Somedays you just need to throw a bowl against a wall or something, and I am not talking Superbowl, I mean like a real bowl. On a 75 degree day, fill a bowl full of Wheaties or Frosted Mini Wheats and fill it with milk, and to take your frustrations out, just chuck it against the wall. Or, if you want to show your frustrations, throw it at a judge of a court or something, so when he says "Order in the court" he will get a face full of Captain Crunch.
Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails is always throwing bowls on every album, including Broken. There is some background to this album, where Trent was very upset at his past record label, and he left to either another or he recorded on his own, so unlike any other album that is full of rage and hate, you would expect Trent to be very upbeat on this one, and he is. Happiness is shown throughout the album, whether it is in slavery or watching rainbows or even Counting Crow's!
Trent is actually very angry, as usual. He just kind of explodes here on this disc. "Pinion" is just a short minute, but gets a bit louder by the second, leaving it to an intro, leading right into the second track "Wish". "Wish" is very powerful, with tons of drum machines and guitar riffs and all that good stuff. Trent shows his anger throughout the whole thing, beginning with "This is the first day of my last days", and seconds later exploding with some good drum machine type stuff, to only more angered lyrics. He drops the F-Bomb a few times here, so if you do not like that word...uh...then you are not friendly with it, so I guess that is a warning. It seems that Trent won a grammy for "Wish", that is good, I think. "Wish" will beat the hell out of you if Queens Of The Stone Age haven't already with their single "No One Knows", and that is a good thing.
"Last" comes right after "Wish", and it will definitely beat the hell out of you just like "Wish" did, and it will beat you up more than you beat yourself up when you listen to "No One Knows" by Queens Of The Stone Age. "Last" is really heavy and loud, and very angry. Reznor lets out a few screams here and there, and during the end explodes and yells out "This isn't meant to last, this is for right now". The song is really about giving up, and things that revolve around that word. "Help Me I Am In Hell" is another short instrumental, leading up to the next track.
"Happiness In Slavery" comes in, and is very powerful with a lot of anger. The song is about...happiness in slavery with lyrics like "Slave screams, he hears but he doesn't want to listen" and "Slave screams, he's being beat into submission". A lot of guitar and bass hooks follow this one up as Trent continues to growl out words about slavery. He, of course, explodes on this one, just like the others. The last track, that is not secret, is "Gave Up". I listen to this a lot, I really like the lyrics to this. I believe it is about Trent's feelings, how he wants to smash himself to pieces or something, and it seems that he lost everything. He explains all the things he smashed up, including his sanity, integrity, what he believes in, what's left of him, and everything else, including cups and glasses, and a glass of Eggnog. The lyrics "I tried, I gave up" is mainly what it is about.
The next tracks, 7-97 are a huge gap between the next two that are coming up, the two secret tracks. How come it just skips through each track? 8..9..10? Trent should have said a word on each one, like on Sesame Street when they say "Today's show was brought to you by the number 3!", maybe Trent should sing along with the numbers...or something.
"Physical" and "Suck" are the two secret ones. "Physical" is kind of repetive, and "Suck" is very good, they both are really angry as well.
I guess they say that this is an EP, I will agree and also say this album is an EP, a very good EP, even though I don't even know what EP stands for. This album will beat the hell out of you though, it has everything you want from Nine Inch Nails, and Trent Reznor will leave you wanting a lot more. I got nothing else to say except a bunch of hibbity, jibbity, bibbity, swibbity!
Track Listing.
1. Pinion.
2. Wish.
3. Last.
4. Help Me I Am Listening To "Know One Knows"! (Hell).
5. Happiness In Slavery.
6. Gave Up.
98. Physical (You're So).
99. Suck.
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