Even Deeper-thevoid99's Look at NIN # 1
Nov 07 '01
The Bottom Line thevoid99's response to Reznor's upcoming plans and his comments towards "The Fragile".
As of November 6, 2001, I declared myself as the Unofficial Nine Inch Nails (NIN) Spokesman for Epinions.com. This column will be focused solely on recent big news on NIN and its leader Trent Reznor. As being one of the more well-known music critic at Epinions.com and a devoted NIN fan, I decide to write a column that will focus on recent news and the current status of NIN. This and more upcoming columns on this band will be told from a true NIN fan’s point of view. This is not a column that is praising neither Reznor nor his band but more of a response to his upcoming plans for the future.
Signed,
Steven Flores aka thevoid99
Even Deeper, thevoid99’s Look at NIN #1: Reznor’s new upcoming album and “The Fragile”
On Monday, November 5, 2001, Trent Reznor went on an interview to MTV News to talk about plans for a new album, which he will start working on early next year and his comments on his previous album “The Fragile”. Reznor told MTV that for his new album, he’s will be more focused on the new album since he felt his last album “The Fragile” lacked a unifying feel where he described as writing the album on autopilot rather than think over things by himself. For his new album, Reznor is going for what he says “primitive, stripped-down, minimalist, and brutal” approach into his new music. Already for the second time this year, Reznor is on the cover of “Alternative Press” where he’s part of twenty-five most anticipated albums of 2002 along with other upcoming albums from David Bowie, Marilyn Manson, Green Day, Chemical Brothers, and many more. On the issue that will hit newsstands next month, Reznor will talk more about his new album, the future, his upcoming DVD/live album “And All That Could Have Been” and the pop group ‘Nsync (Kristina, I have no idea what he will say, I swear).
Now when I heard that Reznor described the making of “The Fragile” as writing on autopilot, it made me wonder why he was on “autopilot” with that album. Now I know “The Fragile” wasn’t well received commercially and some people felt the album was too strange or too unconventional to listen to. In all honesty, “The Fragile” isn’t an album to get really into when you first listen to it. It’s a very difficult album where you have to peel the layers to find its centerpiece. It took me a few listens to find out why it’s a great album. It had a great flow, different emotions, different musical approaches, and Reznor didn’t hold back. Earlier this year on “Alternative Press”, Reznor admitted that he was disappointed at the commercial failure “The Fragile” become and decided to reassess some things. At that time, he said he was proud of the album but I think what happened recently was he listened to the album again and found out what was wrong with it. Though in my opinion, I still think it’s NIN’s best album ever and at Epinions.com, it received a 4.5 out of 5 rating average from 103 reviewers where it’s number three in the NIN product list with NIN’s first album “Pretty Hate Machine” as the number one NIN product and number 35 at the Epinions.com music list.
Now I think the 800,000 copies “The Fragile” sold isn’t the thing that bugged Reznor a bit but the fact that “The Fragile” debuted at number one on late September of 1999 in its first week and then on the second week fell to thirteen making it the biggest drop from number one for an album on Billboard. Now that is embarrassing for an artist to come out with an album that debuted on the top spot and then drop fall flat on the face of the Earth. I think that’s what hurt Reznor and since then, he’s been a creative slump with his next products.
Ok, I admit it. The “Things Falling Apart” remix EP was a total disappointment. Though were standout remixes on songs like “the frail”, “into the void” and a cover of the Gary Numan song “ Metal”, the rest of the EP was disappointing and the fact that Reznor put not one but three remixes of the song “Starf*ckers, Inc.” on the record was an awful move that not only made me disappointed but some of the NIN webmasters including my friend Kevin Masse of NIN News and some fans thought it was a disappointing release and I’ve only listened to that record a total of five or six times from its November 2000 release to the month of December 2000. That’s how bad the record was. Then Reznor appeared again in late May of 2001 with a new song called “Deep” for the “Tomb Raider” soundtrack. The song was catchy like some NIN songs but it was kind of predictable with its industrial drum and guitar pattern assault. What made me didn’t like the song was its clichéd lyrics where it looked like other NIN lyrics but less abrasive and more forced. Though I thought the song was mediocre, the video however had a very interesting concept (Just chat with me through my MSN, AIM, or Yahoo ID and I’ll tell you).
