so i wake up extra early today to pick up "with teeth" before i head
to class. as it turned out by the time i got there, all the standard editions
were indeed sold out. luckily i bitched enough so that one of the workers
fetched me one from the back, cause i didnt want that dualdisc trash.
being as excited as i was, i rushed out and opened it before driving off. and
wow... the packaging was pretty shitty. i mean not that it matters but, the
least he could have given us was a manual with lyrics, and possibly, credit your
own damn band!?! yes indeed, the cd comes with no credits, lyrics, or nothing.
well of course he prints his own name on the damn thing because he is TRENT
REZNOR! oh and dont expect any artwork in here. first thing that my eyes saw
when i opened the trifold flimsy paper case was ...wow.... a picture of trent
reznor. from my knowledge, i dont tihnk he ever put a picture of his ugly self
in one of his cds before (not counting that barely recognizable pic in PHM).
not that any of this mattered really at this point, because music is music. and
what really counts is what is on the cd right? well....that was until i got
home and checked their website.
now....so it seems, that yes there is credits, artwork, and lyrics. but its on
the web.....
so basically, your telling me that i pay for the darn cd but i have to use my
own ink, paper, and time to print it out? oh and also i have to register for
your cruddy site to have access to it. and hell, its not even in a convenient
size. the darn thing is one picture in poster format. oooo.....spiffy!! haha
ok, ill give him credit for a unique idea. stupid yes, but maybe thats why
nobody has done it! but really trent, do you really think that people will
think its "cool" that they can print it themselves and gee, have
computers that can handle opening a picture that is 10800x14400 and printers
with paper that is 3ftx4ft? seriously, i dont get, why they didnt just include
a such poster with the damn cd that i bought!?!
anyways, in all seriousness, from previously listening to the CD already, hands
down its their worst album to date. so what does that all mean and why did such
a bitchy fan buy the cd in the first place? cause in terms of comparing this
NIN cd to their past works, its horrible. if you compare it to most of the
trash that is out today, it still blows it away. so overall, its a pretty solid
album which i wish had some better packaging, thats the least you could give me
when i pay 12 bucks in a time where i could have just easily DLed it off the web
for free.
ah....so pretty much, what did others think of the cd?
I picked the leaked copy of this up yesterday, didn't have time to listen to
much. This is the first NIN cd I've gotten, so I'll take your word that it's
their worst. So far, don't really know what to think. What do you think is their
best CD, as an alternative to With Teeth?
All of them are good... Even with teeth. WT takes getting used to. At first I
wasn't sure. I'm not a big fan of the title track. lol with-ah teeth ahh.. The
opening of "Only " reminds me of the beats from
"closer"
I've been a hardcore fan since the downward spiral first came out - I have
every album, dvd, some bootlegs, yadda yadda. When I was young I saw
"wish" on mtv and liked it with my dad but being so young there was no
way for me to get the broken ep when it came out.
They have 4 "main" cds if you count broken and fixed as one cd so it
goes
-Pretty Hate Machine
-Broken/Fixed
-Downward Spiral
-The Fragile
For me, it's hard to choose just one. There's no way I can. Trent also produced
music for quake 2, the natural born killers soundtrack, lost highway. He was
more of a dj on natural born killers - just picked a bunch of songs to go along
with the movie. Quake 2 was all him - there's whispers, creeping noises, Trent
screaming. Lost Highway has a few pieces done by him as well as other people -
it's pretty moody and has some jazzy elements in it.
::shrugs:: Everyone is entitled to their opinion. I'll probably like nin
forever unless he decides to start making rap music.
pretty much how it works is, they have 3 main albums prior to this. their first
album was "pretty hate machine". this was classified as synth pop and
had a pretty big fan base. then things took a turn for the worst for trent, and
he made the darker industrial album "downward spiral". to most
people, this is the album that is most well known. it includes two of their most
famous songs, "closer" and "hurt". then the latest, was
"the fragile". this album is the most like "with teeth"
actually. he kept some of that industrial sound, but is heading more for that
melodic pop sound. fragile was alot more beautiful and contained things like
piano solos among other instrumentals. so imo, "with teeth" is pretty
much like "the fragile" except its getting more towards a pop sound.
