"thank you for your continued and loyal support over the years - this one's on me"

This is the message on Nine Inch Nails' official website that prefaces the options to download "The Slip", the third album that they have released in the past twelve months. Trent Reznor has one-upped Radiohead in the credibility stakes by not even offering a 'tip jar' when offering his music for download, instead inviting and encouraging listeners to just take the music without giving anything tangible in return. As a marketing strategy it's brilliant, because everybody who is interested can pick up the music at no risk, and Reznor gets to build on his already substantial fanbase for future releases and tours.

Obviously, the conventional record label tactic would be to release a bunch of substandard tracks or B-sides as the free album, and save the top shelf stuff for a later release that people have to pay for. However, since Reznor is no longer constrained by the usual record company constraints, he's been free to release whatever he wants, and for the most part "The Slip" is perfectly saleable, quality material.

What's more, it's also an improvement on the "Ghosts I-IV" release from a couple of months back, which was interesting, but ultimately turned out to be the sort of release only a true fan could really love. "The Slip" is more song-based than "Ghosts", and this time around only a couple of the tracks are instrumental. The rest of the album is half made up of the industrial disco metal that Nine Inch Nails is principally noted for, and half made up of the gentle, sparse pieces that illustrate that Trent is a perfectly capable songwriter even when he's not programming stuttering, unfriendly beats.

The first proper song on the album, entitled 1,000,000 is an illustration of the former, more traditional NIN sound. With driving percussion that sounds like artillery going off in the distance, it is built around a looping, distorted guitar riff that sounds like something that the band would have done fifteen years ago, albeit with a more textured and mature feel to it. Discipline, the single track that was released for free a few weeks ago, is similarly textured, coming out like a warped, unholy slab of synthpop. What's impressive about the song is the way that rather than just laying more guitars in over the chorus, Reznor instead has opted for a much more subdued and subtle passage that's as danceable as it is heavy.

On track seven, entitled Lights In The Sky, the album makes an abrupt turn though, with the guitar riffs and loud noises of the first half of the album replaced by a slow, stately piano melody, accompanied only by Reznor's quiet, murmured lyrics. It's a technique that's been used before, most notably on "The Fragile", but it has never quite been done as effectively as it is here. And rather than following up with more loud music, the next tracks are equally quiet and brooding, with Corona Radiata being built more or less around a monotonal hum, and The Four Of Us Are Dying features a slinky bass riff and gently stammering drum machines.

It's all tied off with Demon Seed, which brings the two halves of the albums together, which might have vocals and a more aggressive posture, but which still builds up with layer upon layer of sound, building to a mixture of the industrial rock of the first half of the album and the ambient soundscapes of the second half.

At forty-four minutes in length, this is the shortest full-length album from Nine Inch Nails in some time, but it's also one of the most concise; not a minute is wasted on the sometimes interminable excess that Reznor sometimes wallows in, and the shorter length means that it's easily listenable in one sitting and not quite as intimidating as some of the epic-length previous albums have been. "The Slip" is not revelatory in the same way as "Year Zero" was, but it's nonetheless a solid album that builds well on the template that Trent has established for himself, and there can be no arguing really over the price tag.