"Purest Feeling" is so good and Trent messed up so bad by not releasing it on PHM that he is now under the deluded impression that he released it, probably along with "Maybe Just Once."
Or there's some really processed sax on the album. Either way.
Some NIN/TR mentions on BBC 6 Music breakfast show this morning. TR described as "Industrial mega-god with biceps that look like Volkswagens trying to park"
next week Lauren Laverne is interviewing them (not sure which day that's going out on, it's not noted in the schedule). Snippet of that interview talking about the Jesus & Mary Chain and some stuff about what they're trying to do with the NIN live show: sloppy playing with an element of unpredictability and danger, setlist changing frequently for the band's-interests-sake
A few reviews. AllMusic sounds more positive than its 3 1/2 stars would suggest: https://www.allmusic.com/album/bad-witch-mw0003185404
Spin says it's a "strangely tentative gesutre" even though it's easily one of the strangest non-remix albums by NIN; I hated this one: https://www.spin.com/2018/06/nine-in...-witch-review/
Chicago Tribune gives it 2 1/2 out of 4 stars: http://www.chicagotribune.com/entert...622-story.html
So yeah, not the glowing reviews I was hoping for. What would you expect for such an unusual release, I guess? Also no reviews of the whole trilogy yet.
Yeah, I saw positive ones at first, too, so I thought, "Oh, wow, critics are gonna love this one just like ETS seems to!" and these are all strangely lukewarm to negative.
SPIN's review is bafflingly bad. Like, early 2000s Pitchfork level of discussing irrelevant shit and spending half the review talking about the album/EP debate, and yet they manage to even misinterpret that. The guys just wanted it to be at the top of Spotify et al. NBD.
In reading some comments about the reviews, I was thinking to myself, why don't they have something like Metacritic where we can see the divergence (if there is one, and sometimes massive) between critics and user scores. And lo and behold, today I learned that Metacritic actually does have pages for music, including Bad Witch (current: 75% critics, 8/10 users). I guess I am out of touch?
Pitchfork gave Bad Witch an 8.0! That's his highest scored record of newer material from them. I figured they were going to love the record and it's well deserved as the album is incredible.
Is this the one you found?
http://www.metacritic.com/music/bad-...ine-inch-nails
What's the speculation on his major & minor projects that Trent couldn't talk about?
More HTDA? Trilogy combined into a single album? Tension DVD? (lol)
Brooklyn Vegan reviews:
"Nine Inch Nails – Bad Witch
The Null Corporation/Capitol
Outside of Radiohead, is there any major ’90s rock band making challenging music more frequently and effectively than Nine Inch Nails right now? The just-released Bad Witch is the final installment of a trilogy that began with 2016’s Not The Actual Events and 2017’s Add Violence, and like its predecessors, it sees Trent Reznor (and current bandmate Atticus Ross) making music that’s looking forwards but that also proves he hasn’t forgotten where he came from. Whether or not you consider Bad Witch an EP or a full-length (Trent says that its two predecessors are EPs but he’s labeling Bad Witch a full-length because EPs register as “singles” on Spotify and other streaming services), one thing that’s for sure is these three projects are all short, and this format has been working really well for Nine Inch Nails. (Bad Witch is six songs that clock in at 30 minutes, which for what it’s worth, is longer than all of the Kanye-produced “albums” that have dropped in the past month.) Trent has really been making sure that each song on these releases is its own beast, and it’s refreshing to hear just six well thought out, uniquely different songs with no filler (especially in a time where other major artists are trying to game streaming services by releasing 100-minute-long albums to increase streaming numbers). Bad Witch opens up on its most aggressive note, with the noise-punk ripper “Shit Mirror” that makes so much of today’s indie rock sound featherlight in comparison. The song doesn’t sound entirely nostalgic for the ’90s, though of course traces of that decade’s sound are here, but it does sound nostalgic for a time when a popular band could make abrasive music. And I’m probably not alone in missing that a little bit. Those who prefer NIN’s industrial-electronic side will probably be pleased by the next song, “Ahead of Ourselves,” which takes the band into evil dancefloor territory, complete with creepy psychedelia, harsh screams, and more. Then things get weird(er). Nine Inch Nails spent many of their recent shows paying tribute to David Bowie by covering their old pal’s “I Can’t Give Everything Away” off Bowie’s final album Blackstar. Bowie, after just about five decades of making music, went out on a surprisingly inventive note, with a dark, challenging album that featured a lot of avant-jazz sax. It now sounds like Trent is not just covering a song from that album at his shows but also taking noticeable influence from it for his own work. He brings in dark, out-there sax for the instrumental “Play the Goddamned Part,” and then keeps that going for “God Break Down the Door,” which also sees him taking on more of a Bowie-esque croon than usual. This all happens over a frantic, danceable beat that sort of helps the song bridge the gap between The Downward Spiral and the sounds Trent is interested in right now. After an eerie, David Lynch-ian instrumental (“I’m Not From This World”), Bad Witch wraps up with another Blackstar-ish song, “Over and Out.” This one’s a lot more somber, but Trent once again shows off a crooned vocal that sounds like it would’ve made Bowie proud. Bowie found new sounds again and again throughout his career, and he had extremely talented followers each time. Blackstar was yet another trek through uncharted territory for Bowie, and Bad Witch is one of the first (if not the first) major albums to follow in its footsteps. Of course Trent puts its own spin on it, but that’s what’s always made his and Bowie’s relationship so exciting — the way they inspired each other and learned from each other and challenged each other. If only Bowie were here to hear this."
http://www.brooklynvegan.com/beyonce...rbage-reviews/
Last edited by Ruined; 06-24-2018 at 12:33 AM.
I was just about to post that, @thevoid99 . I was pleasantly surprised by the video; I'm starting to like this guy
Oh hey! It's finally time for another TR Instagram post!
https://www.instagram.com/p/BkaixKtA7Wq/
Ilan plays the organ at Royal Albert Hall:
https://www.instagram.com/p/BkanTtVgNUf/
Last edited by BRoswell; 06-24-2018 at 03:01 PM.