so pretty much what happened was, that the fans are split into 3 groups for each
album. pretty much it depends, on when one started listening to them. then
again, there are some like me who liked all three, so imo, i liked all 3
equally. i was expecting a new sound from this album and i didnt really get it.
im kind of thinking of it as a "fragile part 2" which is kind of a
bummer becuase fragile was 2 discs by itself. i dont need more of that same
sound.
but if you really want an album to start off with at least, i would recommend
going in this order: fragile, pretty hate machine, downward spiral, and then if
your hooked by this time, check out the other halos like "broken"
Although I became a fan back when The Downward Spiral came out, I still think
that Pretty Hate Machine was their best. Not just because it had the most hits
but because it showed the most sync....at least that's what I think. Trent has
always been a weird guy doing weird things. I think now he makes a better
producer than a member of a band. I think he's just outgrown that phase but
seems to revisit it in hope of keeping his name fresh. I do have to say though
that they totally kick ass in concert, crappy song or not. They know how to
throw a party!
Quote by crapmonsterluckily i bitched
enough so that one of the workers fetched me one from the back, cause i didnt
want that dualdisc trash
Dualdisc has the 5.1 surround sound
on it though...It sounds better than plain old cd.
yea i know, but i dont like dualdiscs because they are more likely to scratch on
you. more surface area = bigger probability. also, even if i got the dualdisc
it would do me no good, since i dont have a good sound system for my dvd player
and i usually listen to my music in the car or discman so it serves no purpose
imo.
in this day and age, technology hasnt gone to the point where people are mainly
listening to music on thier dvd players, with at least a 5.1 speaker set up.
ya the stage lighting for the fragile tour was awesome. The way the lights were
in synch with "wish" and "march of the pigs" were
especially memorable for me. those led screens were neat how they could be
"put away" and David Carson did a good job with those movies. If you
didn't know, David Carson is known for breaking the mold for his usage of
typography. (!!!)
interesting...well even if he gave a reason for it, im not really agreeing with
it. hes bitching about the limitations that a cd case has to offer for artwork
so he makes an online pdf file. why not just include the poster with the cd?
its not like it hasnt been done before. he could have easily made it fold out,
like how pearl jam's "ten" manual folded out to be a poster. and i
dont understand him when he says that he wouldnt just do any artwork then, but
decides to put a huge picture of just himself on the cover. ok this may be
normal for any other artist, but trent has never felt the need to put pictures
of himself in his cds, so why start now?
im not really trying to hate on him, but i just find how he did the packaging
for this cd really odd. and for those that didnt realize, i was indeed being
sarcastic in my first post, i love NIN and i was trying to make a point that
even though i find that "with teeth" is one of thier worst, its still
a dman solid album in the modern mainstream music industry.
but in all honesty, ill say ok to not including a manual, and have a pretty bare
cd package. but why doesnt he at least have the decency to credit the rest of
his band members on the package. the only credits is his own name. no mention
of jeordie white, aaron north, jerome dillon, or allesandro cortini.
haha and yea, jeniferdono, i learned about david carson in my commercial art
class back in highschool. he was pretty much the biggest thing to happen in the
commercial art industry in the last 2 decades. didnt know he did stuff for NIN
though, pretty interesting....
With Teeth is a great album, trent did say he was moving on from the past stuff
with the clear bookmark that comes with the "And all that could have
been" dvd.
Well [with_teeth] is out and it sure gets a lot mixed reviews and evokes many
different (and even extreme) viewpoints on it. I've been listening to the album
for some time now - almost 24/7 - just to get my opinions on it polished up a
bit, and being sure i can talk about it with a little less bias - i guess i was
as excited as everyone when it came out - it's been such a long time since
fragile.
I guess this album is a natural continuation of what NIN has been evolving into
for past few years. I mean like every NIN album is so damn different from the
previous one - i guess people where really dissapointed when after sych pop PHM
they were treated with Broken (well in fact that's just an EP not an album) -
the we have TDS far more electronic and complicated in terms of songwriting then
eany of the previous ones - and i remember how people reacted once 'the fragile'
came out - there was a huge wave of dissapointment amon NIN fans, as the album
seemd far too delicate (fragile?) to follow TDS - and now as some time passed
many guys and gals out there believe 'the Fragile' to be best NIN record up to
date.
