I must confess, I'm not an old NIN fan boy, but I am more and more impressed by Trent Reznor. His musical ability is solid, but I'm even more impressed by his cultivating and responding to his followers and grasp of the Net culture whereas so many from the music business are completely clueless on that score. The new work is not the best I've heard by them, but I'd rate it 7.5* out of 10*. Like I said today to a NIN-loving friend I'd rather have a 7-8 NIN effort than a 9 or 10 of many other people. Trent's explanation for the free release is that he wants to thank the Net for helping him make 1.6 million smackers on the last go. Good for him. Nice to know that with ingenuity, hard work and sensitivity to one's market(in this case:listener's) people can actually make real money on the internet and also have the exchange happen quickly and directly between marketer and market.

Download your NIN album:The Slip here