This week, Nine Inch Nails posted the following 

message on its website:

AS THE NEWS SEEMS TO TURN EVER 

MORE GRIM BY THE HOUR, WE’VE FOUND 

OURSELVES 
VACILLATING 
WILDLY 

BETWEEN FEELING LIKE THERE MAY 

BE HOPE AT TIMES TO UTTER DESPAIR — 

OFTEN CHANGING MINUTE TO MINUTE 

… MUSIC — WHETHER LISTENING TO IT, 

THINKING ABOUT IT OR CREATING IT — HAS 

ALWAYS BEEN THE THING THAT HELPED 

US GET THROUGH ANYTHING — GOOD OR 

BAD. WITH THAT IN MIND, WE DECIDED TO 

BURN THE MIDNIGHT OIL AND COMPLETE 

THESE NEW GHOSTS RECORDS AS A MEANS 

OF STAYING SOMEWHAT SANE.

As I admitted to a friend on the phone later 

that day, getting out of bed and discovering the 

release of new Nine Inch Nails material is one of 

the best things I could have possibly woken up to 

at this strange, isolated point in my life. What’s 

more is that these two new albums aren’t exactly 

standalones. They are sequels to Ghosts I-IV, an 

ambient instrumental album that recently turned 

12 years old and marks a fascinating turning point 

in the band’s career. 

Ghosts I-IV is something of a toy box for Trent 

Reznor’s most introspective musical ideas. In 

stepping away from the realm of industrial rock, 

the frontman demonstrated the haunting power 

of his compositional abilities. In fact, a few tracks 

from the album went on to score what I consider 

the greatest movie of the 2010s. Reznor and Ross 

would hardly pause from writing film and TV 

scores after Ghosts I-IV. One piece, “34 Ghosts IV,” 

was sampled by Lil Nas X to become Billboard’s 

longest running No. 1 song, ultimately winning 

Reznor his first (and likely last) Country Music 

Award. 

With all that said, while Ghosts V: Together 

and Ghosts VI: Locusts lack the gritty, combustive 

charm of their oddly imposing predecessor, they 

are mature and deeply affecting additions to the 

Nine Inch Nails canon. Both albums sacrifice 

that distinct, thrummy intensity of previous NIN 

records, trading this quality in for a focus on an 

all-consuming atmosphere. And yet, the albums 

could not differ more in tone. 

Ghosts V: Together is a warm yet unsettling 

hug. The best way to listen to the album is with 

your eyes closed and your head down, allowing 

Reznor’s bouts of ethereal humming dissonance 

to fill your mind. Like the best NIN records, 

Together weaves through slow and rewarding 

apexes with intensity, drawing one in completely 

before unleashing the naked core of its ideas. Both 

“Letting Go While Holding On” and the title track 

achieve this gradual release expertly.

There is no shortage of what I call the “NIN 

chord” here, (a major third on top of a flat seventh, 

if you’re dying to know), a conflicting set of notes 

that thrive in the band’s typically ambiguous 

emotional settings. If 

you’ve listened to some 

NIN, 
you 
probably 

know what these notes 

evoke — a reluctant, 

fleeting smile. 

Reznor appears to 

cite composer Vangelis 

(“Blade 
Runner”) 

with the patient depth 

of tones; each layer 

of sound feels both 

vividly 
human 
and 

distantly digital at the 

same time. This is a theme that Together relishes 

in, most notably on “Your Touch.” Despite the 

tactile impressions of the track’s title, its melodies 

are wispy, warped electronic phrases. It made 

me consider what human connection often feels 

like in a global pandemic: faces as grainy laptop 

camera images, voices as feeble phone speaker 

audio, conversation as iMessage notifications. 

If Together in an album that exists outside of 

time — bleary, pulsating and digital — then Locusts 

is a panicking, frazzled human heart crushed by 

urgency. 

Look no further than its opening track, “The 

Cursed Clock,” to understand how drastically 

morbid everything becomes. Cool vibrating 

synths are replaced with a piano and strange 

whirring. The minimalist uniformity of the notes 

would make John Carpenter proud: If one were 

to insert them into a “Halloween” movie, I don’t 

think anyone would question it.

Here, musical ideas are no longer nine-minute 

waves of sweet kinetic force — they are indecent 

little trios of short notes that attack like hornets. 

It’s no secret that NIN writes dark music, but never 

before has it been so overtly present in the band’s 

musical direction. NIN often coats its bleakness 

in grimy headbangability, but Locusts takes a far 

blunter approach to the abyss. Moreover, not since 

2002’s Still has NIN tried to feel so intimate. The 

rendition of “Something I Can Never Have” on that 

record makes it sound as though Reznor’s voice is 

echoing in a tiny room. 

That effect is attempted 

here, though without 

vocals we merely hear 

the pianist’s rustling 

and breathing.

Locusts 
continues 

with many of these 

same 
components, 

sinking deeper into its 

listener with unbending 

claws. Aside from its 

ambient backgrounds, 

most 
elements 
of 

Locusts are organic; Reznor brings out some brass 

on top of the piano, delving further into the bumpy 

noir style he employed on the “Watchmen” score. 

