They had earlier hits like 'Head Like a Hole'. They put out Broken, which, despite only being an EP and hence only have a few songs, and
despite that I have to admit 'Happiness in Slavery' sounds a little thin for what it was probably going for, has some of the hardest rocking songs
ever. (Songs from that album also won NIN Grammys for best "Heavy Metal Performance" on two different years) Then they put out one of the greatest
albums of all time in The Downward Spiral: Every song sounded different, but they were all still memorable. They were all full of life, and they all
achieved the emotional response they were aiming for. The album even got some 'statesman musician' credibility, not that it needed it, when Johnny Cash
did his own version of 'Hurt' before dying.
After that, it all went to shit.
Actually, they put out some good singles, like 'Burn' (which rocked hard, but was still different from their other hard songs, like Head Like a Hole,
Wish, or March of the Pigs), after The Downward Spiral. But he apparently didn't have a good album in him anymore.
The Fragile, despite being a two CD album, has maybe, maybe enough good material for a good, solid EP. I'll completely give him 'Just
Like You Imagined' (which was recently used as the background music for the 300 trailer, though it was not used in the movie itself), which is a
great instrumental, and yet unlike anything he did before. Other than that, I don't know. If I listened to it again, maybe I could name a couple of other
songs that would be worth getting individually. But most of the album is forgettable. Consequently, every time I've tried to listen to the whole thing
straight through, it feels like a chore.
I've read a humor article that said this about Coldplay:
I felt the same way about With Teeth. After immediately listening to it, I might not be able to identify any songs. It's just completely boring and without life. The song that was chosen as a single, 'The Hand That Feeds', is kind of catchy, but it's not really a great song. It's just sort of generic techno-pop. Its ending is repetitive and weak. And it probably actually is the best song on the album.Upon the release of their last album, a local DJ played the entire CD, cover to cover. For forty minutes, I thought the station had gone off the air. The other day, I got really scared because my mind went completely blank for like three minutes straight. But it turns out I just had a Coldplay song stuck in my head.
It's so easy to compare With Teeth to the songs on Broken or The Downward Spiral. I just read a review where someone said that he set his alarm clock to play 'Wish', because he knew the opening would absolutely wake him up, and force him to get up and turn off the alarm before his neighbors called the cops. Nothing on With Teeth has that immediate attention-grabbing quality. And I mentioned the variety on The Downward Spiral: Different rhythms, sounds, song structures, etc. With Teeth is just a big gloop of undifferentiated songs with basic rhythms, melodies, and, to repeat myself, generic techno-pop sounds.
Like The Fragile, maybe there are some good ideas in there, buried under all the mediocrity. I guess the opening sparce piano notes of "Right Where it Belongs" are okay.
I haven't listened to anything from Year Zero yet, and I'm not sure how in a hurry I am to.
When I was in highschool I could listen to the whole The Downward Spiral album straight through on cassette, then flip it around and listen to it again -- the songs were so different that that wasn't repetitive. (To name a contrary example, I sometimes think I like individual Tool songs, but when I try to listen to their albums, I get burnt out on the self-similarity half-way through) I wondered if maybe my earlier fondness for that album was just a teenage thing, but after listening to it again (several times) I'm still impressed by it.
I can understand that Trent Reznor might not want to make Broken and The Downward Spiral over and over (in fact, even those two albums are very different from each other). And now that he's over 40, he might be mellowing out and might not be able to make such hard rock songs anymore. (Before he died, Kurt Cobain suggested he might have wanted to move in a softer direction, and I think he could have pulled it off) But the main thing that's missing is inspiration.
