NIN - With Teeth Leaked (Impressions inside)
 

It's been leaked. I gave it a listen and I can indeed say the new album is complete garbage especially the lyrics. Having been a long time NIN fan since Pretty Hate Machine, I'm real disappointed and underwhelemed. I know we all have our opinions but I can't fathom how a real NIN fan would think the new album is any good.

I'm not going to look for the leaked version and will wait for the album release. As much as this pains me to say, your impression does not surprise me. The NIN standard is just too high, an album like The Downward Spiral is near impossible to top. I'm still going to buy the CD and DualDisc the day it comes out, just because its NIN.

hahaha you're crazy.

This CD is fucking awesome.

I've listened to NIN for well over 10 years now. Every CD is different from the last and changes in sound.. in fact, I feel that With Teeth will rank higher on my list than The Fragile.

I think many will try to compare to Downward Spiral. Every band has their "masterpiece" album which they will NEVER top, NIN included, however.. it's not like, say, St. Anger vs. Master of Puppets where we see a severe drop in talent and quality.

It's just yet another direction for NIN.

I dunno. With Teeth sounds like rehashed synth from the Fragile along with uninspired beats from a toy keyboard. The lyrics sound like Trent didn't put much thought into them. Here's an example:

He has this net, and he drags it behind him. it picks up feelings, right? then he feeds on them. but it's ok because he's a big boy and he'll swallow it all.

Worst fucking lyrics ever!

I didn't think NIN's lyrics were ever that inspiring. To me his lyrics always read like above average high school poetry.

As stated above, every band has an opus and for NIN it is The Downward Spiral. I think they were some of the best lyrics of any music.

I'll keep it simple. I don't like the song that they're playing on the radio, and the rest of the album is far worse than that shitty song. I just hate when great bands go bad.... I'll just go back to listening to Mudvayne's new one.

I've seen bands go in this same direction. The difference is a) they did it YEARS ago when it was NEW and b) I actually liked it.

Now this crap is just unacceptable from the same guy who put together The Downward Spiral.

That's the funniest thing I've read all week.

I like the album. I don't love it, and it isn't nearly as good as The Downward Spiral, but I like it anyway. I'll make the buy when it comes out.

Pretty Little Hate Machine will always be NINs est in my eyes. So far I've only hear one song of ht enew CD on the radio going to work. Crap. Angst Disco is the only thing that comes to mind.

I really hope you're pulling my leg. The bullshit is getting pretty deep here.

I like Mudvayne. So what? Are you saying I'm not allowed to like them?
Nine Inch Nails is not the great band that they used to be, and I'm not saying Mudvayne is in the same category as old Nails.

I like NIN and I like Mudvayne.. but.. Mudvayne's new one sux major balls.

I haven't heard the leaked version, I'm waiting till it hits stores. I've never expected Trent to put out anything that even comes close to the Downward Spiral so I guess my hopes never get dashed in that respect.

How do the lyrics on this album differ from any other?

Down in it ("kinda like a cloud, I was up way up in the sky"), Into the Void, and Piggy.. just to name a few, didn't have very intricate lyrics at all.

Lyrics themselves don't mean much at all. It's how they sound along w/ the music. Look at Eraser - easiest lyrics ever, but coupled with the music, turns out to be pretty damn good.

I mean, I'm not trying to convince ya that it's good or argue that point (to each their own), but if you say "the lyrics suck" without really realizing that lyrics have, from time to time, been quite simple.. then I dunno.

It's kinda like when people say Episode 1 and 2 sucked because of the horrible acting.. well, Episode 4 had terrible acting as well, haha.. so that doesn't really hold any water, ya know?

maybe i'm not a "true" NIN fan, but i pretty much think that he has been remaking Pretty Hate Machine over and over for 15 years. The new video on MTV gave me instant flashbacks to 10th grade. I thought "wow, how can this guy be considered a pioneer when he hasn't changed since 1990?"

Don't get all sniffy! You just don't seem like you would like Mudvayne. I liked their first album and a few songs off the second. What little I have heard off their newest I have not cared for. I still haven't heard anything but the single, but my hopes aren't set too high anymore.

I've been listening to NIN since Broken, and I gotta say I like this new CD. It is different from everything else, but then again, so is everything else. You can't really come to "expect" anything, or else I am sure you will be dissapointed. And while it may not be my favorite (of course Downward Spiral holds that), I still think it is damn good.

the new song on the radio (the only one I've heard) is decent but not really anything eye-opening.

