lol.

i'm going to have to concede the point, reluctantly, but note what i had to do in order to get here - i had to throw away the first ep altogether, cut the arena rock bullshit off of the last two and then resequence the remaining eight tracks to essentially finish the job that reznor abandoned. that means i've cut out half of the tracks (it's closer to a third of the running time, because these were mostly shorter tracks). but, i'm going to acknowledge that the sheer terribleness of tracks like shit mirror (shit mirror?) actually served to throw me off from the more substantive tracks that make up the rest of the collection.

so, once you remove the arena rock garbage, what's left is actually a substantive release.

the way i've resequenced this needs a few finishing touches. the fade in the second track is now too long, and he's got twenty minutes at the end to tack on something like theme from tetsuo, which i still think is the best thing he's done in eons. but, this is beyond acceptable, and i'm not compromising or going easy on him - this is substantive, and it's the first time in a long time i can say that.

i want to say something about the "loop" at the end of the background world, though, because it's not actually a loop, but rather something called process music, in the style of a steve reich composition. that's going to go over most people's heads, and that's fine, but just notice when you're listening to it that it slowly changes and morphs in a way that gets from one defined point to the next. he's reusing the record-player-dying effect he used on the closer to god single, sure, but there's actually a lot more going on here than there is there.

i'm still of the opinion that these cheesy ableton sequencers need to die and burn, but he's not using them as a crux here as he so often has, and he's found a way to transcend these loop based composition processes (see the reich reference). i don't want to say that that's a big step forwards; it's more like a step sideways, or a reclamation of his humanity. but, it's encouraging at least.

he may have claimed that this is the end of this project, but he's said that before and...he's full of shit. we all know that. there's a lot to draw on here in a re-embrace of more abstract writing, and even some more subtle lyricism. if he can just stop with these big man with a gun self-parodies once and for all. but, they pay the bills, right? fuck.

this edit is legitimately strong, and i'm glad i took the time to finish the fucking job for him, even if i shouldn't have had to fucking do it for him.

so, i've put this together for myself, and, hey, if you like it...

i'm going to listen to it a few more times to see how i react to it in this form, but this was something like what he wanted to do to start with, and is probably what he should have actually done in the end. maybe if he'd have released another two or three eps, he'd have had enough quality material for a whole record.

while this eight track collection is far from the heights of his classic period, it's also arguably the best nin record in over a decade. but, i just have to reiterate the point - you can't and shouldn't try and compare this to his 90s material. rather, you should interpret it as a facelift over his lackluster 00s-10s work. it does have a purpose, when interpreted that way.

i'm actually hoping that this is both an end and a start, and any future nin releases are rather different in scope. we'll see, i guess.