I was never a huge fan of Nine Inch Nails – even when I tried to get into them a few years ago it only took a couple weeks for my interest to wane almost completely.

Then Ghosts I-IV came out, much to everyone’s surprise, in a very high quality, successful, impressive example of digital distribution done right a few days ago. I heard it was all electronic and instrumental, which sounded pretty good to me for a few reasons, the main one being that I like the idea of music that’s strong enough to stand on it’s own without a singing “front man.” It forces the music itself to be more interesting instead of relying so heavily on a familiar voice. Also, like Derrick and I were talking about earlier, Trent Reznor’s lyrics are historically embarrassingly angsty. Never the less, even with the nice release of an entirely electornic instramental album I was somewhat apprehensive about caring.

Then people started talking to me about the release, most of them talking about how they wish Reznor was singing, and almost everyone mentioning mixed feelings about it all. Finally I decide that I want to hear it for myself. I download Ghosts I, basically the first disc of the four disc set, which was released absolutely free via a torrent. Much to my surprise I liked it quite a bit and paid the OUTRAGOUS sum of five dollars to download all four discs.

While it’s far to early to tell if the release will stand the Adam Test of Time, which is perhaps the most rigorous test any piece of music can be put through, I can say that for now I’m really loving it. If nothing else I love the idea of so many people downloading and listening to it simply because it’s Nine Inch Nails, regardless of the fact that much of it sounds more like Brian Eno or Boards of Canada than Nine Inch Nails.