And i guess [with_teeth] (hah, i like writing it that way) will be also similar
case.
I guess somehow it's waht i expected of this album - being absolutely gubsmacked
by the 'Still CD' of 'And all That Could Have Been' i kinda felt we're to get
some piano ladden compositions this time. The sound got more refined pushing the
"fragility" of NIN sound even further - but it's artist's right to
move in whatever direction he wishes to, still i feel that case of [with_teeth]
is far more complicated than that.
I guess most of the work on that album was put into the technical side of the
music not the song-writing hence the simple construction of most of the songs
("Beside you in time" seems a shining exception here) and the lack (at
least to me) of an overall concept that unified the previous two albums. Most of
the songs seem to lack the climax most of the pieces on TDS had - the ending
that left you with silence ringing in your ears - asdly this album has very few
moments where sound is so multi-layered, chaotic almost cacophonic that previous
work had. It's noticable that the number of instruments and layers of sound got
greatly reduced - further proving that Trent Reznor is drifting to "Still
CD" style.
I don't care.
I guess the music on [with_teeth] is worthy enough listening that it doesn't
need to be compared - and even if i had to do so i personally would put it in
line with TDS and the Fragile, and i feel it to be definately much better then
the PHM-era works. Even if we didn't get what we wished for, [with_teeth] is
still a ver good CD, sensual yet brooding with sound so typical to NIN. It's
like Trent revisits all the previous albums and takes a little pieces of them
and then taking them to a whole new level of sound-tech (it's a crude self-made
term - i just dunno the proper word, sorry ). The overall sound is refined, and the production is simply perfect -
"You Know What You Are" is Broken reborn sounding like all the song
all that EP should have sounded - i don't mean the song-writing side, just the
sound-engineering. And as so i feel [with_ teeth] is a very good album to sum up
all the ground NIN covered with it's music past those 16 years.
Nothing new, no revolution yet a very solid CD definately worth listening
into.
Btw some guy on the net said that this CD is like sex: after first time you're
like "what all the fuss about?", then it slightly better and after
that you'd like to do it all the time. There might be some truth to it.
Sorry for lotta reading, and thanks if you are still reading up to this
point.
I'm open for discussion on that one - i'm really curious on your opinions on
[with_teeth]
EDIT: Oh and BTW - Trent's photo also appears in 'And All that Could Have Been'
2 CD edition booklet - i dunno if it's the case with 1 CD version.
I thought this album was going to suck (just some sort of premonition that
decided to stick with me after I heard "The Hand That Feeds" the first
time) so I was pleasantly surprised. My brother has been a NIN-fan a long way
back, but I didn't start listening to NIN until I heard The Fragile. I haven't
heard a lot from the older albums but I like what I've heard. As for With Teeth
I think that it's kind of a The Fragile Lite Version. It takes the style from
The Fragile and mixes it with rock/pop in an interesting way. The Fragile ha a
more "abstract" style though, and that is one of the things that made
it so good. It feels like that style is lost in this album and it feels less
original than The Fragile was. All in all I think that it's a good album. I
expected it to be a lot worse than this but the album prooved me wrong.
"Right where it belongs" is one of the best songs ever made
imo.
Btw: To answer crapmonsters question about the names of the band-members: My
brother told me that Trent Reznor is NIN. In other words, he makes the albums
himsealf and sometimes asks people for help with things such as instruments.
There is also a band that helps him at live performances.
I dunno... being a DJ myself, I look for certain qualities in music to play for
my crowd but good lord... this is their worst album to date... Hell, I'd say
when Trent did the music for Quake, it was better. And I agree with the
beforementioned statement about Pretty Hate Machine being their best work. I
can't go with one set without someone wanting Terrible Lie. I don't think even
with this new cd out, the request will change. :: thinks to self :: Damn
Trent... what were you thinking...?
