The Slip (halo 27): The One on Trent.

If Nine Inch Nails US tour dates were not enough for NIN fans (go check out the performance page for pre-sale tickets!), the unexpected and atypical release of two singles–Discipline and Echoplex–along with the cryptic message to visit the nin.com website on May 5th eradicated our socks that had already been blown off.  At 12:06 this morning, Trent Reznor released halo 27 ironically titled The Slip completely for free to all, thanking fans for their everlasting support, as rabid as they are, claiming “this one’s on me.”  Thank you Trent!

The new release contains ten new songs, totalling at 43:45 minutes of wholesome Reznor-ness.  The music will no doubt be showcased in the upcoming NIN tour, and a physical release of the album to supplement the free download offered at nin.com can be expected sometime in July.

After delving into an ablum revolving around a futuristic political plot and then following with a pure industrumental experiement, Trent Reznor has returned to autobiographical lyrics in The Slip–a The Fragile meets With Teeth aberration in the NIN album line-up.  The album progresses into popish contortions yet remains a nostalgic regression into his gritty industrial roots.  Nevertheless, a certain hollowness and monotone distance can be heard throughout the album, not present in previous work by Trent Reznor.  Certain tracks do separate themselves from The Slip lineup, such as the ghosts-like soothing echos of “Lights in the Sky” and many instrumental songs reminiscent of a Ghosts sequel.  Overall, not the best Reznor production, but nonetheless worthy of his name.

From the nin.com website:

as a thank you to our fans for your continued support, we are giving away the new nine inch nails album one hundred percent free, exclusively via nin.com.

the music is available in a variety of formats including high-quality MP3, FLAC or M4A lossless at CD quality and even higher-than-CD quality 24/96 WAVE. your link will include all options – all free. all downloads include a PDF with artwork and credits.

for those of you interested in physical products, fear not. we plan to make a version of this release available on CD and vinyl in july. details coming soon.

Addendum: The nin.com news feed…about two hours too slow.