The recognizable NIN formula, eardrum shredding abrasion, alternated with quiet, seductive whispers, is what you get on the first cut "The Day the World Went Away." Since there's a quiet version of TDTWWA on the CD as well, I guess you would call this the loud version. Maybe a little too loud, since the lyrics are practically obliterated by the heavy hand of the producer.
Other than the anguished humanity of his vocals and lyrics, Trent Reznor is known for his masterful handling of complex layers, merged and married to form a perfection of sound difficult, if not impossible, for many other computer-oriented musicians to match. Though interesting in an academic way, what we have on the loud version of TDTWWA seems to be an example of what happens when a musician has too much expensive equipment at his disposal to play around with. The vocals literally drown in the harsher layers. Perhaps intentional, but hardly advisable. In the quieter moments, the lyrics are the one thing that deviate from the usual NIN pattern. Employing a less free form, more traditional rhyming sequence, they could be called uncharacteristically prim for the man best known for raging obscenities scattered through his anguished pathos.
He sings of decay, and a cynic might be tempted to say the decay is evident in the lackluster quality of this rendering. Fortunately, there's another version of it on the same CD. A much more palatable incarnation -- TDTWWA (quiet version).
Reznor is at his best as a purveyor of emotion. On the quiet version his voice is allowed to dominate, to the overall betterment of the song. The lyrics are the same, and still seem subdued compared to earlier lyrics he has written, but without the jarring cataclysm of sound that overwhelmed the first version, you're allowed to connect more with the meaning behind the lyrics. It is a much more intimate and satisfying moment.
The middle selection of the CD, "Starfuckers, Inc." obviously has elements of parody about it. It has widely been interpreted by fans as a broad slam at former Reznor buddy and protege Brian Warner, AKA Marilyn Manson. As one of Reznor's infamous "fuck you" songs with apparently little purpose beyond that, it can perhaps be spared from as much academic dissection as the other songs. Not that that's always the case. "Head Like A Hole," after all, was also a "fuck you" song, but certainly rises far above that origin and is definitely one of Reznor's greatest anthems.
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