I've been a huge NIN fan since the early 90's, I haven't had a chance to pick up
"With Teeth" yet, I saw the commercial for "The Hand That
Feeds" and thought it was pretty cool. I'll probably update this post
after I get to hear the CD. As for the packaging not having any lyrics, I don't
really care. The last time I read the lyrics to the songs from the booklet was
when I was about 15. I'm 22 now, and to be honest I buy music and listen to the
melody/beat and not the words. I've noticed that most music made today have
such abstract lyrics, that the songs as a form of poetry actually makes no
sense. But who am I to judge art? As for Trent's response to the no lyrics
question, he asks: When was the last time you were impressed with the CD
packaging, honestly? Well, I thought Slipknot's Iowa packaging was really cool.
So was Tool's Aenima artwork.
Tool's Lateralus was the most impressing artwork/packaging i've ever seen. And i
don't agree with TR and fuzzmegabass i guess the artwork and packaging are
essential part of music - it further emphasizes the message the music brings, i
mean when a band actually has a message - which isn't a popular thing to do
recently. Not the lyrics but the photos (unless those are damn band photos) but
the artwork being sort of guide through the realm that music tries to create -
like Dead Can Dance's "Serpen't Egg" booklet.
And as for band members - till this album there were two separate bands NIN who
made the albums composed solely of Trent Renor and other people who helped with
some minor stuff where mentioned in the credits and NIN Live who played on Tour
composed of TR and barely permanent band (i don't recall all the names) i guess
Jerome Dillon, Danny Lohner and Charlie Clouser. BTW [with_teeth] is first NIN
album recorded with whole band actually playing.
I don't really care about having a lyric book...some album art would be nice,
but I just care about what's on the CD. I got it yesterday evening -- standard
edition -- and I haven't been able to stop playing it. Can't say I'm impressed
with the title track, but overall, I like the CD. Because Trent is a fellow
musician -- and a damn talented one at that -- I have the utmost respect for
him, and I could really care less what the CD case looks like or what the CD
looks like, so long as the music is worth listening to.
Since I really liked "Fragile" hope I'm gonna love "White
teeth"
NIN was probably the best concert I've ever seen.
Hope they gonna do tour with this album.
It's cool to read your opinion about the new CD before listening to it, then I
wont be disapointed.
Quote by eXDream2K5I don't really care
about having a lyric book...some album art would be
nice, but I just care about what's on the CD. I got it yesterday
evening -- standard edition -- and I haven't been able to stop playing
it. Can't say I'm impressed with the title track, but overall, I like
the CD. Because Trent is a fellow musician -- and a damn talented one
at that -- I have the utmost respect for him, and I could really care
less what the CD case looks like or what the CD looks like, so long as
the music is worth listening to.
same kinda vibe from me. I mean, its nice to have the fabulous cover art and
lyrics, but I really care about what the album sounds like. I'm still waiting
for mine to come to my doorstep [why couldn't i pay for the express shipping?
sigh...] but from what i can tell i've been listening to it all night online
[officially of course- off of www.nin.com] and
i gotta say i like it i as
well as many, were nervous about the first time hearing 'hand that feeds' but I
think what happened for me is the first time i heard it, I was expecting
something far greater than anything i've heard before, thus Trent's magic- and I
must admit i was kinda shocked and dissapointed at the upbeatness. But the next
time i heard it, i listened. then the next I really listened. Now when I hear
it, i hear Trent. I mean, really hear trent. Not a sell out by any means- just
Trent. I love it
i think truely it is one of those albums that sort of grows on you. after
pretty much listening to it more extensively i feel that i am indeed liking it
more and more. if i actually recall, i myself didnt like DS either the first
time i heard it, or any of Tool's works. though i tihnk my take on it is a
little different, at first, it wasnt that i didnt like the "new"
sound. it was more that i thought it sounded fairly bland and much like the
fragile. i think the bar of excellence was set so high with PHM, DS, and
Fragile that one couldnt expect that caliber of work again. im pretty much
thinking of this as a album made more for the sake of making it. the fragile
pretty much summed it up for NIN and was like a concluding chapter from when it
all started.
but still i have to say its their worst album, but that isnt suppose to be an
insult to the album, its still a solid cd and pretty much one of my favorites
out of the past years.
