So, Nine Inch Nails (who fell by the wayside, I think, after THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL), last year released perhaps their best album of all time, YEAR ZERO. Shortly thereafter, NIN re-released a collection of live studio performances of some older songs and some new songs and instrumentals called, STILL, which quickly became my second favorite NIN album (tied with PRETTY HATE MACHINE). And THEN, shortly after that, Trent Reznor released a collection of 36 instrumental tracks called GHOSTS I-IV, which I had serious doubts about, but which I absolutely love. And they offered it for download at the seriously reasonable price of $5. It's one of the most listenable electronic instrumental albums I've ever heard, and it's got a great ambiant mood to it. It's 36 tracks and I can actually stand to listen to all 36 tracks in one sitting.

So, now, after all of that, all within a year of each other (or so), Nine Inch Nails now, apparently, has another brand new album called THE SLIP. And, get this, they are offering it FOR FREE dowload at nin.com. A whole studio album, and they're just giving it away! Just to say thanks to their fans.


I find this very encouraging. Big rockstars who already have money coming out of their ears are taking control of their music by ditching the labels and releasing and distributing it themselves, thusly making the music affordable, or they go and do something rad like NIN has and give it away. Which is something similar to what Radiohead started with IN RAINBOWS when they allowed us to pay whatever we felt was fair, or to just download it for free.

I'm digging the whole thing. And NIN has re-earned my respect.


I haven't had the chance to download THE SLIP yet, as I'm at work, but they've got some of the tracks up on their MySpace page. It sounds a little more typical of recent NIN than YEAR ZERO or GHOSTS had, but it sounds pretty good. And it's fucking free, so, there ya go.