Trollhunter
After several listens through:
The Background World
Not Anymore
Less Than
This Isn't The Place
The Lovers
The only song I can't get into is TL. Maybe it'll catch on at some point but it doesn't do much for me at the moment. As I said before, TBW has an apocalyptic Peter Gabriel vibe to it and I agree it would be a perfect closing song live. NE needs to be played live as well.
Throbbing Member
I didn't think this would happen, but I've found myself enjoying this a whole lot more than NTAE. Less Than was so catchy and pop I expected to tire of it quickly, but as things stand I like it more than ever.
The only trouble I have is with Not Anymore, which personally I think sounds a bit too much like a leftover from NTAE. It serves its purpose well enough, separating two really very good tracks, but maybe it could have been a bit shorter? It just feels a bit empty to me. I'd be inclined to scrap it altogether and just have an extra five minutes of The Background World instead. What a cracker that one is!
I didn't quite click with This Isn't The Place straight away, but listening to it properly, following on from The Lovers, it sounds wonderful.
So yes - more of this good stuff please. And Euro dates as soon as.
Throbbing Member
Originally Posted by perterje
Im not listening to NTAE again until the third comes out. And I'm going to try to not wear this one out.
Hairy Member
I definitely wish the chorus of Not Anymore had a bit more to it. It works as is, it's just a bit single sided. I think it could have been a killer track if it had more complexity or progression in the chorus. I think the loud chorus of The Idea of You does it better.
I really love The Lovers - it took me a few listens and then it clicked. Such a great track!
Flaccid Member
can we please get back to discussing the mind-control neurological tones and sounds being used in this EP to control and focus us, also the latent violence he is adding to our subconscious???? WHY IS EVERYONE MISSING THE REAL POINT OF THIS ALBUM? oh my god I just started type-yelling I need to turn this album off for a bit
Stubby Member
Is it me or is easier to read the lyrics backwards (line by line)? i think i'm getting paranoid...
Flaccid Member
Listening to it on the bus today while looking up the time of the TP panel at SDCC, the same thought hit me. I restarted the track and followed the lyrics and it really galvanized the idea. Glad someone else mentioned it!
Active Member
Anyone playing NTAE -> AV over and over again? I think it all flows together pretty well as a whole. Before AV came out I thought Burning Bright would only work as a closing track, but it actually flows surprisingly nicely into Less Than IMO.
Hairy Member
Tried AV -> NTAE also and it works well too. Can't decide which way I like more. I like the the background world static into branches/bones transition a lot.
Throbbing Member
As with most good art, this album can be interpreted in many different ways. Most are obviously focusing on ties to YZ. To me, this seems like the diary of a serial killer. There are sinister tones, and lyrics, throughout: They oscillate between the notion of death/violence and the madness of losing one's self. "The Lovers" has some of the darkest lyrics Trent's written in years ("hot swollen skin want me take me perfect embrace/black and bloody/rotten and perfect/the center has moved on and all that’s left is free/finally..."). It's interesting how that song operates, literally, on two levels: you hear the narrator's voice and his thoughts simultaneously. Going all the way through to "The Background World," with it's repeated outro and eventual break-down, it just sounds like a complete mental breakdown.
Throbbing Member
I think when they release all 3 EP's together using different cuts and maybe stick 5 instrumentals here and there, we may have a double album that could give The Fragile a run for it's money. I fucking love these EP's!
Stubby Member
It truly is an interesting album, with some great and non-standard ideas inside of the songs in terms of how the audio sounds and the structure of some songs. Ignoring any possible hidden messages or puzzles which almost feel as if he is directly addressing the listener:
1 - Less Than
Back when MTV still played music this would have been one of the typical NIN songs which sound as if they were standard music, but at the same time they would have had a special video and non-standard lyrical content. It kind of resembles an aged and worn-down sound similar to what you would hear when playing music which was stored on an old and aging cassette tape. It creates a certain nostalgic vibe because of that. The entire song might as well have been a pop song, but one which was carefully crafted to hide its non-standard soundscape and the subliminal messaging.
2 - The Lovers
Everything about this song has a soothing yet creepy vibe. It almost sounds as if it is a love song, but at the same time Trent is talking to the listener about him, or possibly a fictional character having the ability to stop, yet not being the one driving himself right now. This song clearly has foreground music and background noise interwoven with the whispering. The same concept as in all the music since NIN released Not The Actual Events. Something to note is that he yet again refers to the message that everyone seems to be asleep. We are alive. Light shines still. Always - The subliminal messages are very interesting to think about.
3 - This Isn't the Place
While building up the atmosphere trough eerie creeping soundscapes which also have a depressing, vibrating, worn-down sound to them the song works its way up towards the sad lyrical content with an emotional sounding Trent Reznor layered over it all. You could almost describe the whole as being a NIN styled Blues song.
4 - Not Anymore
A song resonating pure energy, one might almost name it confidence and anger. The loud to soft dynamic realy works for this song. It strengthens the distorted screaming. Confidence and anger as it happens to somebody else, but not to him. He wont forget who he is and what he is doing it for. He can't seem to let it go. This type of very aggressive NIN has not been seen since a few albums back, almost a return to form. An expression.
5 - The Background World
The subliminal messaging continues trough a song with multiple shapes and forms. Not daring to look inside himself while looking into somebody else. Are you sure this is what you want ? The song has a rather slow yet rhythmic structure as it builds up towards a loop in decay. Is there something in the mind which loops on hold but begins to decay as time flies by. It is one of the questions it might make a listener think about during a playtough. This song is in no way a typical radio or television song, but NIN being NIN. They do their own thing.