*update*
Well, I just finished listening to the entire album here and I have to say that it's
different compared to what NIN has previously released. The only song I really
enjoyed on this album was "The Hand That Feeds". I'm really upset
right now, I was too hyped up on thinking that it would be another "The
Fragile". Right now I'm not really sure that I want to go out and spend
money on this CD. Maybe my musical tastes have changed since I was 16. Right
now the coolest song I've ever heard is Origa's Inner Universe. But then
again... I'm into D&B, electronica, opera and the symphony!
so i wake up extra early today to pick up "with teeth" before i head to class. as it turned out by the time i got there, all the standard editions were indeed sold out. luckily i bitched enough so that one of the workers fetched me one from the back, cause i didnt want that dualdisc trash.
being as excited as i was, i rushed out and opened it before driving off. and wow... the packaging was pretty shitty. i mean not that it matters but, the least he could have given us was a manual with lyrics, and possibly, credit your own damn band!?! yes indeed, the cd comes with no credits, lyrics, or nothing. well of course he prints his own name on the damn thing because he is TRENT REZNOR! oh and dont expect any artwork in here. first thing that my eyes saw when i opened the trifold flimsy paper case was ...wow.... a picture of trent reznor. from my knowledge, i dont tihnk he ever put a picture of his ugly self in one of his cds before (not counting that barely recognizable pic in PHM). not that any of this mattered really at this point, because music is music. and what really counts is what is on the cd right? well....that was until i got home and checked their website.
now....so it seems, that yes there is credits, artwork, and lyrics. but its on the web.....
so basically, your telling me that i pay for the darn cd but i have to use my own ink, paper, and time to print it out? oh and also i have to register for your cruddy site to have access to it. and hell, its not even in a convenient size. the darn thing is one picture in poster format. oooo.....spiffy!! haha ok, ill give him credit for a unique idea. stupid yes, but maybe thats why nobody has done it! but really trent, do you really think that people will think its "cool" that they can print it themselves and gee, have computers that can handle opening a picture that is 10800x14400 and printers with paper that is 3ftx4ft? seriously, i dont get, why they didnt just include a such poster with the damn cd that i bought!?!
anyways, in all seriousness, from previously listening to the CD already, hands down its their worst album to date. so what does that all mean and why did such a bitchy fan buy the cd in the first place? cause in terms of comparing this NIN cd to their past works, its horrible. if you compare it to most of the trash that is out today, it still blows it away. so overall, its a pretty solid album which i wish had some better packaging, thats the least you could give me when i pay 12 bucks in a time where i could have just easily DLed it off the web for free.
ah....so pretty much, what did others think of the cd?
I picked the leaked copy of this up yesterday, didn't have time to listen to much. This is the first NIN cd I've gotten, so I'll take your word that it's their worst. So far, don't really know what to think. What do you think is their best CD, as an alternative to With Teeth?
All of them are good... Even with teeth. WT takes getting used to. At first I wasn't sure. I'm not a big fan of the title track. lol with-ah teeth ahh.. The opening of "Only " reminds me of the beats from "closer"
I've been a hardcore fan since the downward spiral first came out - I have every album, dvd, some bootlegs, yadda yadda. When I was young I saw "wish" on mtv and liked it with my dad but being so young there was no way for me to get the broken ep when it came out.
They have 4 "main" cds if you count broken and fixed as one cd so it goes
-Pretty Hate Machine
-Broken/Fixed
-Downward Spiral
-The Fragile
For me, it's hard to choose just one. There's no way I can. Trent also produced music for quake 2, the natural born killers soundtrack, lost highway. He was more of a dj on natural born killers - just picked a bunch of songs to go along with the movie. Quake 2 was all him - there's whispers, creeping noises, Trent screaming. Lost Highway has a few pieces done by him as well as other people - it's pretty moody and has some jazzy elements in it.
::shrugs:: Everyone is entitled to their opinion. I'll probably like nin forever unless he decides to start making rap music.
