This is me holding my not one, not even two, but THREE copies of the new Nine Inch Nails single (The CD, the DVD, and the vinyl). As you can tell, I'm pretty happy about it.
Okay, look: I can recognize the fact that I am not exactly the world's most objective observer when it comes to Les Nails. In fact: I think that's one of the great things about art- you're allowed to be unobjective. There is no criteria for judging art that's free from subjectivity, so you may as well just admit it and dive right into the arms of your own prejudices.
That said: I recognise that this isn't NIN's greatest song yet. Metro gave it four stars and I'd say that's about right. In the pantheon of all NIN songs I'd say it'd be about three stars- somewhere in the middle. It's still a fantastic rock song with some awesome synth, and better than pretty much everything else that's been released this year (although it's probably pipped to the post by that Gorillaz song and the new Foos single, which kicks ass).
I was a bit disappointed by the remixes. You'd think something remixed by a guy named 'Photek' would be, like, a major departure from the original song, but really it's just an extended mix, not much changed at all. I'll have to grab those ProTools files and make my own mix.
The DVD is pretty sparse- the video (which you can view on the NIN website without much loss of quality) has an intentionally lo-fi asthetic -it just looks like a bunch of webcams watching a live rehearsal, and the feed begins to 'break up' as they start to rock out- as if there's too much ROCK for your computer to handle! However the 5.1 mix sounds fantastic, there's noise all over the place.
I haven't actually listened to the vinyl yet because...I don't own a record player!
But why did you buy a record if you can't play it?
Sort of an experiment, actually. My friend Chris maintains that if you rip an analog recording to mp3, it still retains some of the signal depth and sounds better than a digital recording. I'm a bit skeptical, but I figure it's worth experimenting with, especially as with the album coming up I'll have to decide whether to get that in vinyl, as well.
Speaking of which, I'm very excited about the album. Everything I've heard about it has been great, and this single has only got me more excited, which I guess is the point. I've heard numerous reviewers, and Trent himself, say that this is the 'safest' of the tracks on the album, the one that sounds most like NIN's earlier works (and indeed you can definitely hear similarities to March of the Pigs, No You Don't, We're In This Together Now), which is understandable for the first single in five years. But from what I've heard of the other tracks, there's a lot of variety on the album, and a lot of departures from what might be considered the NIN 'norm', as wide as that already is.
So what's with the paisley dressing gown?
Don't ask.
Now a little treat for you! Last night, Zane Lowe's BBC1 rock show had NIN in the studio and they performed The Hand That Feeds LIVE! Now you could always go to the BBC website and start their extremely clever archive feed and rip the entire show and then extract the live single yourself ... except I've already done it for you! So just download them here. The quality is pretty shocking, and it's in mono, but THTF is pretty lo-fi as it is, so it's decent enough to listen to for a live track. Also live is the previously-unaired 'With Teeth' (which has a gorgeous piano/synth breakdown in the middle, check it out), and a pretty bitta-shweet rendition of 'Hurt', done in the same style that 'Something I Can Never Have' on 'Still'.
The Hand That Feeds (live)
With Teeth (live)
Hurt (live)
[UPDATE! The fan-made remixes for THTF are just flowing in. They can be found here. The Ruiner crossover is great.]
This is a 