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Between the newly released single "The Hand That Feeds" and the leaked track "The Line Begins to Blur" we’re starting to get an idea of what the new NIN album is going to sound like. And it’s a mixed bag.

Let’s start with "The Hand That Feeds". This is a pretty forgettable song combining a repetitive guitar riff with fairly droning lyrics. The song wraps up with Trent screaming six times – "will you bite the hand that feeds you? will you stay down on your knees?"

The other track "The Line Begins to Blur" is a bit more compelling. It sounds like and an outtake from "The Fragile" with elements of "Hurt" thrown in for good measure. The lyrics aren’t as forced as in "The Hand That Feeds" and overall the song flows a bit more naturally. But it still doesn’t bode well for the new album. This track isn’t a stinker, but it isn’t a standout like "March of the Pigs" or "Closer".

While we’re on the subject of Nine Inch Nails, let me throw this out there: I really wanted to love "The Fragile". But I couldn’t. It wasn’t that it had horrible songs, it’s just that it needed a good editor. A solid third of the album sounded to be direct influence of Trent’s soundtrack work. I stand by the statement that soundtrack work ruins bands. Look at Oingo Boingo’s last album. It sucked.

So I made my own version of "The Fragile" from elements of the original double-album, b-sides and remixes. There’s less fluff, it rocks out more, and overall maintains a level of interest that’s just not in the original.

Here’s the track listing with links to most of the tracks on the iTunes Music Store. The other two tracks are from the limited edition 2CD version of the live disc "And All That Could Have Been". If you have all these tracks, use a program like Roxio Jam to put slight crossfades between the songs for the Pink Floyd effect of one continuous mix.

Nine Inch Nails – The Fragile (Redux)

Somewhat Damaged

The Day the World Went Away

The Perfect Drug

Where is Everybody? (Remix)

Metal

Leaving Hope

Even Deeper

10 Miles High (Remix)

The Wretched (Remix)

The Big Come Down

We’re in This Together

All That Could Have Been

Complication

I’m Looking Forward To Joining You, Finally

The Fragile

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 24th, 2005 at 8:57 pm and is filed under Music. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.