More Teeth Than Most Music
I don’t know why people make such a big deal about Nine Inch Nails‘ With Teeth album. All I ever hear are people complaining that Reznor got lazy, sold out (to get out of his UMG contract), or that the music just plain sucks.
I can see how people can argue that With Teeth may not be part of the best of Nine Inch Nails, but it is competing with albums such as The Downward Spiral, The Fragile, and Year Zero. The danger in doing great work such as those albums is that even good stuff can’t even compare. Also, comparing a radio album to concept albums is comparing an apple to oranges. Even still, that apple is still pretty damn good compared to the other apples in the basket.
That’s not to say there is no Nine Inch Nails garbage out there. Reznor tends to release anything and everything, including remixes or concept explorations that probably shouldn’t see the light of day. With Teeth is not one of those things. It is still better than 80% of the Industrial/Rock music out there even if it sounds like it was made for the radio. I like it.
With Teeth is the album that got me hooked into NiN. I like it very much!
With teeth is a great album! Not Rezonor’s best maybe, but like you said: “competing” with The Fragile is hard!
Still, if I were to venture a guess…those that accuse him of selling out are elitist snobs. Well, either that or people that just wanted him to make albums like The Fragile XIV.
What’s better than “Right where it belongs” anyway? :)
And anyone who complains about selling out only needs to look to the CC licensed Ghosts I-IV or The Slip, which are both good and completely free. Go Trent!
I didn’t like The Fragile when it came out; it took a while to grow on me. I think I listened to Year Zero and With Teeth once. I love Ghosts I-IV, and The Slip, so I need to go back to those most recent halos and give them a listen.
Loved NIN since a friend gave me a tape with a dub of PHM, saw him in concert with The Downward Spiral tour, and will never stop loving his music.
Well, I actually see a persistent (overall) theme in With Teeth, Year Zero and The Slip, lyrically and technically. They have elements in common and, as opposed to The Fragile, Quake or Ghosts, they don’t focus on creating an atmosphere—they seem to be more visceral, and yet, oddly constrained if you compare them to Pretty Hate Machine or Broken.
In general, you may not particularly love With Teeth, but you can’t say it was poorly done, or that it didn’t get the attention the other albums got. Reznor simply tried a new approach, and yeah, comparing it with The Fragile would be, at least, as comparing apples to oranges.
Hear Hear!
I for one think that both Pretty Hate Machine and Downward Spiral are overrated. PHM is simply disgusting and Downward Spiral has only two good songs - Closer and Hurt. And even Hurt is pretty much crap in its original version, especially compared to the live version Trent sang with David Bowie.
Similarly, while the Year Zero has a good sound, it is bogged down in crappy political lyrics. I simply can’t believe musicians are jumping at this - Ministry has done the same. Good music shouldn’t be limited to a particular political event. What I also don’t like about this is that Trent manages to recycle parts of his old songs, especially from Downward Spiral, on this album, and on Ghosts as well.
Don’t get me wrong - I do like NIN, at least some of it. I just feel that the vast majority of what Trent has produced isn’t really worth listening to, or just tends to repeat itself. The only two original, good pieces of music were the Fragile and With Teeth albums.
I think Trent has burned out. He would do his fans and himself a favor by not producing any music anymore and finally getting a life.
As to the “With Teeth better than this or not”, I actually think With Teeth is Trent’s masterpiece. People focus on the music and the particular “air” it creates, well, maybe they should pay better attention to the lyrics. The songs on the album are cross-referenced, so the whole album is pretty much one large song with a few “side-notes” - songs not being referenced or not referencing anything. That I think makes it truly innovative.
Oh and btw, there’s nothing better than “The Line Begins To Blur”. What a song!
NiN is overrated.
Try these albums from Wumpscut and you’ll see his stuff blows NiN shit out of the water:
- The Mesner Tracks
- Music For A Slaughtering Tribe (2 CD)
- Dried Blood
- Bunkertor 7
Those are for starters
Then try:
Project Pitchfork’s ‘Chakra Red’ album
Man, this makes me feel nostalgic. I kinda feel bad, but right about the time The Fragile came out, my musical tastes/preferences shifted. I went from “loving” The Downward Spiral (and a good chunk of what came before it) to “appreciating” it.
Still, Trent Reznor’s the man. He’s a fricken genious, even if he is on a different wavelength than me. It definitely seems like it’s about time I checked out his CC’ed stuff and work backwards to see where he took things.
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