closer", with a bass line as tight and fluid as anything he has committed to tape (or, computer hard drive, as it were). "Echoplex" isn't as hard hitting as the earlier songs, but is still Nine Inch Nails rock, patented 1992.
On side B of the record, Reznor slips into his more subdued material. The instrumentals that adorn this part of the record are reminscent to what the man did with "Ghosts", and the ballad like "Lights in the Sky" has a tossed off feel that compliments the song perfectly, sounding vaguely like something off of "Still", the bonus disc that came with his live record, "And All That Could Have Been".
Now, I know I used a lot of references there to Nine Inch Nails earlier catalog. Again, "The Slip" is a piece of that catalog, and it's actually kind of comforting to hear Reznor hitting a groove. "The Slip" is also Reznor's most consolidated record since his debut, having just ten tracks and running under fifty minutes long. There is no overarching concept here, just a tight record, something new for Reznor.
Now, the cons. Reznor still remains a fairly terrible lyricist. The man continues to write like a fifteen year old dissed by a girl in high school, all pent up rage at nothing in particular. His words continue to be a drag, and where "Year Zero" at least saw him trying to grow out of it and look at something outside of himself, here, once again, he points the finger right at Reznor, and doesn't come up with anything interesting to say.
Also, the sequencing is flawed. By putting all the rockers at the beginning and the ambient stuff at the end, it hurts any sort of flow that could have been accomplished by mixing it up, spreading it out, the record would have a stronger impact than it does.
"The Slip" is not the great Nine Inch Nails record. But it is a strong album from Reznor and crew, a worthy addition to their canon, and one that is worth adding to your MP3 library.
NOTE ON PHYSICAL EDITION: This edition comes with a 24 page booklet, digipack foldout, a bonus DVD that features the band playing five of the songs live in rehersals, and a nifty sticker pack for everyone's lunchboxes.
Give it time.. July 28, 2008
7 out of 8 found this review helpful
Reznor has been quite a busy man these past few years. Long gone are the days where fans would have to wait 4 or 5 years for a new album to come out. There is so much NIN news going on right now..it's really great to be a fan.
In 2007, it started with the apocalyptic alternate reality game. Dozens of websites popped up relating to this futuristic mythology of the world. This eventually led to the release Year Zero. A truly great masterpiece composed Reznor. The album featured lyric themes never heard in the NIN world before and sounds that you would never think be considered music. This electronic masterpiece was one of the most creative and noisy albums of 2007.
A few months go by and BAM! Ghosts I-IV was released. "A soundtrack for daydreams" Reznor describes. He's definitely right. This is the most experimental and "out there" NIN has ever gotten. From beautiful piano pieces, to trippy guitars, and video game-esque beats, this album was amazing. It still managed to keep that classic NIN sound we all love.
Just when it couldn't get any better, another album comes along. Best of all, it's for free. THE SLIP.
When I first listened to The Slip, I was honestly disappointed. It felt generic and boring, the songs were badly recorded, and there was so much noise you could hardly tell was Trent was singing. I disregarded it for a few weeks before listening to it again.
As I started listening to it more. I began to realize how great it really was. The Slip is so much different from other NIN albums, yet somehow the it goes back to their roots of The Downward Spiral and The Fragile.
The first thing I noticed is the recording of the album. I found it to be sloppy and muffled at first, but now I think that's one of the things that make the album awesome. All the songs sound a like a garage band recording. This makes the music sound raw and in your face. It sounds like the band is playing right next to you. The most notable use of the recording quality I'm talking about is on "Head Down".
The flow of the album is superb. There's so much variety in the styles of the songs, but Reznor (of course) finds a way to make them all flow together. The album feels like one giant song split up into different parts (like a Pink Floyd song).
The albums starts off with 999,999 (Instrumental). The song starts out slow but slowly progresses, adding more and more layers of sounds and noises. Although it's an instrumental song, it eventually builds up with Trent's muffled and chaotic voice, ending with "How did I slip into this?-".
1,000,000 kicks off with hard beating drums and typical NIN synth riffs. This song is a classic NIN rocker. Very "With-Teethy". It leads straight into..
Letting You. This song starts out with a complex and fast drum beat before being overtaken by some very noisy bass and synth. There's definitely some Year Zero-esque lyrics here. It ends with an intense bang.
Discipline is the next song. Dark disco is the best way to describe it. It's catchy, dance-able, and full of NIN goodness. Be sure to watch to the "music video" ;).
Echoplex. This song is very dark, yet fragile. The chorus is really melodic. The ending of the song has a lot of build up and instrumental goodness.
Head Down is the next song. The best song off the album in my opinion. The song starts of very heavy and angry before going to into the epic and beautiful chorus. The end of the song gets intense and chaotic before calming down to a slow and ambient synth. This leads into..
Lights in the Sky. This is the "piano" song off the album. It really is just Trent and a piano. The lyrics are extremely well written and gives the album a turning point in atmosphere. It flows very well into..
Corono Radiata (Instrumental). This song starts out with 5 minutes of serene ambiance. By the end it quickly turns into a dark and surreal soundscape. A great instrumental.
The Four of Us Our Dying (Instrumental). The dark and surreal ambiance of CR continues with this song, adding more sounds and noises. Pairs really nicely with CR.
Demon Seed. This is a really original NIN song. I really haven't heard anything like it. I can't really describe it well either. You'll just have to listen to it yourself =D. It's a great closing song though.
Overall, The Slip is a really great album. It has a wide variety of songs that go together really well. It will definitely grow on you, so please give it some time. Highly recommended as a first NIN album to listen to. It covers all the areas of NIN, as well as covering some new ones.
Key tracks: 1000000, Echoplex, Head Down, Lights in the Sky, The Four of Us Our Dying, Demon Seed.
 I listened to this album just because the NIN brand name was attached July 28, 2008
6 out of 23 found this review helpful
This album has been receiving more media attention for how it was released than for its contents. The artistically ambitious but somewhat unfocused Ghosts I-IV (2008) was never an arena rock concert material, and Trent Reznor needed to do something in order to boost ticket sales of the upcoming North American tour. So, he released The Slip, a pop album filled with radio-friendly songs for free on the Internet. This album sounds very similar to With Teeth (2005), which consists of underdeveloped and boring sound and overused and recycled lyrics. I know that Reznor's lyrics have been a mixed bag, but it's a bit tough to realize it's a 42-year old man that wrote those lyrics.
However, the biggest problem I have with Reznor is that the 43-year old man (as he turned 43 shortly after the album was released) is trying so hard to be relevant among fans who are young enough to be his kids. NIN, without a major record label, now heavily depends on the Internet for marketing, and Reznor's primary target is the teenagers to twenty-something who spend hours on the Internet everyday, those youths in the middle class who think they know everything about the world through the Internet but actually know very little about the "real" world, those who are easily impressed by Year Zero (2007), which looks like a comedy compared to what have actually happened in the history (including the atrocities at the Abu Ghraib prison), those who have a short attention span, easily get bored and need to always be entertained.
It looks like most of the old-school NIN fans who grew up with the band since early 1990s have left and been replaced by those young fans. It's quite understandable because you can't stay in your 20s forever unless you are a rock star. You'll eventually get wiser and want something more intelligent and challenging, which doesn't seem to be Reznor's priority at the moment.
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