I'd talk more but I gotta run.
pretty much how it works is, they have 3 main albums prior to this. their first album was "pretty hate machine". this was classified as synth pop and had a pretty big fan base. then things took a turn for the worst for trent, and he made the darker industrial album "downward spiral". to most people, this is the album that is most well known. it includes two of their most famous songs, "closer" and "hurt". then the latest, was "the fragile". this album is the most like "with teeth" actually. he kept some of that industrial sound, but is heading more for that melodic pop sound. fragile was alot more beautiful and contained things like piano solos among other instrumentals. so imo, "with teeth" is pretty much like "the fragile" except its getting more towards a pop sound. so pretty much what happened was, that the fans are split into 3 groups for each album. pretty much it depends, on when one started listening to them. then again, there are some like me who liked all three, so imo, i liked all 3 equally. i was expecting a new sound from this album and i didnt really get it. im kind of thinking of it as a "fragile part 2" which is kind of a bummer becuase fragile was 2 discs by itself. i dont need more of that same sound.
but if you really want an album to start off with at least, i would recommend going in this order: fragile, pretty hate machine, downward spiral, and then if your hooked by this time, check out the other halos like "broken"
Dualdisc has the 5.1 surround sound on it though...It sounds better than plain old cd.
Although I became a fan back when The Downward Spiral came out, I still think that Pretty Hate Machine was their best. Not just because it had the most hits but because it showed the most sync....at least that's what I think. Trent has always been a weird guy doing weird things. I think now he makes a better producer than a member of a band. I think he's just outgrown that phase but seems to revisit it in hope of keeping his name fresh. I do have to say though that they totally kick ass in concert, crappy song or not. They know how to throw a party!
yea i know, but i dont like dualdiscs because they are more likely to scratch on you. more surface area = bigger probability. also, even if i got the dualdisc it would do me no good, since i dont have a good sound system for my dvd player and i usually listen to my music in the car or discman so it serves no purpose imo.
in this day and age, technology hasnt gone to the point where people are mainly listening to music on thier dvd players, with at least a 5.1 speaker set up.
ya the stage lighting for the fragile tour was awesome. The way the lights were in synch with "wish" and "march of the pigs" were especially memorable for me. those led screens were neat how they could be "put away" and David Carson did a good job with those movies. If you didn't know, David Carson is known for breaking the mold for his usage of typography. (!!!)
Here's trent's response as to why there's no lyrics in the cd case for with teeth
http://www.nin.com/access/index.html
interesting...well even if he gave a reason for it, im not really agreeing with it. hes bitching about the limitations that a cd case has to offer for artwork so he makes an online pdf file. why not just include the poster with the cd? its not like it hasnt been done before. he could have easily made it fold out, like how pearl jam's "ten" manual folded out to be a poster. and i dont understand him when he says that he wouldnt just do any artwork then, but decides to put a huge picture of just himself on the cover. ok this may be normal for any other artist, but trent has never felt the need to put pictures of himself in his cds, so why start now?
im not really trying to hate on him, but i just find how he did the packaging for this cd really odd. and for those that didnt realize, i was indeed being sarcastic in my first post, i love NIN and i was trying to make a point that even though i find that "with teeth" is one of thier worst, its still a dman solid album in the modern mainstream music industry.
but in all honesty, ill say ok to not including a manual, and have a pretty bare cd package. but why doesnt he at least have the decency to credit the rest of his band members on the package. the only credits is his own name. no mention of jeordie white, aaron north, jerome dillon, or allesandro cortini.
haha and yea, jeniferdono, i learned about david carson in my commercial art class back in highschool. he was pretty much the biggest thing to happen in the commercial art industry in the last 2 decades. didnt know he did stuff for NIN though, pretty interesting....
I'm not happy with his reasons either. Maybe he couldn't afford it since he's got legal troubles with his ex-manager. heh
hahaha, well either way im not gonna hold it against them, at least they didnt pull like a st anger......
With Teeth is a great album, trent did say he was moving on from the past stuff with the clear bookmark that comes with the "And all that could have been" dvd.
Well [with_teeth] is out and it sure gets a lot mixed reviews and evokes many different (and even extreme) viewpoints on it. I've been listening to the album for some time now - almost 24/7 - just to get my opinions on it polished up a bit, and being sure i can talk about it with a little less bias - i guess i was as excited as everyone when it came out - it's been such a long time since fragile.
). The overall sound is refined, and the production is simply perfect -
"You Know What You Are" is Broken reborn sounding like all the song
all that EP should have sounded - i don't mean the song-writing side, just the
sound-engineering. And as so i feel [with_ teeth] is a very good album to sum up
all the ground NIN covered with it's music past those 16 years.
