NIN's Ghosts I-IV

There is a reason why Nine Inch Nails has put up the first nine songs of this box set(?) on The Pirate Bay for free. Of course, if you want it all you should go to Amazon to get it for 5 clams.

I was excited about this new album. NIN licensed it under the Creative Commons and it is a quarter free. Not being anything of a NIN fan I still wanted to see what it was all about so I took it for a spin. Why not? I have enjoyed their past successful hits, I was sure this was more of the same.

I have downloaded more listenable things from angelfire sites.

While I can't say the music is really bad, it just isn't all that good either. It picks up about half of the way through but dies down again. At its best it is an ambient noise that makes you feel like you should be walking through an urban industrial area wearing chic clothing while downloading kung fu to your brain. At worst it makes you mind numbingly board.

Maybe I am too "casual" a listener to really "get it" but it seems like this is nothing more than a masturbatory work made by some guys who want to prove they are "real" musicians. The reason they didn't sell it was because they knew no one would buy it. So in order to pump their egos about this music they gave it away for free so that would be why people were interested in it. For them the music is second on this album because the album itself is now beyond any "art" within it.

Of course, these guys are also out for a profit. If they knew that no one would buy it just to buy it they must have also known that there would be some people who would buy it no matter what, its NIN or this ambient stuff rox. These people will also pay a premium to be able to own some cheap swag as well. Maybe I am just cynical though...

I did not enjoy this no do I think most "mainstream" will either.