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| Ghosts I - IV | 
 enlarge | Artist: Nine Inch Nails
Label: The Null Corporation
Category: Music
List Price: $16.98
Buy New: $7.97
You Save: $9.01 (53%)
New (52) Used (25) from $7.42
Avg. Customer Rating:  174 reviews
Sales Rank: 3101
Media: Audio CD
Discs: 2
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 5.5 x 5 x 0.6
MPN: 26
UPC: 766929908628
EAN: 0766929908628
ASIN: B0015FQZ94
Release Date: April 8, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 And on the seventh day, He rested. March 12, 2008
14 out of 15 found this review helpful
The downward spiral away from music with any semblance of song structure continues. The God of Anger Pop, who once created the singularly perfect musical moment that was Pretty Hate Machine, must have reached his seventh day of creation: for he is clearly resting on Ghosts. This is Reznor on a lazy day, bored with nothing better to do.
Ghosts I-IV is an organized chaos of happy (and angry and sad) accidents. I imagine a herd (or pod?) of Macs and samplers, pots and pans; left to their own devices, could produce something akin to Ghosts if they tried real hard. And I suspect Trent made exactly what he intended to make.
I admit that I'm still a pathetic hold-out waiting for Pretty Hate Machine II - The Revenge. Thus, nothing less will ever truly satisfy. Ghosts is neither fixed nor broken. It's really not that bad, but it's just not that good. And for a small fistful of dollars, I shouldn't complain.
I certainly like the progressive and revolutionary distribution (a la Radiohead's Rainbows) where the evil middle-man record company is kept out of the artist's and fans' relationship. I have to give kudos to NIN for fighting the good fight. So at worst, Ghosts I-IV will take up some precious space on your iPod. At best, it's harmless background noise. NIN Ghosts is a little haunting but definitely not scary.
 Small price to pay March 3, 2008
13 out of 15 found this review helpful
A must for any NIN fan and $5 is a small price to pay to help shape the future of the music industry. PAY FOR IT and send a message loud and clear to the industry!
 Sounds Like Trent Reznor's Loop Library March 4, 2008
13 out of 25 found this review helpful
Kind of disappointing. Most of this release sounds like things Trent would normally have put between songs as spacers. It just doesn't go anywhere. If you need things for your sample library it's a great download otherwise I would skip it as a "fanboy only" release.
Too redundant March 5, 2008
13 out of 28 found this review helpful
I know a lot of people are going to like this. They are hardcore fans. I think this CD is by far too redundant at times and at other times lacks coherency. The songs mostly sound alike. When they do change it is abrupt. It is hard to distinguish one Ghost from the others sometimes. I really wanted to like this because I am a pretty big fan of NIN, but this deserves a pass if you are new to NIN. One thing I do look forward to is DJs getting their hands on this and remixing them. I think with some tinkering the songs could come alive. As is, the songs are listenable, but not something that is going to keep my attention.
Great album; best music since "The Fragile" March 7, 2008
13 out of 14 found this review helpful
Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails (they are more or less synonymous) have been on an amazing creative surge that shows no signs of abating. With Teeth marked a decisive turning point away from navel-gazing and outward to social criticism. Year Zero took it even further, coalescing into a conceptual album every bit as fascinating (in its own way) as anything by Pink Floyd. Now...this.
Anyone who has read my other reviews knows my musical tastes run the gamut from Renaissance to Industrial. There are only two kinds of music in my world - good and bad. Still, I never thought I would hear an album that is at once so eclectic and yet so pure in its artistic persuasion as Ghosts I-IV.
How to describe the music? In 36 tightly structured, highly disciplined instrumental tracks, Reznor and company create a vivid soundscape that begins in melancholy, travels through industrial wastelands, and ends in transcendence. It is an epic song cycle without words, as perfectly constructed as anything by Bartok or Berg - but in a set of styles that defy easy categorization. Frequently ambient, often noisy like the best NIN cuts from years past, the sonic tapestry requires many listenings to absorb. There is real, honest-to-God Classical-type form in this work - repeated motifs, variations, developing ideas that morph unexpectedly.
It's a breathtaking work. Some NIN fans will undoubtedly feel left behind. Others will feel like they have suddenly taken a breath of fresh air.
Approaching his mid-forties, clean, sober, and maturing, Trent Reznor has, I think, only begun to truly come into his own as an artist. It's an amazing thing to behold. Spend the five bucks, download some great tunes, and feel the magic.
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