Ghosts I–IV
Encyclopedia
Ghosts I–IV is the sixth studio album by American industrial rock
act Nine Inch Nails
, released on March 2, 2008. The team behind the project included Nine Inch Nails front man Trent Reznor
, studio-collaborators Atticus Ross
and Alan Moulder
, and instrumental contributions from Alessandro Cortini
, Adrian Belew
, and Brian Viglione
. Reznor described the music of Ghosts as "a soundtrack for daydreams", a sentiment echoed by many critics who compared it with the work of Brian Eno
and Robert Fripp
. The songs are unnamed, and are identified only by their track listing and group number.
The album is the first independent release from Nine Inch Nails following its announcement that it had severed its ties with Interscope Records
. Initially intended to be a five-track EP
, the final release consists of four nine-track instrumental EPs, totaling 36 tracks. The album was released under a Creative Commons
license (BY-NC-SA), and in a variety of differing packages at various price point
s, including a US$
300 "Ultra-Deluxe Limited Edition". Ghosts was initially released digitally on the official Nine Inch Nails website without any prior advertisement or promotion. Via the official Nine Inch Nails YouTube
profile, a user-generated "film festival" was announced, where fans were invited to visually interpret the album's music and post their results.
Critical reception of the album has been generally favorable, with its unorthodox release attracting positive comments from many critics. Much coverage of Ghosts I–IV has compared it to the digital-download releases of Radiohead
's In Rainbows
as well as Saul Williams
' The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust!
, the latter Reznor himself produced. The album was nominated for (but unable to win) two 2008 Grammy Award
s, in the categories "Best Rock Instrumental Performance" and "Best Box Set or Limited Edition Package". These nominations represented the first time music released under a Creative Commons license had been nominated for a Grammy Award.
Nine Inch Nails front man Trent Reznor
announced in 2007 that the band had completed its contractual obligations to its record label, Interscope Records
, and would no longer be working with the company. Reznor also revealed that Nine Inch Nails would likely distribute its next album independently, possibly in a fashion similar to rapper Saul Williams
' 2007 album The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust!
, which Reznor produced.
Following the Performance 2007 tour in support of the band's previous album Year Zero
(2007), Reznor set out to make a record "with very little forethought". Ghosts I–IV originated from an experiment: "The rules were as follows: 10 weeks, no clear agenda, no overthinking, everything driven by impulse. Whatever happens during that time gets released as ... something." Reznor explained, "I've been considering and wanting to make this kind of record for years, but by its very nature it wouldn't have made sense until this point".
The core creative team behind the project was Reznor, Atticus Ross
, and Alan Moulder
. Live-band
member Alessandro Cortini
and studio musicians Adrian Belew
and Brian Viglione
also contributed instrumental performances on select tracks. Reznor described the band's early intentions for the project as "an experiment", and explained the group's process: "When we started working with the music, we would generally start with a sort of visual reference that we had imagined: a place, or a setting, or a situation. And then attempt to describe that with sound and texture and melody. And treat it, in a sense, as if it were a soundtrack."
The musicians created the album tracks through improvisation and experimentation. As a result, the initial plan to release a single EP of the material expanded to include the increasing amount of material. Viglione contributed percussion to tracks 19 and 22. He stated that Reznor's instructions to him were to "build a drumkit. Piece together any stuff that you want to bang on; rent what you want to rent. Have fun and ... be creative—See where your mind and your ideas take you." Viglione's makeshift drum kit included a 50-gallon trash can, a pair of water cooler jugs, and a cookie tray with a chain across it. Alessandro Cortini is credited on a total of ten tracks from Ghosts for his contributions on guitar
, bass guitar
, dulcimer
, and electronics. Cortini recounted in an interview that he was brought onto the project two weeks into the process, and that his involvement evolved from "first recording some extra parts to some tracks" and eventually into "a collaboration on [the] tracks noted in the booklet". Adrian Belew was also brought on for select instrumental contributions, but as the project evolved Reznor expanded Belew's involvement and shared writing credit with him on two tracks.
