THE ALBUM OF THE DAY IS… NINE INCH NAILS, STILL

I’m feeling kinda mellow today, so this seems like the right choice for “Album of the Day.” Originally released for purchase exclusively through the Nine Inch Nails website and later released as a bonus disc with the deluxe edition of the live album And All That Could Have Been, this EP features the then-touring line-up of the band (including Robin Finck and Danny Lohner) doing live, stripped down, semi-acoustic versions of NIN tunes including a meditative, stirring rendition of “The Day the World Went Away.” But the stand-out track is the lone original song, “And All that Could Have Been.” A soft, melancholy slow burn that builds to an epic mid-section, the song is a reminder that Trent Reznor is as skilled at creating quiet cries of depressed desperation as he is at crafting industrial soundscapes while screaming to the skies about how bad everything sucks. “And All that Could Have Been” deserves it own place alongside “Hurt” as a true Nine Inch Nails classic – a genuine work of beauty. This album is pretty hard to come by these days (at least through legal means), but it’s worth whatever you end up paying for it.

-AR