Last night I blogged about why I bought the Nine Inch Nail’s new album Ghosts. Which means it’s time for my first album review. I finished listening to it and the word that was at the top of my mind when it finished was “moody.” This makes a lot of sense, Trent Renzor states that one of his goals was to create a soundtrack for day-dreams. However, it appears that his day dreams aren’t as happy as mine. 
I really like stuff like this. Moody, abstract, and varying between depressing, rage, and hard driving. It appropriately fits the condition of the modern computer programmer. The slower tracks reminded me of Mogwai’s sound track to Zidane, un portrait du 21e siècle. The faster tracks are classic, dissonant, and industrial NIN. It’s a good mix.
As an added bonus, when you purchase the songs, you also get a 40 page pdf booklet of the scenes that inspired the music, as well as some desktop wallpapers and web graphics derived from images in the booklet. The packaging of the set does a great job of translating the value-add of a traditional CD to the web distribution model.
My final verdict is moody and good, but probably a little short of great. It’s fantastic as coding music since it doesn’t get in the way. I’m probably going to listen to it again today.
