NIN Sez Bite My Crank
Published May 10, 2005
Nine Inch Nails
With Teeth
Interscope/Nothing
By Carlo Wolff
Such a whiner, that Trent Reznor. But so persuasive and so exciting. The first studio album in five years from the Nine Inch Nails mastermind might be his most cohesive ever. It blends the pop punch of his trail-blazing 1989 debut, Pretty Hate Machine, with the density of Downward Spiral, the 1994 album that cemented Reznor's reputation as a brilliant hard-rock auteur.
Sparked on several tracks by Foo Fighters-Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl, With Teeth furthers Reznor's preoccupations such as the fine line between seduction and servitude, the pleasures of submission and how very hard it is to break free of depression. For Reznor, depression is the hand that feeds; it's his muse. Perhaps that's why "The Hand That Feeds," four tracks in and as driving as anything NIN has ever released, is the first single. Its infernal disco for sure, and while it doesn't build into anything, its mass and bile are thrilling.
What follows "... Feeds" is the more ambivalent and revealing title track. It's not a stretch to see the title as Reznor's euphemism for vagina dentata, a psychological term that translates to "vagina with teeth." The song, one of the most attenuated on this otherwise singularly efficient CD, is about ambivalence, about being swallowed up by love - to the point of getting one's penis bitten off. Reznor has some issues about women, it seems. It's to his credit that several tunes here approach the love song, a relatively new field for our man of itch and release, of ambivalence and yearning, our specialist in self-hatred. ("I want to fuck you like an animal," the hook whose censorship made "Closer" such a hit 11 years ago, isn't about love; lust, yes.)
A gang of songs are radio-ready, like the first single, the Grohl-driven "You Know What You Are" (evoking "You Know Who You Are" from Hate Machine), the brutal "Every Day Is Exactly the Same," and "Only," one of Reznor's most daring tracks.
Carlo Wolff is the author of Cleveland Rock & Roll Memories and a long-time book and music critic. He works full-time as a business writer at Penton Media, specializing in articles about the hotel industry.
- NIN Sez Bite My Crank
- Published: May 10, 2005
- Type: Review
- Section: Music
- Writer: Carlo Wolff
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Comments on this articleComments
While I appreciate the author's voice and use of language to be sure, I must say I am rather mystified by his take on With Teeth as well. Yes, the word "love" is in the title of two different songs in the record, but this isn't an album about love. It's about rebirth, and the reclaiming of the potential of one's self. Anytime love is brought into the arena it is to illustrate the stripping away of the author's various coping/denial mechanisms as he finally comes to his epiphany (which is literally stated in "Beside You In Time"). Just as The Downward Spiral had elements of Religion ("Heresy"), Carnal Distraction ("Closer"), and Emotional/Relationship Sabotage ("Ruiner") it was not about those systems; they were mentioned only because they were being thrown away as the lead character in the album's narrative stripped himself down to his bare, quivering core.
Something similar is happening in Teeth, but it is the rejection of distraction and denial -- all the things that Reznor seems to have suffered through his addiction the past 10 years -- that are being discarded.
I also enjoy (and for the most part, concur) with the reviewer's look at the album from a musical perspective, though I must disagree with their take on "The Hand That Feeds" -- easily the most disposable song on the record (admittedly so, by Reznor himself), because it is musically nothing more than a power pop confection with the staying power of a scoop of Ben & Jerry's on a New Orleans summer day. (Plus, can we retire the term "death disco" and all thesaurus-influenced reiterations thereof please?)
And just on the factual tip, I'm sure the author is a big NIN fan for having the overall awareness to commit this infraction in the first place, but the lyric "You know who you are" appears nowhere on the record Pretty Hate Machine. It is printed in the liner notes at the end of the lyrics for "Head Like A Hole", but is never featured in the recording itself.
Being a huge NIN fan from way back, I think that the author's (as well as the repsondants) takes on the album are valid. Trent has gone through some major changes in the past 6 years and if you have seen him live on this tour you can see it for yourself. I have seen him live three times now; and I must say, the WIth Teeth tour is NIN at their best.
The new album is as stellar live as I find it on disc. No matter what the argument about the meaning or themes of the the songs - take them for what they are; great songs. This album shows an older, wiser Rezor who has matured as a songwriter and is willing to take more chances with his music, but in the end I think he is just looking for a connection with his audience through his outlet of music.
Carlo, great writing as usual,
This work of yours now has another venue for success, glory and taking control of the world :-) - and many more eyes - at the Advance.net Web sites, a place affiliated with about 12 newspapers.
One such site is here.
Also please let your contact know, if you had one, that this article, is published at one more place. That helps a lot.
Thank you.
Temple Stark
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I'm amazed by this review that entirely misses the point of this record. The song With_Teeth is not about a woman, it's about addiction, and there is no whining on this record at any point. What there is is a battle between a monster that destroys and a man who creates, with the man getting the upper hand by the end. As for the pleasures of submission, this is the man who likes to yowl that he'd rather "die than give you control," and he left songs that are actually about the fine line between seduction and servitude behind in 1989, on the record he made when he was about 23 years old.
Also, while I'm at it, the song Closer is absolutely about love, though not a "love song", and there are no proper love songs on With Teeth, unless you include songs about learning how to treat oneself with love instead of destruction.
I'll give you that a brilliant pop sensibility meets the density of The Downward Spiral here, and it's insightful of you to have seen that The Hand That Feeds Him has long been depression, but other than that, I really have to tell you that you have not at all heard what is being said on this record. With Teeth is a singularly positive record about stepping back from the abyss: in one sense, a thematic departure from anything Trent Reznor has ever done, and in another, simply one possible logical progression from what he's always been about.
Finally, there is no Nine Inch Nails record on which Trent Reznor does not receive full songwriting credit. As he once famously printed on his liner notes, "Nine Inch Nails is Trent Reznor."