Nine Inch Nails – With Teeth
Six years. Six, Long, Years. That’s how long it’s been since anything new from Trent Reznor, bar David Bowie and Doom 3 work. And for what? You ask. Particularly when the fairly unnerving pop, radio-friendly beats of “The hand that feeds” blasted out of you’re speakers. I’ll tell you what. One of possibly the greatest rock albums ever made.
People twitched when an ill health, drug addled Trent Reznor came up with “The Fragile”. 5 years on from one of the most influential albums of the last 10 or so years. Two-discs and just over half of them had lyrics, this was bold, for some too much, others just as valid as any other of his work. And it was obvious Trent had to clean up his act or die, so thank *** he did just that and wrote about it.
“With Teeth” is both the most predictable and un-predictable Nine Inch Nails album written yet. It is essentially 13 songs. That’s 13 straight-up songs with no instrumentals to fill gaps, all with a certain flow only Trent has really been able to achieve. Never would have we seen Trent create something like that. However, in these songs, it sounds like a greatest hits of NIN songs, but all original songs. All the craftsmanship and music we’ve come to expect is here, but this time, stripped bare with nothing else to distort it, essentially brilliant.
You only have to get dropped in straight away to understand why Trent is still an essential part of music. Opener “All the Love in the World” is fantastic. Starting off with a very simple break-beat/vocal intro, and just building, like a fairly standard industrial song, until suddenly the piano kicks in, and it turns into such a funky song and simply enjoyable. There’s a far funkier edge to this album, yes, all the moody heavy songs Trent has come up with before remain, but now there is some far more upbeat songs to be heard, and this shows his sometimes not obvious progression musically. “The Hand That Feeds” just songs ***ing fantastic as apart of that album, just like “Closer” 10 years before. The production is brilliant, let alone the fact that Trent has finally opened up, broke the barriers and begun to sing about politics. Another good example would be “Only” with a certain, British dry humour to the lyrics, and an obviously David Bowie influenced song; it is a song to treasure more and more.
This of course isn’t to say that Trent has lost touch with his beautifully fragile side. Take “Beside you in Time” A minimalist, skipping beat with Trent’s vocals beautifully singing over it, heartbreaking, and reminiscent of ‘Hurt’. But then it turns into “Right where it belongs” a simple piano, guitar fuzz, vocals track which by end of could have you in tears.
There is only one word for it, flawless. No, it’s not the downward spiral, but that can only be good. If he didn’t want to progress then he wouldn’t have copied an already successful formula. And it becomes clear just why he takes such long breaks between albums, it’s simply because so he can stay fresh and carry on making brilliant albums for as long as possible, and particularly considering what has happened between this album and “The Fragile” good on his for doing it the way he did. I could write about this for a long time yet, but I will end by saying that this is, what a real rock album is about. Where as “The Downward Spiral” was more about telling a transgressive story, this is about capturing pure emotions and simply turning them into songs. A rare an underrated talent, and one no one else right now can do as well.
Adam Turner-Heffer.