Ghosts I–IV is an almost entirely instrumental album, with only a few tracks containing sampled vocals (such as a sample doctored from the Trial of Saddam Hussein
). Reznor described the album's sound as "the result of working from a very visual perspective—dressing imagined locations and scenarios with sound and texture; a soundtrack for daydreams." PopMatters
' review of the album compared its musical style to that of Brian Eno
and Robert Fripp
, ultimately categorizing it as "dark ambient
". The review went on to describe the music as "a tonal painting, a collection of moods and not all of these moods are good ones." National Public Radio compared the album to the music of Erik Satie
and Brian Eno; Rolling Stone
's review to Brian Eno, specifically the album's sound to the instrumentals of Another Green World
(1975) and the rhythm collages of My Life in the Bush of Ghosts
(1981). Robert Christgau
also compared the album to the work of Brian Eno, summarizing Ghosts' sound as "mental wallpaper".
Ghosts I–IV features a wide assortment of musical instruments, including piano
, guitar
, bass
, synthesizer
, marimba
, tambourine
, banjo
, dulcimer
, and xylophone
, many of which were sampled and distorted electronically. Percussion instrument
s, contributed primarily by Brian Viglione, were constructed largely out of found objects and house-hold items.
acted as the album's art director, in collaboration with Artist in Residence. Sheridan was also art director for the previous two Nine Inch Nails studio albums, With Teeth
(2005) and Year Zero
. Since Ghosts was released in a variety of versions, some of the versions feature somewhat differing (or additional) album art and related artwork. A 40-page PDF
comes with each version of the album and contains a photograph for each of the 36 tracks. These photographs are also embedded into the ID3
tags of every downloadable track.
Ghosts I–IV was released online on March 2, 2008, on the official Nine Inch Nails website in a number of different formats at various price points. The only prior advertisement or notice of the release was a post by Reznor two weeks prior on the site saying "2 weeks!" Ghosts was the first album released by Reznor's independent label The Null Corporation
. Retail copies of the album were distributed by RED Distribution
on April 8 on CD and vinyl formats, and May 1 for the "Deluxe" and "Ultra-Deluxe" editions. The smallest Ghosts package contains the first nine tracks, available for free online from either the official Nine Inch Nails website or officially from various BitTorrent tracker
s, including The Pirate Bay
. The entire album was also made available for download directly from the band for US$5. Physical copies of the album were available for pre-sale online, with immediate access to the digital version. A two-disc version includes two audio CDs and a 16-page booklet for $10. A "Deluxe Edition" is available for $75 and includes two audio CDs, a data-DVD
containing multitrack
files of the album, a Blu-ray Disc
with the album in high-definition stereo and accompanying slide show, and a 48-page hardcover book with photographs. A $300 "Ultra-Deluxe Limited Edition" included everything in the "Deluxe" edition, as well as a 4-LP 180 gram vinyl
set in a fabric slipcase, and two exclusive limited edition Giclée
prints, unique to each copy. These were limited to 2,500 pieces, each copy numbered and signed by Trent Reznor. Reznor described the limited edition release as "the most luxurious physical package we've ever created." Finally, the album was also released on 4-LP 130 gram vinyl, set in a double gate fold package, for $39.
The album is licensed under a Creative Commons
Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike
license, in effect allowing anyone to use or rework the material for any non-profit purpose, as long as credit is provided and the resulting work is released under a similar license. Reznor explained this move by saying "It's a stance we're taking that we feel is appropriate [...] with digital technology, and outdated copyright laws, and all the nonsense that's going on these days". Jim Guerinot, manager of Nine Inch Nails, explained the unconventional release of the album as "[not] a reaction to what doesn’t exist today. [...] it’s more just like, 'Hey, in a vacuum I can do whatever I want to do.'" The digital-release of the album reportedly required an extensive overhaul of the Nine Inch Nails website in order for the site to cope with the influx of traffic, online-payments, and customer service needs of releasing the album. These upgrades cost Reznor approximately $20,000 to implement. Despite these measures, upon the release of Ghosts the site crashed, and additional servers
were necessary to handle the traffic.
Reznor wrote that "more volumes of Ghosts are likely to appear in the future." Since finishing touring with Nine Inch Nails to focus on the in-studio side of the band, Reznor has repeated his intention to make another Ghosts album in the near future.
