In case you didn’t know, I love almost everything Trent Reznor has touched, the man is a musical visionary. So I was very excited to hear he had a new project with his new wife, Mariqueen Maandig, and Atticus Ross. Which direction will they go? Will the sound be something equally as beautiful as “Ghosts I-IV” or will it be a more stripped down full on rock sound? Expectations were high and, as always, they weren’t completely met.
This isn’t to say that the new sound isn’t good, it’s just that it’s not as different as I had hoped. Every track has that signature Reznor/Ross sound, which is a good thing, but it mostly sounds like they decided to flesh out, and put lyrics to, a few of the left over ideas from the Ghosts project. There are a few notable tracks, “A Drowning” being the pinnacle of the set, but overall there isn’t really anything special about this. Maybe on a few more listens I will get used to hearing the chorus on “BBB”: “Listen to the sound of my big black boots” which comes off as juvenile for such an established musical force such as Trent Reznor. And, maybe, I’ll grow to love “Fur Lined” which appears to have the signature drum sound and beat for a NiN single first heard on “Only”.
All in all it’s not a bad EP, but I think fans such as myself were hoping that the new sound would be radically different than the last NiN sound. They do have time to grow and evolve, which I’m sure they will.
