Nine inch Nails - Ghosts I - IV

For the few who read my review of the last Nine Inch Nails album, Year Zero, you might remember that I was not fond of Trent Reznor’s lyrics and vocals in that offering. It wasn’t a bad album at all, but the odd annoying songs like Capital G almost sunk the entire project. This time around he returns with a massive collection of instrumental tracks, 36 to be precise, separated in four acts which he refers to as Ghosts, perhaps as a subdivision of his Halos. Also he decided to put out more editions of this album than there are editions of Windows Vista. Casual listeners can download the first “Ghost” for free, and these songs are bound to hook anybody who enjoys a good dark electronic composition. Cheapskates like myself can get the “government surplus electronica” edition, 36 nameless tracks and a gorgeous PDF booklet for a mere $5. Even with a physical CD and booklet it is still a steal at $10 and from there the price escalates depending how into vinyl and autographs you are.  

But of course this is not a consumer report and I’m not discussing whether or not Ghosts 1-4 is a great value. What I’m here to talk about is how damn good the project is. Experimenting with all manner of instruments and distortions the tracks range from nightmarish to soothing and he even works in a couple danceable industrial rock anthems. Track 14 is full of percussive guitars and synthesizers that bounce like springs in some robotic analog of high energy blues rock. Track 20 starts with a mysterious electronic whale song that rises and splashes drowning the listener in static. This static eventually turns into a powerful industrial metal jam and then subsides again into proggy pop piano. And throughout the album his liberal use of marimbas and xylophones create hauntingly beautiful yet solemnly mysterious passages, that is when he best succeeds at his ambition to make this album the soundtrack to a daydream.

While listening to this industrial marathon from start to finish does tend to wear you out I already know that this album is going to have a huge afterlife in soundtracks and as incidental music. Reznor has decided to release it under the Creative Commons license so it’s already cropping up here and there, fueling YouTube videos and even popping up on NPR’s This American Life (which I listen to religiously). In other words, hopefully a lot of the people who settle for Moby will now have Reznor as an option. I guess this is when I say that Ghosts 1-4 is not for everyone though, the two crowds that will hate it are the people who dislike noise and of course the people who consider a track half finished if it doesn’t have vocals. Still, for me, it feels like a really good soundtrack (like Amelie or Oldboy) in search of a perfect movie to accompany it. I guess that’s something else to look forward to in the future.