He was trained for a while to work with Michael Jackson. I think he was also a tap dancer for a while, too.

As what might best be considered a non-fan listener to NIN, this sounds nothing like what I'm used to hearing from Reznor and whoever he's working with these days.

Admittedly, my only NIN exposures are "The Hand That Feeds," "Head Like A Hole," "Animal," and the music from Quake.

Maybe someone slipped him some anti-depressants?

Someone slipped him about fifty million dollars and an offer for a few million more if he came out of retirement.

It's not true, for the first couple albums NIN was ripping off Soft Cell a lot more than Joy Division.

I haven't heard any NIN since that album ffrom the late 90s that was 7 versions of Closer and a ten minute cover of Meomoribilia by Soft Cell so maybe there were some changes since then, but this sounds literally nothing like ny NIN I've ever heard.

It sounds like Radio Disney.

This is pretty clearly a "what do kids dig these days?" move, and what kids dig these days is bands that sound like a mix between Neu! and Joy Division, but condensed into 3 minute pop songs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L702zw6Ilqs

(NSFW)

I have to admit that I don't know anyone, young or old, that's a big Joy Division fan.

Sounds to me like 90's grunge got ran through millennial synth-pop. This is not the ripping of Prince NIN I'd come to enjoy.

The music from Quake is the best thing NIN ever did as far as I'm concerned. The worst things about NIN are the drums, the vocals and the guitars, when you get rid of that you have some genuinely interesting, yet still light and accessible, ambient music. No new ground is broken but it's very pleasant.

When viewed purely as an 80s cover band, NIN ain't all that bad.

Exhibit A:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6qlUFKFHNIU

I liked NIN pretty good when i was a teenager, some angsty friends really ruined it for me at some point. The quake soundtrack was pretty good, i seem to remember having a copy of Descent for the ps1 that had a soundtrack by Type O Negative.

Nah, totally a Skinny Puppy rip off.

I stand by Soft Cell.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZRlx9SyA3M

It's fine if you don't like NIN because of the singing or other dissonant features, but the "rip off" argument is trash. It's fine to be influenced by other musicians. IIRC Trent released Pretty Hate Machine at 23, I dare any of you people to get in a time machine make an album at that age that isn't strongly influenced by something.

Mine was the Smashing Pumpkins. This is less bad than what the Pumpkins are doing now. I saw SP last fall and it was depressing. Billy's pants didn't fit so 50% of the show I could see his asscrack.

GWAR.

Still kickin' ass!!!

My disillusionment with Smashing Pumpkins hit in 1997...

Mine was Zappa, with Butthole Surfers getting honorable mention.

Gish is a good album in retrospect, Smashing Pumpkins should have stuck to being a heavier wave of the Paisley Underground.

I was partial to Atari Teenage Riot...then ATR released Live at Brixton Academy '99.

Once you've trolled the ATR fanbase like that, there's nowhere else to go.

I rather liked Siamese Dream too.

Siamese Dream is a fantastic album.