Ninc Inch Nails-Ghosts I-IV (for real this time)

Okay so I successfully DLed my copy of Ghosts this morning. And I just want everyone to know that i'm not going to rave about it just because it's Nine Inch Nails. I'm going to rave about it because it's really good.

Ghosts I-IV is a 36-track all instrumental collection. That may make it seem like it would be a long and difficult listen, but the total length is 110 minutes. Long yes, but the songs come and go at a pretty consistent clip. What makes this a successful album is that it doesn't fall prey to what ruins many instrumental albums, namely sameness and songs that never end. The songs are in a range of styles from Brian Eno-ish Ambient bits to all out rockers. Being that this is Nine Inch Nails there's also a lot of synth and piano. It's a varied batch of songs but they also all meld well together and the track order makes it so that no one group of songs sound like those around it. It sounds like Nine Inch Nails but is like nothing they've ever done before. Hell, there's even a few tunes you can shake your ass to!

I think this record, more than any other NIN release really shows what a studio whiz Trent Reznor is. He's had a reputation as such for a while but with his sometimes generic angsty lyrics stripped away from the music, the listener can really focus on all the levels and sounds that are coming at you. This is definitely a record for headphones, no doubt about it. Reznor has stated that he's wanted to make a record like this for a while and i'm glad he waited until he was free of record label meddling to do it because you know they would probably have had a shit fit after being presented with a double album of instrumentals. They wouldn't know how to market it and the album would thus probably disappear from the radar and miss a lot of ears that would really enjoy it. The fact that Reznor released it the way he did all of a sudden will generate a lot of press and hopefully a lot of new ears will check it out for the $5 DL fee that might not have been willing to drop $20+ on a double album. This album is truly a great one and I can't wait to hear what Reznor does next now that he's free of the bonds of the record industry.