0 - The album
I truly like the entire soundscape and theme of the songs, As if the subliminal messages were made to directly address the listener. It is also interesting to hear that NIN embraced layered vocals existing out of clean recordings mixed with distorted or echoed layers for an album. Not ignoring that they also have live recordings in which they use such effects. From an egotistical standpoint i like the album even more because the songs are structured, layered, and edited in ways which i also was experimenting with when i was making some remixes. An odd reason to like it even more, but it certainly is one. Not being bound to the past trough nostalgia nor memories also help in not having any problems with anything on this album.
It took me a while to write all of this as i was enjoying the album on spotify while writing everything down.
Last edited by Detunez; 07-21-2017 at 11:48 AM.
Throbbing Member
Exactly the same here, even the bad timing does not bother me much anymore, I was thinking about creating version with these repeats aligned properly - not anymore. Btw, it is not possible to loop this on LP - too long, and that is not even the point, it has to deviate with time.
Btw, @GregBull , you reminded me of this from Monty Pythons (achtung - British humour), but all good, peace! :-)
Stubby Member
I really like the idea of NTAE going after Add Violence in order when listened to together, but the thing that hurts that for me is "The Background World", which really only works as a closing track, and totally disrupts the flow of the listening experience. The main part of the song on its own feels so climactic that it'd be strange as anything other than a final or penultimate song, the eight minute outro of largely noise (haunting as it is) would be a slog to get through if there were more songs on the other side. I can only really see it making sense if when the EPs are all released together, the song is cut down to six or seven minutes instead of eleven.
Active Member
"Not Anymore" & "The Background World"...top shelf tracks (though the whole second half of TBW is annoying as fuck...I'll just make it fade out).
Active Member
Is the last track supposed go sound like it's skipping? Goes on too long, imo. Love the rest of the ep. Easily, better than NTAE.
24.24.2.3171
Yes.
You're certainly not alone in thinking that the outro is too long - if you dig through the The Background World thread, someone posted an edit which shortens the outro to ~2min.
pretty FART machine
I kinda hope the Physical Component adds some context to the ending of TBW.
It's the kind of thing where I'd spend hours on the weekend reading the liner notes and listening with headphones trying to imagine the visual circumstances of what's taking place. As-is, I made a fade-out for play in the car.
Active Member
Cool. Wasn't sure if it was the disc I burned it to or not.
Hairy Member
This isn't the place has just become one of my favorite tracks alongside tracks like the ruiner,happiness in slavery,somewhat damaged etc..
Throbbing Member
...what about multiple personalities in the same body, struggling over control (see control panel), wanting to get out, but only one is awake while everyone else seems to be asleep and losing time? (see book "Set this house in order" or recent movie "Split") But the clues about current population or 2022 don't fit with this I think. Well, just an idea. :-)
Edit: Sorry now I think this idea must have been here thousand times even before NTAE, maybe even I already wrote it before... just got lost in ideas or something. :-)
Last edited by Substance242; 07-21-2017 at 04:08 PM.
Member
I'm about to embark on a second listen as I have to say. "The Lovers".... MOTHERFUCK.... that's a fucking awesome song.
Stubby Member
Doing my first proper listen through in order, There are certain element in each song I didn't initially like but overall its terrific
Less than has definitely grown on me, gives a very YZ feel. Going on my gym playlist. Trent rhymes for with for
The Lovers- so so much better with headphones. I just closed my eyes and tried to pick out all those buttery layers. It feels kinda schizophrenic with the mix of low talking and chorus
This Isn't The Place- blends perfectly into the end of the lovers. not my favorite track but I do love the fragile-esque piano
Not anymore- beginning and end are very abrupt compared to the other tracks. Really nice heavier mechanical sound. I don't know if I like the echo effect on his voice, similar sound to Burning Bright
the Background World- is that Mariqueen harmonizing with him around the 2 min mark? I really love the tune in the loop but HATE the gaps. I can only make it about 2 min into the loop before I have to turn it off, but when listening to the later loops It starts to sound like Hyperpower! a little bit
Last edited by millionmilesaway; 07-21-2017 at 06:11 PM.
Unintelligible Whispering
A great deal of the album, particularly "The Lovers" feels like the culmination of several albums' worth of material examining the relationship between conflicting personalities, inner voices or entities, building up to to one subsuming the other. It's incredibly difficult to put any kind of narrative description to it, but there's a kind of muted finality here that choked me up a little just now.
Active Member
Upon the first few listens, I'm enjoying this more than I thought I would. I've kind of been down on NIN since Year Zero (even that didn't age well for me), though I've liked tracks here and there. This might be my favorite NIN release as a cohesive whole since then. I actually like the skipping/disintegrating ending to The Background World.
Member
I love The Background World. All eleven minutes. But I love industrial. Trent being experimental, industrial and noisy again warms my heart.
with or without the insane ending the song is brilliant. It's such an uneasy song. When he comes in with "Are you sure?" It's awesome.
Last edited by ninsp; 07-21-2017 at 06:03 PM.
Flaccid Member
I'm a little late to the party. I've had the NTAE PC sitting with my vinly sealed since January. I just opened and scanned each insert at 300 dpi. What can I do to help?
Flaccid Member
[IMG]file:///C:/Users/HP2015/Desktop/NTAE.BB0001.jpg[/IMG]
Active Member
You'll need to upload the image to a hosting site like imgur.
Stubby Member
Or make an archive of all scans and upload somewhere?
Last edited by Xvostya; 07-21-2017 at 06:24 PM. Reason: *of*
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