Halo 19

I think myspace is kind of lame.
But I had the best myspace email waiting for me in the box this morning. Full streaming of the new NIN album. Sweet.
With Teeth decidely starts out without any. The first track ("All the Love in the World") is almost sweet except for its angsty lyrics and a refrain of "Why do you get all the love in the world." I can't stop thinking about Fatboy Slim... But it does become more industrial Trent towards the end. Into the second track, ("You Know What You Are?") which is great NIN noise... hard and loud on the guitars and drums; yet still, the lyrics kind of suffer, I think. "Don't you fucking know what you are?" And "You'd better take a good look because you're full of shit."

Regardless, this is the sound I wanted from NIN. Moving on...

"The Collector" has got the dark and dredgy kind of feel of "March of the Pigs" or such. "I am the collector, I pick things up." Having a hard time understanding lyrics tho. Which, I suppose, is to be expected.
and then "The Hand That Feeds"... Once again, the lyrics just seem so obvious. And I'm back to feeling Fatboy Slim again. Where can I buy some glowsticks?

Then "Love is not Enough". Depressing enough just in the title. My least favorite kind of NIN song, really. Slow and repetitive, but dark. So, fine. It's NIN again... not Fatboy.

"Every Day is Exactly the Same" is a little frustrating again. NIN light or something. Which quite different from KMFDM Light. Come on, Trent. Punch me in the face! The next song is the title track... hopefully it lives up to its name.

But "With Teeth" stays in the realm of mellow NIN. If there is such a thing. He builds layer on layer up to a pretty unexpected break in the middle and lays the noise on afterward. Cool. But nothing overly exciting.

And "Only"... best lyrics I could understand so far. But, musically, it seems to be sticking in "Electronica/Dance" genre or something. If the bass drum thumped a little bit harder, I'd be liquid raving in no time. "Getting Smaller" rocks tho. Pulses and drives forward, and I like Trent's vox and the end is kind of rad too.

"Sunspots" is back to soft and kind of slow. Just Trent and a drum beat, but, again, adding more and more layers as the song progresses. I really like that song structure. As does NIN, apparently. "The Line Begins to Blur" is more distorted and darker than a lot of the other songs. But, dammit, I'm looking for something HARD as well as heavy. "Beside You in Time" is, yet again, a slow downer of a song. As is "Right Where it Belongs."

So... not exactly what I was prepared and/or looking for. But it's definitely NIN, and that definitely makes me happy. "The Hand That Feeds" kind of sticks out like a sore thumb, and I kind of wish it wasn't there. It kind of makes me think that it was designed solely to be a single. It just doesn't really fit with the rest of the album. Admittedly, I've only listened to it once, and I was interrupted multiple times... I probably won't listen again until I have the CD in my hand and am either at home listening on my DVD player or in the car. I'm sure some opinions will change once I REALLY get to listen to it. But, overall, this is more of a Further Down the Spiral kind of album than Broken or Pretty Hate Machine. I'll love this when I'm sitting alone somewhere reading or writing - perfect background music. Just not fitting my pre-conceived expectations.

This song-by-song review thing kind of sucks. But I mostly did it for myself so I wouldn't forget what I was thinking. These will probably change as well once I sit down and really listen to the album and think about each song... sounds like fun, but who knows when/if it will actually happen.