I guess this album is a natural continuation of what NIN has been evolving into for past few years. I mean like every NIN album is so damn different from the previous one - i guess people where really dissapointed when after sych pop PHM they were treated with Broken (well in fact that's just an EP not an album) - the we have TDS far more electronic and complicated in terms of songwriting then eany of the previous ones - and i remember how people reacted once 'the fragile' came out - there was a huge wave of dissapointment amon NIN fans, as the album seemd far too delicate (fragile?) to follow TDS - and now as some time passed many guys and gals out there believe 'the Fragile' to be best NIN record up to date.
And i guess [with_teeth] (hah, i like writing it that way) will be also similar case.
I guess somehow it's waht i expected of this album - being absolutely gubsmacked by the 'Still CD' of 'And all That Could Have Been' i kinda felt we're to get some piano ladden compositions this time. The sound got more refined pushing the "fragility" of NIN sound even further - but it's artist's right to move in whatever direction he wishes to, still i feel that case of [with_teeth] is far more complicated than that.
I guess most of the work on that album was put into the technical side of the music not the song-writing hence the simple construction of most of the songs ("Beside you in time" seems a shining exception here) and the lack (at least to me) of an overall concept that unified the previous two albums. Most of the songs seem to lack the climax most of the pieces on TDS had - the ending that left you with silence ringing in your ears - asdly this album has very few moments where sound is so multi-layered, chaotic almost cacophonic that previous work had. It's noticable that the number of instruments and layers of sound got greatly reduced - further proving that Trent Reznor is drifting to "Still CD" style.
I don't care.
I guess the music on [with_teeth] is worthy enough listening that it doesn't need to be compared - and even if i had to do so i personally would put it in line with TDS and the Fragile, and i feel it to be definately much better then the PHM-era works. Even if we didn't get what we wished for, [with_teeth] is still a ver good CD, sensual yet brooding with sound so typical to NIN. It's like Trent revisits all the previous albums and takes a little pieces of them and then taking them to a whole new level of sound-tech (it's a crude self-made term - i just dunno the proper word, sorry
Nothing new, no revolution yet a very solid CD definately worth listening into.
Btw some guy on the net said that this CD is like sex: after first time you're like "what all the fuss about?", then it slightly better and after that you'd like to do it all the time. There might be some truth to it.
Sorry for lotta reading, and thanks if you are still reading up to this point.
I'm open for discussion on that one - i'm really curious on your opinions on [with_teeth]
EDIT: Oh and BTW - Trent's photo also appears in 'And All that Could Have Been' 2 CD edition booklet - i dunno if it's the case with 1 CD version.
I thought this album was going to suck (just some sort of premonition that decided to stick with me after I heard "The Hand That Feeds" the first time) so I was pleasantly surprised. My brother has been a NIN-fan a long way back, but I didn't start listening to NIN until I heard The Fragile. I haven't heard a lot from the older albums but I like what I've heard. As for With Teeth I think that it's kind of a The Fragile Lite Version. It takes the style from The Fragile and mixes it with rock/pop in an interesting way. The Fragile ha a more "abstract" style though, and that is one of the things that made it so good. It feels like that style is lost in this album and it feels less original than The Fragile was. All in all I think that it's a good album. I expected it to be a lot worse than this but the album prooved me wrong. "Right where it belongs" is one of the best songs ever made imo.
Btw: To answer crapmonsters question about the names of the band-members: My brother told me that Trent Reznor is NIN. In other words, he makes the albums himsealf and sometimes asks people for help with things such as instruments. There is also a band that helps him at live performances.
I dunno... being a DJ myself, I look for certain qualities in music to play for my crowd but good lord... this is their worst album to date... Hell, I'd say when Trent did the music for Quake, it was better. And I agree with the beforementioned statement about Pretty Hate Machine being their best work. I can't go with one set without someone wanting Terrible Lie. I don't think even with this new cd out, the request will change. :: thinks to self :: Damn Trent... what were you thinking...?
