The Hand That Feeds
It seems quite a few people have been raving about the new single from Nine Inch Nails, "The Hand That Feeds." This new single, from Trent's new album due out in May, With Teeth really doesn't impress me. I mean, it's good--don't get me wrong--but it's not great. The lyrics are interesting--very political--but it's not inspiring at all and Trent sounds old and outdated. There's nothing revolutionary about it and for a man who averages about a record every five years, I'd expect better.
Alas, I've always had "a warm place" in my heart for Nine Inch Nails. I remember when The Downward Spiral came out (this Downward Spiral, not that Downward Spiral). I remember listening to that CD over and over: blasting "heresy" in my back yard, bicycling with friends to the mall with my oversized Sony Discman, reverberating my speakers with "mr self destruct" so that everyone could hear the distortion. I wrote an essay on "ruiner" as a freshman in G/T English. I turned my mother on to "a warm place." Me and my girlfriend at the time claimed "hurt" as our own. And then there was always "closer." Not only did I obsess over the music by listening to it, but the lyrics, the sounds, everything about the music, inspired me to write an amazing amount of poetry. Spiral after spiral after spiral full of poems that I would later perform at Slam Poetry events, impress hot chicks with, and sing in my high school garage band.
When I was a freshman in high school, this beautiful senior in my English G/T class shared a tape with me--it was Pretty Hate Machine. Given my sources were limited at the time, I had never heard the album. I was intensely entranced by the entire album and still play it religiously to this day.
When I was in junior high, a friend of mine let me copy Broken. I wasn't aware of Nine Inch Nails at the time, but "Happiness in Slavery" was an instant hit with me. I'd sneak out and go to the park late at night and sit in the tire swing and literally play the tape for hours and hours.
Finally, in college, The Fragile came out. I really enjoyed that album and, although I don't listen to it near as much as his other albums, part of me thinks that's his greatest achievement. I don't have the same love for it because it didn't change my life like the others. And that's what I'll assume of the new album. It'll be great. I'll buy it, but I don't find myself loving it. I don't think it will move me like his albums before. But I still can't wait to get it.
Buy the Single
Buy the Album
Alas, I've always had "a warm place" in my heart for Nine Inch Nails. I remember when The Downward Spiral came out (this Downward Spiral, not that Downward Spiral). I remember listening to that CD over and over: blasting "heresy" in my back yard, bicycling with friends to the mall with my oversized Sony Discman, reverberating my speakers with "mr self destruct" so that everyone could hear the distortion. I wrote an essay on "ruiner" as a freshman in G/T English. I turned my mother on to "a warm place." Me and my girlfriend at the time claimed "hurt" as our own. And then there was always "closer." Not only did I obsess over the music by listening to it, but the lyrics, the sounds, everything about the music, inspired me to write an amazing amount of poetry. Spiral after spiral after spiral full of poems that I would later perform at Slam Poetry events, impress hot chicks with, and sing in my high school garage band.
When I was a freshman in high school, this beautiful senior in my English G/T class shared a tape with me--it was Pretty Hate Machine. Given my sources were limited at the time, I had never heard the album. I was intensely entranced by the entire album and still play it religiously to this day.
When I was in junior high, a friend of mine let me copy Broken. I wasn't aware of Nine Inch Nails at the time, but "Happiness in Slavery" was an instant hit with me. I'd sneak out and go to the park late at night and sit in the tire swing and literally play the tape for hours and hours.
Finally, in college, The Fragile came out. I really enjoyed that album and, although I don't listen to it near as much as his other albums, part of me thinks that's his greatest achievement. I don't have the same love for it because it didn't change my life like the others. And that's what I'll assume of the new album. It'll be great. I'll buy it, but I don't find myself loving it. I don't think it will move me like his albums before. But I still can't wait to get it.
Buy the Single
Buy the Album
¶ Blogged at 8:43 PM - Linkback - 
Hi! My name's Adam Donaghey and this is my weblog. 
The Abductors (producer)
6 Comments:
Just picked it up this morning. It's about what you're expecting, I think. Good, but man, if I was still seventeen I'd be connecting to it so much more.
That was david that said that, by the way. And this too.
Oddly enough, I got an advance copy a week or two ago--and didn't even review it. I guess we grow out of certain things.
i'll tell you what, i'm seventeen and the song "right where it belongs" has changed my view on everything.Nine Inch Nails as well as Tool and M.Manson have led me to realize that it is all just a bullshit three ring side show of freaks.
Eyck,
Oddly enough, my advance copy did NOT have track thirteen, "Right Where It Belongs"; however, I listened to a short clip on Amazon.com and assume it is analogous to "Hurt" on The Downward Spiral which meant a lot to me at your age.
As far as Marilyn Manson and Tool are concerned, at your age I was a hardcore fan of both. My second concert was the Antichrist Superstar tour--December 31st 1996. I had just turned sixteen years old. When I went to school the next day, I had sewn together the Manson American Flag, using a real flag and a black patch with his symbol drawn with white out, and put it on my backpack. No one but those who had gone to the concert new what it was.
Tool, I saw at Lollapalooza 1997--just after they had produced Anema. This was the same concert where Prodigy played and Snoop Doggy Dogg got into trouble for lighting a joint on stage.
As far as "bullshit three ring side show of freaks," I'm not sure what you mean there.
I am certainly not 17 anymore, but I love everything Trent does. I love the "With Teeth" cd and I loved the show at the Tabernacle in Atlanta. I'll have the chance to see them twice more this year - New Orleans and Nashville. Trent is in better shape than I have ever seen him he looks and performs great and I will enjoy seeing him again. He's so far ahead of anyone else....
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