cdm72's Full Review: With Teeth [PA] [Digipak] by Nine Inch Nails
Self-loathing and discontent is nothing new in music, as we’ve discussed already, but no one’s ever done it with as much style and charm as Nine Inch Nails head chef Trent Reznor.
“Hey God
Why are you doing this to me?
Am I not living up to what I'm supposed to be?
Why am I seething with this animosity?
Hey God
I think you owe me a great big apology.”
(from “Terrible Lie”, Halo 2)
But that was 1989. It’s 2005 now (well, for the sake of this review, it is), and let’s face it, some of the charm is gone:
“I’m just a face in the crowd
Nothing to worry about
Not even trying to stand out
I’m getting smaller and smaller and smaller
And I got nothing to say
It’s all been taken away
I just behave and obey
I’m afraid I am starting to fade away.”
(from “Getting Smaller”, Halo 19)
Seriously, dude, you’re still beating that horse? Isn’t he good and dead yet?
“Watching all the insects march along
Seem to know just right where they belong
Smears of face reflecting in the chrome
Hiding in the crowd I’m all alone”
(from “All the Love in the World”, Halo 19)
I guess not.
In 2005, NIN released their 5th full-length studio album, Halo 19: With Teeth (or [WITH_TEETH] if you want to be technical), and the reactions were mixed. It had been 5 years since Halo 14 and people were pretty excited, so everyone snatched up their copy almost as soon as it came out (I know I did), and slid the disc into their player and prepared to be amazed, as usual. The reviews came in and the word was good, 5 stars, 5 stars, 5 stars. And then the backlash started. From the first song, “All the Love in the World”, it’s obvious Reznor has gone through not one ounce of change as an artist and is now basically just rehashing everything he’s been saying since 1989. Almost immediately, Halo 19 was relegated to the bottom of the pile and has been NIN fans’ least favorite album ever since.
As if the stunted lyrics weren’t enough,, even the structure is pathetic. The man who brought us
“Did you happen to catch, or did it happen too fast
What you thought would always last has passed you by
Is everything speeding up, or am I slowing down
I’m just spinning around and I don’t know why”
(from “Where Is Everybody”, Halo 14)
is now giving us this dreck:
“The more that we take
The paler we get
I can’t remember what it is
We try to forget
The tile on the floor
So cold it can sting
In your eyes is a place
Worth remembering”
(from "Love Is Not Enough", Halo 19)
Dude, I coulda wrote that sophomore year.
And so Halo 19 was labeled “not good”. But CDM is here to tell you I think Halo 19 has gotten a bum rap. It’s not GREAT, but it is good. Very good in some places.
Halo 19 is Reznor’s “Addiction and Recovery” album, something I didn’t know until recently and that knowledge adds a whole knew depth to the lyrics, especially the title track which is now most obviously about his addictions:
“She comes along
She gets inside
She makes you better than anything you’ve tried
It’s in her kiss
The blackest sea
And it runs deeper than you
Dare to dream it could be
Wave goodbye
To what you were
The rules have changed
The lines begin to blur”
(from “With Teeth”, Halo 19)
But so little has been made of the substance of the lyrics and most of the focus is simply on his enunciation (“awitha teetha!”) that the entire point of this song is lost.
And, I admit some of the songs here are simple NIN same old same old (“All the Love in the World”, “You Know What You Are?”, “Beside You in Time”, and “Right Where It Belongs” could, in my opinion, be removed and you’d be left with a pretty awesome 9-track disc), but then there are some really incredible gems hidden in here. If you can listen to the groove and awesomeness of “Only” without bebopping and scatting, you’ve got to be dead inside. Lyrically it’s typical stuff, but man that beat is da bomb.
The same goes for the other singles, “The Hand that Feeds” and “Every Day is Exactly the Same”. These songs alone make Halo 19 worth the purchase. And then sometimes he does manage to recapture that rhythmic flare I’ve always admired.
“I feel it coming and I’ve got to get out of its way
I hear it calling and I come cause I can’t disobey
I should not listen and I shouldn’t believe
But I do
Yes I do”
(from “Sunspots”, Halo 19)
Good fans are very protective of their artists, and we want to believe they can do no wrong. So when Halo 19 came out and we heard it, a lot of us began to move away and proclaim the master dead. But having just spent a week with this cd, 2 and 3 times a day, I finally began to realize it’s much more than I’d originally believed. As with all things Reznor, subsequent listens always reveal entire new layers. Yes, there are absolutely some songs that just suck and need to be skipped, but there’s also this huge middle section, from tracks 3-10 that are pretty great. He’s not reinventing industrial music with Halo 19, but I don’t honestly believe being a pioneer was ever Reznor’s ultimate goal. I think he just wants to make great music that pleases him. And if he can do that, he can please others, as well, and know he did it by giving them what they wanted: Nine Inch Nails as told by Trent Reznor, not NIN as told by nameless studio boss.
If you’re one of those Halo 19 detractors, give it another listen. Tab through the beginning, stop before the end, the guts of this record are really awesome, and worthy of the Halo designation.
With Teeth, the first album of new material in six years from Nine Inch Nails, proves the band name still carries weight. With Teeth blisters from the...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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