Up in that Manson thread, we'd been discussing old albums and gotten to
Golden Age of Grotesque, when @
Tom mentioned that it was the intentionally "clever art" aspect of the project that bugged him. I concurred.
(amazing RJD2 anecdote)
I say this again here, because I agree with your statement and thank the heavens that Trent has never gone this route—especially since it's a common pitfall for long-time writers and I imagine it was hugely tempting direction, at least with
With Teeth, based on everything he said about that process and a knowledge of how recovery works. Say what you want about Nine Inch Nails' lyrics—a lot of people do—but they've never been anything less than unashamed of themselves. From "The Only Time" to "Only," Nine Inch Nails tracks are pretty unabashed. Perhaps out of a sense of discretion, perhaps out of a desire for audience projection, they've always been intentionally lyrically abstract. This does make his lyrics harder to isolate outside of their in-song context and cite in snippets as works of poetic genius, but I don't think that's what he's ever been going for—he's not John Samson or Colin Meloy. He's never seemed like he was torturing himself on trying to create something cleverer than he'd ever done. I'm certainly grateful for that.