I've been listening to a leaked version for about a week now. Overall, I like it. I've been a NIN fan since the beginning and am a borderline Trent fanatic (I even have an mp3 version of Option 30's album). My first impression is that "With Teeth" has much less of a "Concept Album" feel to it and seems more like a collection of singles.

Trent said, on BBC's Rock Show, that this is the first album he's done "sober" and that he'd also worked through a lot of his problems. In a very subtle way, I think this comes through on "With Teeth". Most of Trent's old work had a generalized hatred for the way things are. The lyrics on "With Teeth" subtly insinuate that we create our own problems and that we are the only ones who can get us through them. There's still hate, but it's not a hopeless "Hate for hate's sake" anymore.

Message aside, "With Teeth" still packs the sonic creativity and lyrical bite we've all come to expect from Nine Inch Nails. It's not his best, but it's still really good.

(Sorry, I didn't expect that to turn into such a verbose review. I guess I got a little carried away.)

Bestbuy has a streaming version of Everyday Is Exactly The Same. I'm actually digging this song pretty good. This and The Line Begins To Blur are the songs Ive actually been quite impressed with.
If you want to hear The Line Begins To Blur without getting the leaked version, it was released on iTunes a wee while ago.

After listening to the album several times, I have to say that I like it. Sure it isn't a masterpiece, or a revolutionary cd. It's good. It's not great. It still has Trent's unique style twisted into it and the lyrics are still good. Like I said before, I never expected it to be as good as Downward Spiral so maybe that's why I enjoy it. ==My expectations weren't dragged into the dirt==

im currently listening to it at NIN's myspace and i gotta say, i couldnt wait for that first song to be over with. im about 20mins in at the moment and so far, i dont plan on buying it too soon in the future

He said it best himself "God Money -I'll do anything for you"

Haven't heard the new album but thanks for the heads up.

It's decent, I've never been a NIN fan. But I think that this album is actually okay! 4/5

I also have herd the new album and it is pretty bad
I still some what like it though =/....

You guys are on crack, it's great. Stop romanticizing Downward Spiral. After the relative misfire that Fragile was I'm glad to see the man back in peak form.

Amen. Too many people blindly hopping on the bandwagon.

There's seriously nothing wrong with the new album at all. No one really elaborates on anything when they say "it sucks".

Some will say The Hand That Feeds sucks because it's too poppy, or reminds them of whatever... but it's really no different than Sin was on PHM... except Sin is okay because PHM was before they "sold out" (aka, got popular, or whatever they redefined that phrase as nowadays).

You Know What You Are is pretty damn heavy with a great beat. If you don't like that fast beat, then you probably don't like March of the Pigs, either. Right Where it Belongs is your slow NIN song of the group, like Hurt, Warm Place, songs from Still, and even something like La Mer from the Fragile.

There really isn't one bad song on that CD, so those of you who read these so-called bad reviews and make judgement off that... you're kinda cheating yourself out of a pretty awesome album.

There are no "sucky" lyrics. If you think there are, then you SHOULD hate Eraser with it's "need you dream you find you taste you fuck you use you scar you break you lose me hate me smash me erase me".. and that song doesn't suck by any means.

There's a difference between natural progression of style, which NIN has always had, or a flat out random departure in sound, like Metallica's St. Anger. Nirvana's In Utero was very different from Nevermind, but still very good and in the style of Nirvana. I'm SURE there are some people who say In Utero sucked, but in reality it was a pretty damn good CD.

Same thing with With Teeth. There will be some that will hear from a friend that "it sucks" and make their judgement based on that without actually having listened to it... but the fact is it is NOT at all a bad CD. It's not anywhere near CLOSE to being "bad". With Teeth is actually loads better than Pretty Hate Machine, and I love Pretty Hate Machine. It's tied with The Fragile... the Fragile was a bit more complex and atmospheric, but even that was a departure (although a good one) from the norm.

This CD is NIN, straight up songs, raw and to the point, just like TR said.

I just picked it up at Best Buy on the way to work. For $1 more, you can get a dual sided cd/dvd disk. One side is a plain old, stereo cd and the other side is a 5.1 dvda (I can never use that acronym without thinking of Orgazmo) with an interactive discography and the video for "The Hand that Feeds". Forgive me if this is nothing new, but this is the first time I've seen something like this.

I picked it up today. I like it a lot. Sure, it's not like the older stuff but that's what makes it new. Can't wait to get home and pop it in my DVD player. Don't have much specific to say since I've only listened through it a couple of times. I dig it overall.

