Music and lyrics The Slip (album)

reznor in promotional 9 inch nails photo 2008

many critics noted how tracks on slip echoed musical stylings band s past, , record contained musical allusions older 9 inch nails records. anastasia pantsios of cleveland free times said slip more or less sums terrain reznor s covered in two-decade career , , went on compare album sound edgy irresistible beats of pretty hate machine , downward spiral, , elusive atmospherics of fragile. jon pareles of new york times wrote music revives 9 inch nails past, stomping hard rock dance-club beats piano ballad inexorably building instrumentals. album s final track, demon seed , directly incorporates instrumental elements final track of band s previous all-instrumental album ghosts i–iv.

ed thompson of ign commented tracks discipline , echoplex channeled bits , pieces of depeche mode, bauhaus , siouxsie , banshees . richard cromelin of los angeles times called slip murkier , less catchy last couple of regular nin albums , , added reznor blends jarring sounds of industrial rock genre [...] terse, punk-like attack, bringing insistent, claustrophobic feel scenarios of alienation .

lyrically, eric harvey of pitchfork compared discipline 1 of 9 inch nails s first singles, head hole , saying [ discipline ] comes long-established , label-free artist trying reflexively reassert position in pop landscape, on own terms. [...] discipline evinces reznor s desire sort of framework [...] in relative terms, need discipline/i need sure long way 20-year-old head hole refrain d rather die/than give control . tom breihan of village voice reached similar interpretation of album s lyrical content, writing slip seems deal reznor s break corporate machine, or @ least numbing conformity-minded forces represents.

in commenting on album, reznor has said derived weird sense of being outside [himself] in isolation , watching [himself] getting older. described assembled album , , more of sketch painting. reznor compared quick assembly of slip longer process of creating 1999 double album fragile, saying creation of slip relied more on reflexes , next project given more editorial time .