" as an accompaniment to the album, hosted at the official Nine Inch Nails YouTube
channel. It was revealed that the album was stripped of much artwork and song titles to provide a blank canvas for the project.
Reznor explained that the endeavor was not meant as a contest, but as "an experiment in collaboration and a chance for us to interact beyond the typical one-way artist-to-fan relationship." Over 1,000 video submissions have been posted and over 6,000 members have joined the festival group since the beginning of the film festival in March 2008. The official YouTube group states there is no set time limit for the video submission. Video submissions are being added sporadically to the NIN Ghosts group.
typically as a distinct section of instrumental songs mid-way through the show. Ghosts material was performed in this manner primarily as part of the "Lights in the Sky" tour in 2008, immediately after the album's release. During these segments the music was largely acoustic, as opposed to the electric instrumentation of other Nine Inch Nails live sets. The Ghosts segment included instrumentation from a marimba
, harmonium
, glockenspiel
, double bass
, and various homemade percussion instruments. The Ghosts section was later scrapped for the "NINJA" and "Wave Goodbye" tours, as Reznor felt the instrumental songs did not fit with the set lists.
, and was the best-selling album on Amazon MP3
.
The physical release of the album placed on numerous charts worldwide (virtually none where it had involvement in the number one position), including a peak position of number 14 on the Billboard 200
album chart. The album also reached the top spot on Billboard' s Dance/Electronic Albums chart. Internationally, Ghosts peaked at number 15 on the Australian ARIA Charts
, number 58 in Austria, number 3 in Canada, number 26 in New Zealand, and number 60 on the UK Albums Chart
.
. Seth Colter Walls of Newsweek
described the album as "the kind of absorbing musical experience that the surviving ranks of know-it-all record-store clerks would be pushing on customers, if only they could offer it for sale." IGN
gave the album a rating of 8.7 out of 10 and wrote, "The music is so engrossing and encompassing that time ceases to be a factor—at least until the music finally stops." PopMatters
gave the album an 8 out of 10 and described the album as "36 tracks, but no songs", and went on to call it "dark, brooding [...] haunting." Pitchfork Media
criticized the album, however, by saying "nearly every one of the untitled instrumental sketches here feels emaciated and half-finished", and gave the work a 5.0 out of 10.0. Blender
also criticized the album, summarizing the review by saying "Nine Inch Nails return with no label oversight, no boundaries and no tunes."
The Washington Post
stated, "There's too much here. Yet it's the most interesting NIN in years." The review went on to describe each track as "the sonic equivalent of a silver orb hovering in your living room [which then] explodes into a million shiny balls of mercury that splash to the floor before trickling, magnetically, back into a large round mass."
The album's unorthodox distribution methods also garnered the attention of various news agencies, such as Wired
s Eliot Van Buskirk, who labeled Ghosts as "a remarkably extensive release". Ben Worthen of The Wall Street Journal
hypothesized that "most business execs [...] could learn a lot from [Reznor’s] experiments with online business models." Many news agencies compared the release to Radiohead
's 2007 "pay-what-you-want" digital release of In Rainbows
, as well as the similar release of Saul Williams
' album The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust!
the same year, which Reznor produced. Rolling Stone
' s review called the album a "A new-media showpiece", while Tiny Mix Tapes
said "the circumstances surrounding the release are so forward-thinking that they could be considered just as key to appreciating the album as the music itself." Business website The Motley Fool
wrote an article on the album's release titled "Music Industry Gets Nailed Again", forecasting that "Innovators like Nine Inch Nails are paving the way for new media business models that may bypass the middleman while making sure artists and fans are happy." In its review of The Slip, however, PopMatters described Ghosts I–IV in retrospect as an "aimless batch of ... instrumentals packaged in a brilliant marketing scheme" and that it was "basically a CD release with a couple of mail-order special editions available for the 'true fans'."
s, under the categories Best Rock Instrumental performance for the track "34 Ghosts IV", and Best Boxed Set or Limited Edition Package for the "Ultra-Deluxe" edition of the album. These nominations represented the first time music licensed under Creative Commons had been nominated for a Grammy Award. Following the release of Ghosts and the similar online release method of the band's follow-up, The Slip, Reznor was awarded the Webby Artist of the Year Award at the annual Webby Awards
in 2009. Rolling Stone magazine named Reznor number 46 in its "100 People Who Are Changing America" list, concluding that he has "been more creative than anyone in embracing the post-CD era".
and Atticus Ross
, except where noted.
