Review Summary: A satisfying listen for both casual and hardcore NIN fans alike.
This is what many fans consider to be his "mid-life crisis" record. Released in 2005, With Teeth was written after lead singer and only (studio) member Trent Reznor's struggles with alcoholism and depression during the 90s, a decade where many feel that he was at his musical peak. Does this mean that this album is not as good? Technically, yes. It's not very well appreciated by fans for being an average rock release.
On the contrary, the songs from this album blew up on U.S. Modern Rock radio. Hard-hitting political banger "The Hand That Feeds," depressing "Every Day is Exactly the Same," confrontational disco number "Only." They all reached number one on those charts, something that no other NIN song was able to do before. Previous songs may have charted, but With Teeth took the project from being #11 to #1.
It's not that With Teeth is more accessible. Rather, it just happens to be a little smoother, despite the album's tough-guy title. The album's different textures, on the other hand, reveal so much more about each song.
Starting with "All the Love in the World," an underwater electronic beat appears to flip itself over and let out startled gasps for air. Reznor's voice starts out low, then in the next verse, rises up an octave. The narrator of this song is without a doubt, feeling isolated, alone, maybe even miserable. There's a couple of verses where he can't even finish his thought, cutting off mid-sentence to his essential question, "Why do you get all the love in the world?" Keyboard and piano melodies dominate the atmosphere. Then, a sudden change occurs where the electronics fade and live drums (played by Dave Grohl of Nirvana, Foo Fighters) come thumping into the picture. By the end of the song, the simple piano melody reappears before segueing into a frenetic industrial sprint labeled "You Know What You Are?" The drumming here is lightning quick, and all the while done with so much precision. But here we encounter yet another questioning chorus. Here we encounter Reznor's usual scream-singing technique, and this is where the album starts to run the danger of going stale. The bridge is really cool, though. Synthesizers may growl with all their might, but it is not enough.
Now, this is the song that completely ruins With Teeth from being a consistent album. "The Collector" is just a boring old mess of uninspired instruments. There's a descending piano here, a high-pitched guitar squeal there, but other than that, this song does nothing. Lyrics are awkward, music is confusing, and the drums barely ever change from their usual pounding patterns. There's no distortion or effects on the drums or anything, so they sound too flat. A real skippable filler track. The album would really just be SO much better with "You Know What You Are?" leading into the single and the catchiest track on here, "The Hand That Feeds." Reznor gets political and tirades against Bush and his administration. Even though the chorus is yet again sung in the form of a question ("Will you bite the hand that feeds?"), this song really rocks! The drum machines puncture the sky, the guitars are in hard rock mode, and better yet, the tone of the song is absolutely scathing, but not melodramatic. And it just feels fresh. It's no wonder why this was #1 on Modern Rock at one time.
Up next, Reznor says one of his most bone-chilling lyrics, "We didn't give it a mouth, so it could not complain." These wonderful words come from the following track, "Love is Not Enough." This one opens with some of the thickest drum sounds and distorted bass, until the chorus adds a buzzing guitar sound to the mix. The rhythm of the vocals are quite catchy, especially in the chorus, so that's another good sign. Transition to soft piano notes and more unusual noises. It's not long before the depressing lyrics of "Every Day is Exactly the Same" start up. "There is no love here, and there is no pain" even sounds like it could be about The Giver (remember that book?) Catchy tambourine joins in with the crowd of miserable instruments halfway through the song. And then, the title track, "With Teeth," aka "Awitha Teetha," because that's really all that the chorus consists of. This has some rather uninspired lyrics, but instrumentally, it is just as riveting as some of the other tracks on the album. The middle has a jarringly soft piano break, before reverting back to the slinky, seductive bass lines and the cool drum beat that sounds like a switch being activated.
"Only" is a great song. It's kind of hard to describe the danceable nature of the song, coupled with the anxiety-filled lyrics. Nonetheless, "There is no you, there is only me." is such an uplifting statement. But then when that's over, "Getting Smaller" comes on and proves itself to be another dud. Not nearly as bad as "The Collector," but still mediocre. The drums keep rolling on, fast-paced, frantic, but nothing else really happens. Plus, Reznor's vocal performance is much too overdramatic, almost ruining the song. There's also a lack of industrial textures like there were on the other songs, bar "The Collector," which was just straight-up rock music. "Sunspots" begins with a Britpop-y drum pattern and ominous bass guitars. Then in the chorus, the falsetto starts, accentuated by bashes of percussion. "Nothing can stop me now," a motif originating from The Downward Spiral, also reappears here, albeit in a more subtle manner.
The last three songs seem to go together in a way. "The Line Begins to Blur" is perhaps the most distorted, most abrasive rock track on here, punctuated with crunches of static and God knows what else. It's a much cooler song in that the chorus is actually sung low, whereas the verses are sung with a higher voice. And the chorus offers some of the most dejecting words in the NIN discography, such as "The fabric starts to tear, It's far beyond repair, And I don't really care." The penultimate track, "Beside You in Time," finds Reznor channeling My Bloody Valentine's wall of sound approach to music. Tremolo shakes back and forth, until the uneasy rhythm stops for just a brief moment and the piece becomes completely ambient. Then, the shakiness starts up again, and continues to do so until piano ballad, "Right Where It Belongs," the final track off of With Teeth. At one point, you can hear a cheering crowd, but the way it's mixed, it sounds just like additional white noise. No drums, no guitars in this one. Just piano, synthesizer, and vocals. A great way to close off the album, sure, but it is a bit meandering. In the end, everything is "right where it belongs," and that's actually rather nice coming from someone who seems depressed all the time.
This whole album flows together quite well, and the textures here are just as prevalent as they were on previous albums. Some tracks may not work so well, and it may be a bit more polished, especially since you have Dave Grohl drumming on the majority of the record's songs, but overall, With Teeth is a satisfying listen for both casual and hardcore NIN fans alike.
Track Picks:
"All the Love in the World"
"The Hand That Feeds"
"Every Day is Exactly the Same"
"The Line Begins to Blur"
"Beside You in Time"
Overall Rating: 4 stars
