Sound Check: Nine Inch Nails – “Ghosts I-IV”

Following the blueprint laid down by Radiohead late last year, Nine Inch Nails have released Ghosts I-IV, a 4-disc instrumental album, without the (full) aid of a major label. A digital download gives you the first nine tracks free of charge; for $5 the entire set is yours. A deluxe version is available for the hefty price of $300, but let’s not go there just yet – how is the music?

Digesting a 4-disc instrumental set in one day, let alone in one sitting, is a tall order – but that’s what I’m here for, fair readers. I am here to hear – here, here.

Less ambient and more mid-90s cold wave soundtrack, Ghosts I-IV is a necessary departure from Trent Reznor’s angsty tendencies. This time around, all his gloom is distilled into instrumentals, which range from the burrs and twitches of NIN’s industrial flirtations (think The Fragile) to quick bursts of avant noise, albeit tame for the genre. Wolf Eyes this is not.

The nine tracks that cover the first disc, ‘Ghosts I,’ are a good indicator of what’s to come. The mood is melancholy; each song winds into the next with an introspective vibe throughout. The key here is the piano – it never takes a turn for the worse (New Age gets nudged, but never blown open), holding the entire work together, if only by the thinnest of threads.

‘Ghosts II’ reaches out of the muck ‘Ghosts I’ supplied, with heavier emphasis on stuttering beats and blurred textures, similar to Aphex Twin’s Ambient Works collection. The only problem, which ends up summarizing Ghosts I-IV in its entirety, is its redundancy. By ‘Ghosts III’ the same recurring theme becomes muddled, not reinterpreted. The easy answer would be to take Ghosts I-IV in small doses, but doing so lessens the impact of the whole. With that notion in tow, only one theory is left: the album, like most 4-disc sprawls, could have (and should have) been trimmed down by at least half.

Keep in mind, of course, that my review is based on one single day of listening. Are there subtleties I have yet to catch, or is the fact that I’m bored halfway through justifiable enough?

Ghosts I-IV works as rainy weather or daybreak music. But even then, the best works of Brian Eno, Aphex Twin, Suicide and even Silver Apples will suffice on those occasions. No matter what the scope of Reznor’s ambition, the album is second-tier. It meanders without a point, which leaves me to believe Reznor is using Ghosts I-IV as yet another test balloon for future projects.

But it’s free, kids! It’s free candy – and what’s better than that?

Key tracks: “4 Ghosts I,” “11 Ghosts II,” “20 Ghosts III,” “34 Ghosts IV”

Download Ghosts I-IV now.