if you want the deviations, just pm me. i know it’s probably not 100% kosher but if you want to at least hear it and decide whether you’d be willing to buy an $80, then that’s probably ok.
don’t put me in jail trent
anyways – as for not the actual events, this is more or less how i’ve seen it:
branches/bones is very much a song in the vein of year zero. it feels very much in that kind of theme, stylistically. the sounds, the pacing.
dear world, calls back to hesitation marks to me, mostly because of the instrumentation choice. particularly the way the drums are laid out and the way the drum samples themselves sound and the kind of rhythm they’re carrying just really, really remind me of hesitation marks.
she’s gone away smells like something that belongs on the into oblivion album from how to destroy angels. i guess i shouldn’t be surprised that this is the song that Mariqueen contributed to, but her voice definitely lends an eerie quality throughout, both in her quiet “oohs” and as the silent harmony in the chorus. it’s really quite good; it’s what i imagine an HTDA song would sound like if Trent was on singing duty.
the idea of you is really punchy and seems to me to draw the most from the entirety of the catalog of nine inch nails music so far. a lot of it has to do with the fact that Grohl is in there beating the shit out of the drums. there’s some downward spiral in here with the instrumentation, some with teeth in the melodies. the chorus pulls a lot from year zero and a little from the fragile. it’s weird. i like it.
burning bright (field on fire) is what would happen if the fragile and year zero had a baby.
Todd Rundgren is a hero of mine. His records (solo and Utopia!), his songwriting, his production and his musicianship… all played a huge role shaping me into who I am. I still listen to (and study) A Wizard, A True Star and Something / Anything regularly, and I suggest you do, too.
Atticus and I sent Todd a wealth of ideas for his new record. He worked on this track and released the “proper” version here: http://amzn.to/2oSyR68. We then took what he did and moved it forward (or backward, depending on your perspective) into this.
Enjoy-
TR (not Todd Rundgren, the other TR)
QUESTION: FINALLY, DID YOU KNOW THERE’S A NEW TOP-SECRET NINE INCH NAILS EP THAT WILL BE RELEASED BEFORE THE FIRST SHOWS WE DO THIS SUMMER? DID YOU KNOW NOT THE ACTUAL EVENTS WAS THE FIRST PART OF A TRILOGY OF RELATED EPS THAT WILL BE RELEASED ABOUT 6-8 MONTHS APART? NOW YOU DO. MORE INFORMATION ON THIS SHORTLY…