\m/

Picked it up yesterday and I love it. I agree 100% with Stompy. "Every day is exactly the same" is my current favorite. Who cannot like that track? But like Stompy said, I can't find one bad track on the whole album. Not one. The songs I find the weakest are the songs I was stupid enough to download before the album was released. I find them weak, not because they are bad songs, but because I've heard them before.

"Sunspots" and "Beside you in time" gave me that nice goosebump feeling. I give Trent 5/5 for this album.

--jaded

As much as this pains me to say, I don't care for the album at all. I really tried to like it because I've liked NIN so much over the years and always loved Trent's work. Its just not a NIN album. I'll agree with others above and elsewhere that the lyrics are pretty poor and not even close to what one would expect from Trent Reznor. This album feels and sounds like something made by a high school garage band. Trent yelling "don't you fucking know who you are"?? Please... Some of the songs sound like downright fucking disco songs for chrissakes. I'm depressed to be as disappointed about it as I am.

in constrast to what brandon says, I think this unmistakably IS a NIN album - its got that trademark feel to it.
And come on guys - Trent was always shite at lyrics.

I agree, Trent is a great vocal performer but I can't delve too deep into his lyrics without a cringe or two. He's meant to be heard, not deciphered. That said, I think the new album has some of his best lyrics to date, or maybe the least cringe-worthy.

Somehow I think this album will find its way into my rack and not move from it very often. If ever.

And fuck the DualDisc.

This album is great, by any standard, whether you compare it to his previous work or against other albums by other artists.

Sure, it sounds like someone combined NIN and Muse, but you know - I like Muse.

"Angst disco." Hahaha. I love it.

The disco 80s synth song Only is an interesting track. Trent has commented that he took some time to question himself as to what makes a NIN song a NIN song, and ultimately decided that it is whatever he says it is. So if it feels right, go with it. All the Love in the World, another radical departure, is just beautiful. Its like the "I'm back" track, or "I'm alive again". Something like that. The rest of the album is beautiful too. Songs I didnt like at first I love, and songs I liked I am just absorbed in. Beside you in Time fucked with my brain.

The new album, I didn't spoil it with leaked tracks. I just went off and bought the album, and my first listen, I was pretty disappointed. Very very much so. It was upsetting how the man whose music I loved so much came out so poorly.

But I listened to it 3 times that day, and as I was going to bed I just started getting chills, and I felt very very weird. I was in this odd zone with that album, all these sounds ruminating in my head and just repeating and I was loving it. I held off listening to it for a day, and listened to it again today, and I'm just nuts over it. I think it is definately one of his greater works. It topples the remix albums and singles of course, beats out still, and is tied with the fragile and broken for me. I still love TDS more than anything, but aWitha_Teetha is fresher and more interesting and enjoyable than Pretty Hate Machine, by far. (To me.) Just like many things, it takes a few spins. Albums that I like on the first listen tend to fizzle out.

Lyrically, on the surface, it is simplistic. But I think if you spend time with the pdf booklet you see them in a different light. My take on the whole deal.

In order to appreciate something new you really have to throw away what you know.

Why you guys would do yourself the disservice of comparing your initial reactions of the album to previous works is beyond me. Nothing will seem new if you are looking for it to be old.

I really was dissappointed the first time I heard "bite the hand that feeds" on the radio. If I would have left it at that then I could say that it was weak, uninspired and trite. The lyrics intially did nothing for me and the beats and synth SEEM like the quality of Orgy. But, upon downloading the Garageband version and really playing with the song, seeing what makes it what it is, I have grown to really enjoy that specific track.

I could toot my horn about how long I have listened to Trent, but all that seems to do is show how closed minded people become.

I have come to believe that this album may be their best.....although I am very hesitant to do so. There seems to be a very different feel to all the tracks yet there are obvious reminders of Trent's earlier work. I think that is the best thing we can ask of our favorite musicians.

The subject of lyrics came up. I have found the lyrics on this album to come across as simplistic but upon closer examination to actually provide the listener with more room for interpretation the previous halos.




It is really easy to critique art negativly.

It takes a more refined being to look at the positivity within.





You are missing out otherwise

every performer evolves
sometimes in a different direction to you
neither good nor bad
just different

Without a frame of reference, evaluation is impossible. Otherwise, you're left with instinct, and instinct can betray you. And I don't think anyone is expecting "new" from Reznor at this point--but they are expecting "good." You shouldn't have to pick apart tracks with a sequencer to unearth what's good about a song.