Review Summary: A bit too empty inside.
One could easily argue that the Nine Inch Nails album that caused the most controversy wasn't the rage-fueled EP "Broken" or its
Closer-birthing successor "The Downward Spiral", but 2005's "With Teeth". Released after an agonizing 6-year hiatus to massive hype, the album, while being glorified by the mainstream press, was greeted with lukewarm reception at best from fans, and is often the subject of unrestrained argument; was the album really the disappointment it was proclaimed to be, or did it merely fall victim to the insurmountable hype surrounding it?
Revisiting this album 8 years after its release, I can only say that this album is as underwhelming as it was after I first heard it back then. I can't say the album is bad; it really isn't. Rather, it's just
empty. On paper, everything seems to add up to a recipe for success; Reznor's trademark dark industrial beats still reign supreme in this album, with just a dash of mainstream appeal to ensure that the album, while still being 'different', would still have a near-universal appeal. But somehow, the album just feels drained of any energy or passion; devoid of the raging fire that fueled "The Downward Spiral" or the poignant passion of "The Fragile".
And no track expresses this better than opener
All the Love in the World. What starts with an initially engaging dark bassline far too slowly builds up to a payoff that just isn't worth it, and the lethargy with which the track moves along its far-too-long runtime gets tiring rather soon; it wouldn't be stretching it to call the song 'boring'. While I wouldn't pick on this so much if it were an isolated issue, the problem is that a great majority of this album's songs progress at this very same lethargic pace. It goes to the extent that the few songs that progress at a relatively faster rate (
You Know What You Are,
The Hand that Feeds,
Getting Smaller,
Only) stand so incredibly far out from the rest that it's indescribably refreshing to the ears, merely due to the fact that they are different.
While adopting a slower pace for an album is not necessarily bad, what exacerbates the issue is the minimalism with which most of the songs function. On this album, most songs follow a rudimentary formula; begin with just a simple bass or guitar line alone with drums, and then slowly build up from there. However, this merely serves to contribute to the feeling of 'emptiness'; the slow pace of the tracks, combined with the lack of instruments, just leaves the tracks void of any energy or something desirable. Listening to three-quarters of a track doesn't seem to be worth the final explosive build up.
Finally, Reznor's vocals. While Reznor's vocals on other albums have always been divisive to an extent, his coarse voice most of the time did perfectly suit the raw passion of his previous albums. The quieter nature of this album, however, highlights a great number of flaws in his voice, and since the instruments keep such a low profile in so many of the songs, his vocals are given the spotlight instead. The problem here is that Reznor really appears to be straining to sing in many of the songs; in fact, on many songs, he resorts to near-monotone talking (
Love is Not Enough,
The Collector) and while it is occasionally done well (
Only), to see it done so often only seems to indicate that Reznor was either too tired, or simply too lazy. He also tries some new vocal tricks to shake things up such as employing a falsetto, which honestly does not go down too well, showing the worst of his vocal strains. While his style of vocals can definitely be gotten used to, it's a shame that the vocals could not have been handled better in an album which places such emphasis on them.
Where Reznor gets things right, however, he creates some real masterpieces that far outstrip some of the best songs on his previous albums. The raw energy of songs like
The Hand that Feeds,
You Know What You Are and
Getting Smaller, places where the minimalism does work like
Only and
Sunspots, and the moving sentiments of
Every Day is Exactly the Same and
Right Where it Belongs are works of sheer brilliance that damn near single-handedly lift this album up. Also, despite this album's flaws, it's difficult to really say that any of the tracks are really
bad; in fact, songs like
With Teeth,
The Line Begins to Blur and
Love is Not Enough still possess a catchy industrial goodness that make them wholeheartedly appreciable. This album's pros do far outweigh its cons.
In conclusion, though, it does seem like Reznor wasn't too sure of where to go with his next album, forging a minimalistic dark sound that seems to be lost somewhere between the seething beats of "The Downward Spiral" and the hushed poignance of "The Fragile". The problem here is that it just makes you wish the album was one of the two instead. And somehow, there's just something that makes me feel that Reznor, unsure of his commercial potential after 6 years and facing an entirely different musical landscape, intended to do exactly that; unsure of where to go next, he went in a muddled path somewhere between his two most famous albums. Yes, this album does seem to be playing it safe, infusing a healthy dose of mainstream appeal, and retaining his angst-filled lyrics of 11 whole years ago. But just like how comically forced the angsty lyrics seemed coming from a then-40-year-old who, judging by his lyrics, seemed to be writing angst merely for the sake of writing angst, something about the album just seems forced; like Reznor didn't really work on the album with much emotion or tenacity. The ambition and drive of the double album "The Fragile" and the well thought-out concept album "Year Zero" just seems lacking. And while the album really isn't bad at all, maybe it would have been better if Reznor had really something to moan and gripe about. But honestly, how can we expect an universally-acclaimed, world-famous millionaire to?