I've been a huge NIN fan since the early 90's, I haven't had a chance to pick up "With Teeth" yet, I saw the commercial for "The Hand That Feeds" and thought it was pretty cool. I'll probably update this post after I get to hear the CD. As for the packaging not having any lyrics, I don't really care. The last time I read the lyrics to the songs from the booklet was when I was about 15. I'm 22 now, and to be honest I buy music and listen to the melody/beat and not the words. I've noticed that most music made today have such abstract lyrics, that the songs as a form of poetry actually makes no sense. But who am I to judge art? As for Trent's response to the no lyrics question, he asks: When was the last time you were impressed with the CD packaging, honestly? Well, I thought Slipknot's Iowa packaging was really cool. So was Tool's Aenima artwork.
Tool's Lateralus was the most impressing artwork/packaging i've ever seen. And i don't agree with TR and fuzzmegabass i guess the artwork and packaging are essential part of music - it further emphasizes the message the music brings, i mean when a band actually has a message - which isn't a popular thing to do recently. Not the lyrics but the photos (unless those are damn band photos) but the artwork being sort of guide through the realm that music tries to create - like Dead Can Dance's "Serpen't Egg" booklet.
And as for band members - till this album there were two separate bands NIN who made the albums composed solely of Trent Renor and other people who helped with some minor stuff where mentioned in the credits and NIN Live who played on Tour composed of TR and barely permanent band (i don't recall all the names) i guess Jerome Dillon, Danny Lohner and Charlie Clouser. BTW [with_teeth] is first NIN album recorded with whole band actually playing.
I don't really care about having a lyric book...some album art would be nice, but I just care about what's on the CD. I got it yesterday evening -- standard edition -- and I haven't been able to stop playing it. Can't say I'm impressed with the title track, but overall, I like the CD. Because Trent is a fellow musician -- and a damn talented one at that -- I have the utmost respect for him, and I could really care less what the CD case looks like or what the CD looks like, so long as the music is worth listening to.
Since I really liked "Fragile" hope I'm gonna love "White teeth"
NIN was probably the best concert I've ever seen.
Hope they gonna do tour with this album.
It's cool to read your opinion about the new CD before listening to it, then I wont be disapointed.
same kinda vibe from me. I mean, its nice to have the fabulous cover art and lyrics, but I really care about what the album sounds like. I'm still waiting for mine to come to my doorstep [why couldn't i pay for the express shipping? sigh...] but from what i can tell i've been listening to it all night online [officially of course- off of www.nin.com] and i gotta say i like it
i as
well as many, were nervous about the first time hearing 'hand that feeds' but I
think what happened for me is the first time i heard it, I was expecting
something far greater than anything i've heard before, thus Trent's magic- and I
must admit i was kinda shocked and dissapointed at the upbeatness. But the next
time i heard it, i listened. then the next I really listened. Now when I hear
it, i hear Trent. I mean, really hear trent. Not a sell out by any means- just
Trent. I love it
i think truely it is one of those albums that sort of grows on you. after pretty much listening to it more extensively i feel that i am indeed liking it more and more. if i actually recall, i myself didnt like DS either the first time i heard it, or any of Tool's works. though i tihnk my take on it is a little different, at first, it wasnt that i didnt like the "new" sound. it was more that i thought it sounded fairly bland and much like the fragile. i think the bar of excellence was set so high with PHM, DS, and Fragile that one couldnt expect that caliber of work again. im pretty much thinking of this as a album made more for the sake of making it. the fragile pretty much summed it up for NIN and was like a concluding chapter from when it all started.
but still i have to say its their worst album, but that isnt suppose to be an insult to the album, its still a solid cd and pretty much one of my favorites out of the past years.
but anyways, for a fairly funny review of it (at least i think so anyways...) check out meathead's perspective:
http://www.theninhotline.net/meatpers/mp_050305.html
*update*
Well, I just finished listening to the entire album here and I have to say that it's different compared to what NIN has previously released. The only song I really enjoyed on this album was "The Hand That Feeds". I'm really upset right now, I was too hyped up on thinking that it would be another "The Fragile". Right now I'm not really sure that I want to go out and spend money on this CD. Maybe my musical tastes have changed since I was 16. Right now the coolest song I've ever heard is Origa's Inner Universe. But then again... I'm into D&B, electronica, opera and the symphony!