The newest installment of the Ghosts series 

certainly breaks new ground. But the question 

of where it will take Nine Inch Nails is an open 

one. Trent Reznor is so utterly capable of musical 

excellence that the question isn’t a matter of if, but 

how. Is this full-throated evil going to remain a part 

of the band’s songwriting? I’m curious to see how 

that would play with its more digestible material.

The thesis of Nine Inch Nails is something like, 

“The world is a void and nothing matters, but it’s 

OK to feel that way.” I’m guessing that sentiment 

is not an unpopular one right now. Together and 

Locusts managed to amplify all the feelings I had 

about living inside all day while the world seems 

to have halted. By embracing the tenet that made 

them who they are, NIN did us all a favor by 

expediting this release.

Monday, March 30, 2020 — 5
Arts
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com

FLICKR

ANISH TAMHANEY

Daily Film Editor

Surprise ‘Ghosts’: a reminder that Reznor’s still king

ALBUM REVIEW

This is it. A little over a year since Netflix 

pulled the plug on the critically-acclaimed Latinx-

centered family sitcom, “One Day at a Time,” and 

after numerous fan campaigns and a last minute 

save by POP TV, the show has finally returned 

to our screens. Regardless of whether you’ve 

watched the series from the beginning — either 

the 
1975 
original 

created by Norman 

Lear or the reboot 

in 2017 — or are only 

discovering it for the 

first time, the premiere 

is very aware of its 

need to appeal to both 

audiences. Becoming 

the first ever show to 

be saved by a linear 

television 
network 

from 
a 
streaming 

platform, the Cuban-

American 
Alvarez 

family has no problem sticking it to their old 

platform with the son Alex (Marcel Ruiz, 

“Breakthrough”) declaring, “there’s nothing good 

on Netflix anymore.” 

The premiere focuses on reintroducing us to 

the Alvarez family, who have all changed over 

the course of the last three seasons, while still 

retaining their most beloved qualities. Penelope 

(Justina Machado, “Jane the Virgin”) is still a hard-

loving single mother, now a nurse practitioner. 

That doesn’t stop her mother, Lydia (Rita Moreno, 

“West Side Story”), from trying to retain her status 

as the matriarch of the household. Elena (Isabella 

Gomez, “Big Hero 6: The Series”) remains an 

overachieving, lovable and preachy high school 

dork. Alex is a cool teenager (seriously, that’s 

all there is to him), while Dr. Leslie Berkowitz 

(Stephen Tobolowsky, “Silicon Valley”) and the 

Alvarezes’ landlord Schneider (Todd Grinnell, 

“Grace and Frankie”) are the opposite of that and 

are the essential not-

blood-related overstay-

their-welcome 
family 

members.

With 
the 
show’s 

transition 
from 
a 

streaming 
service 
to 

cable channel, episodes 

are shorter, as they must 

fit within the 21-minute 

window. Unfortunately, 

that meant cutting the 

addictively catchy theme 

song down to a simple 

title card. Aside from 

that, “One Day” maintains its balance of socially 

conscious storylines with family comedy, like 

when Ray Romano (“The Big Sick”) had a cameo 

role as a census taker. Penelope slams the door 

in his face while Elena stresses the importance 

of participating in the census, highlighting the 

generational gap. Or Penelope grappling with 

the fact that being a single “badass feminist” and 

wanting to be in a relationship because you’re 

feeling alone aren’t always mutually exclusive. It’s 

also not always subtle in its messages — like when 

Romano reminds the Alvarezes that the census 

does not ask about citizenship. It’s these kinds of 

conversations that make the Alvarezes uniquely 

Latino and entirely American.

It’ll be interesting to see how the rest of the 

season unfolds, given that its move to cable also 

means episodes will be released on a weekly basis, 

rather than all at once. This makes the show feel 

too structured at times, as a certain amount of 

the plot must be accomplished within a specific 

amount of time before the commercial break. 

One of the things that drew me to “One Day” 

initially was how it differed from most multi-

camera sitcoms in that the episodes were a little 

longer, and how it perfectly balanced season-long 

arcs with episodic storylines. While I wouldn’t 

expect the latter to change, the shortened episode 

run times give the impression that the writers 

are racing against the clock to fit into unnatural 

feeling act breaks. This could simply be due to fans 

of the show having to get used to the new format. 

One thing that was obvious, however, was the lack 

of balancing plotlines outside of Penelope’s. Still, 

it’s safe to say that the humor and heart of “One 

Day at a Time” has been captured. 

With the coronavirus pandemic halting 

production on several television shows, who 

knows how many more episodes we’ll get. Even if 

there are some elements that we’ll miss — like the 

slightly longer episodes — it’s better than no new 

episodes at all. All I have to say is thank you to POP 

TV for taking a chance on a show I will excitedly 

tune in to every week.

TV REVIEW
‘One Day at a Time’ returns, triumphantly, on cable

JUSTIN POLLACK

Daily Arts Writer

POP TV

Ghosts V: Together 
& Ghosts VI: Locusts 

Nine Inch Nails

The Null Corporation 

One Day at a Time

Season 4 Premiere

POP TV

Tuesdays @ 9:30 p.m.

