Vinyl Notes

A few weeks back I wrote about how Nine Inch Nails’ (NIN) new album Ghosts was affecting the music industry. Truthfully, independent bands have been offering free downloads and streaming for quite some time now, but when big name acts start severing ties with record companies and making a go of it on their own, that’s when it becomes revolutionary.

I wasn’t a fan of NIN in the ‘90s. The first song I ever heard was “Closer” and I didn’t hear that until ’99 while traveling through Europe and a friend made me listen to her favorite song.  Over the years I discovered song after song and when With Teeth came out I bought it, along with Pretty Hate Machine.

At this point, I’d consider NIN one of those bands whose music I will purchase without having to hear it. So as soon as I heard the news about Ghosts, I went directly to the website and purchased the CD (yet to be mailed out) and downloaded the entire collection. My first thought was of the wow this is awesome variety. Which brings me to the point of this entry: an impromptu review of the Ghost collection.

Album artwork: Ghosts V

Trent Reznor described the collection of 36 instrumentals songs as music for daydreams. A better description could not be uttered. Each song is full of ambient sounds and creates full imagery in the mind. The sound is distinctly Nine Inch Nails; industrial, cold and abrasive at some points, soft and soothing at others. There are songs with harsh feedback from electric guitars and others with gentle string plucks and piano strokes.

While NIN has included an image for each song, I find it better to just listen and let the music organically create a picture in my mind. This for me is one of the best elements of the album, that each song will conjure a different image for each individual. Some will invoke factory or warehouse activity, others will invoke a James Bond type action sequence. Whatever the image they bring to mind, the music does what it is intended to do.

Ghosts is definitely dream music as well as music for conversation. Completely unimposing and undistracting. If you like instrumentals and ambient sounds, I highly recommend downloading Ghosts I at the very least to give the collection a test drive. You will not be disappointed.