“Oh, that new Nine Inch Nails album”

So while on the drive back to Chipmonk from Boston I finally listened to the new Nine Inch Nails album, With Teeth.

(Insert listless sigh here.)

I’m not impressed. I thought none of the songs jumped out. I kind of get where Trent (Mr. Reznor?) was going with a couple songs — there were similarities to songs from the last two albums, The Fragile and The Downward Spiral. Hell, there were even references to lyrics from previous albums, including multiple references to Pretty Hate Machine!

But the music was off at times. A little too weird even for me, a long time NIN fan. And some of the songwriting was weak. Frankly I noticed a dropoff on the last album, but it was a double album, so I figured, well, 21 songs is a lot. This time? Some of the stuff sounds like high school poetry.

Now I know, I know — I never like Nine Inch Nails albums the first time I listen to them. But the problem is, I just don’t feel like listening to this again any time soon. This is apparent based on the fact that I bought the CD over a week ago and am just listening to the whole thing now. Unfortunately I may just give up on it. Maybe this will be NIN’s “off” album, like The Eminem Show. Or maybe — gasp! — I’ve just grown out of Nine Inch Nails.