In recent months, the status of NIN has been quiet. While Reznor did a remix for the production group The Neptunes side-project N.E.R.D. for the song “Lapdance”, the rest of the band worked on other projects for other artists. Multi-instrumentalist Danny Lohner did some mixing work for the electronic group Telefon Tel Aviv and folk-rapper Everlast while Charlie Clouser did work for Rob Zombie and toured as a keyboardist for friend Alec Empire of Atari Teenage Riot. While those two members are key NIN members, the other two members who were part of the NIN live band are very unclear on their status for NIN. Guitarist Robin Finck has been on again off again with NIN and Guns N’ Roses. Today, he’s working with Guns N’ Roses to finish their first new album in more than ten years who is likely to not return to NIN since he’s now known as a freelance guitarist. Drummer Jerome Dillon meanwhile, is now playing drums for Dave Navarro and has been playing with a side-project with A Perfect Circle bassist Paz Lenchantin.
Another big news coming from NIN is the upcoming live album/DVD titled “And All That Could Have Been” which is based on the band’s 2000 Fragility v 2.0 U.S. tour. Originally, the album was supposed to be release on December 4, 2001, which is one day before my twenty-first birthday. Well that date has now been pushed to January 22, 2002 due to production delays in the DVD mastering process. The live album along with the DVD/VHS will have separate track listings. The DVD will feature audio commentary, 5.1 Surround Sound, still shots, multiple camera angles.
The VHS/DVD track listing:
1. Terrible Lie
2. Sin
3. March Of The Pigs
4. Piggy
5. The Frail
6. The Wretched
7. Gave Up
8. La Mer
9. The Great Below
10. The Mark Has Been Made
11. Wish
12. Complication
13. Suck
14. Closer
15. Head Like A Hole
16. Just Like You Imagined
17. Starf*ckers, Inc.
18. Hurt
Now the versions you would hear from the DVD and the live album are very different and the live album track listings are very different from the DVD/VHS track listing.
Live Album track listing:
1. Terrible Lie
2. Sin
3. March Of The Pigs
4. Piggy
5. The Frail
6. The Wretched
7. Gave Up
8. The Great Below
9. The Mark Has Been Made
10. Wish
11. Suck
12. Closer
13. Head Like A Hole
14. The Day The World Went Away
15. Starf*ckers, Inc.
16. Hurt
The live album will be released in two versions. One will be simply a single CD while the other version will be a deluxe version which will contain a bonus disc called “Still” which are nine tracks that are new versions and new songs by NIN in a more deconstructed and stripped-down fashion where some of those recorded in a session in Chicago during the tour. These tracks might be a preview of what might come into the future for NIN or simply just another experiment from Trent Reznor.
“Still” track listing:
1. Something I Can Never Have
2. Adrift And At Peace
3. The Fragile
4. The Becoming
5. Gone, Still
6. The Day The World Went Away
7. And All That Could Have Been
8. The Persistence Of Loss
9. Leaving Hope
Now that Reznor is ready to make plans for the future. Don’t expect him to come out with a new album next year even though he’s in “Alternative Press” 25 Most Anticipated Albums of 2002. He was in the list in 1998 and his album came out a year later. He was originally supposed to release “The Downward Spiral” in ’93 but it came out in ’94. I’m not going to put in my 2002 Anticipated Albums list since I doubt he’ll release a new album in 2002. My hope is that he doesn’t screw up this time like he did w/ his previous releases. He needs to take his time and not worry about the Britneys and Nsyncs of the world. He just got to focus on him. In the next few weeks, Even Deeper will return for its response to Reznor’s upcoming “Alternative Press” cover story and what he has to say about his future. My hope is it’s as interesting as the last cover story he did.
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
thevoid99
|
 - Top 100 |
|
Member: Steven Flores
Location: Smyrna, Georgia
Reviews written: 1551
Trusted by: 439 members
|
|
|
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.