13. Nine Inch Nails- With Teeth


Trent Reznor turned 40 last year but that doesn't mean by any stretch of the imaginiation that he's mellowing out or taking it easy. Being the perfectionist he always is and combatting some of his personal demons meant With Teeth took 6 years to finish after his last full studio recording The Fragile. So any change? This album is like a more compact version of The Fragile but where the latter provided some delicious arrangements and juxtaposed the slow, darker wave with white hot industrial noise, With Teeth is more about the song and impact and is closer in design to The Downward Spiral. Plenty of noise and fury but plenty of tunes and bite as well. It's not a classic or as immediate as Pretty Hate Machine but he has made impact once- now songs like Open, The Hand That Feeds, Every Day Is Just the Same and Beside You In Time with its stuttering electro-rhythm feed the need for speed. I just thoroughly enjoyed this comeback and hope it doesn't take him another 6 years of anguish to come up with a new one.