Ghosts I
Ghosts II
Ghosts III
Ghosts IV
.
Industrial rock
Industrial rock is a musical genre that fuses industrial music and specific rock subgenres. Industrial rock spawned industrial metal, with which it is often confused...
act Nine Inch Nails
Nine Inch Nails
Nine Inch Nails is an American industrial rock project, founded in 1988 by Trent Reznor in Cleveland, Ohio. As its main producer, singer, songwriter, and instrumentalist, Reznor is the only official member of Nine Inch Nails and remains solely responsible for its direction...
, released on March 2, 2008. The team behind the project included Nine Inch Nails front man Trent Reznor
Trent Reznor
Michael Trent Reznor is an American multi-instrumentalist, composer, record producer, and leader of industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails. Reznor is also a member of How to Destroy Angels alongside his wife, Mariqueen Maandig, and Atticus Ross. He was previously associated with bands Option 30,...
, studio-collaborators Atticus Ross
Atticus Ross
Atticus Ross is an English musician, composer and producer. Ross, along with Trent Reznor, won the Academy Award for Best Original Score for The Social Network in 2011.-Early career:...
and Alan Moulder
Alan Moulder
Alan Moulder is one of Britain's premier alternative rock record producers. He has worked with such artists as Depeche Mode, Erasure, Elastica, Gary Numan, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Curve, Ride, Lush and My Bloody Valentine, Lostprophets, Shihad, Ivyrise and Placebo, as well as with many American...
, and instrumental contributions from Alessandro Cortini
Alessandro Cortini
Alessandro Cortini is an Italian musician best known for touring and recording with the American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails from 2004 to 2008. Currently, Cortini is also the frontman for the Los Angeles based electronic-alternative band SONOIO. In addition, he was a touring member of The...
, Adrian Belew
Adrian Belew
Adrian Belew is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and record producer...
, and Brian Viglione
Brian Viglione
Brian Viglione is the drummer for The Dresden Dolls. Additionally, he was a prominent member of New York City's cabaret punk orchestra, The WORLD/INFERNO Friendship Society...
. Reznor described the music of Ghosts as "a soundtrack for daydreams", a sentiment echoed by many critics who compared it with the work of Brian Eno
Brian Eno
Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno , commonly known as Brian Eno or simply as Eno , is an English musician, composer, record producer, singer and visual artist, known as one of the principal innovators of ambient music.Eno studied at Colchester Institute art school in Essex,...
and Robert Fripp
Robert Fripp
Robert Fripp is an English guitarist, composer and record producer. He was ranked 42nd on Rolling Stone magazine's 2003 list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" and #47 on Gibson.com’s "Top 50 Guitarists of All Time". Among rock guitarists, Fripp is a master of crosspicking, a technique...
. The songs are unnamed, and are identified only by their track listing and group number.
The album is the first independent release from Nine Inch Nails following its announcement that it had severed its ties with Interscope Records
Interscope Records
Interscope Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group that currently operates as one third of UMG's Interscope-Geffen-A&M label group.-History:...
. Initially intended to be a five-track EP
Extended play
An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
, the final release consists of four nine-track instrumental EPs, totaling 36 tracks. The album was released under a Creative Commons
Creative Commons
Creative Commons is a non-profit organization headquartered in Mountain View, California, United States devoted to expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has released several copyright-licenses known as Creative Commons...
license (BY-NC-SA), and in a variety of differing packages at various price point
Price point
Price points are prices at which demand for a given product is supposed to stay relatively high.- Characteristics :Introductory microeconomics depicts a demand curve as downward-sloping to the right and either linear or gently convex to the origin...
s, including a US$
United States dollar
The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
300 "Ultra-Deluxe Limited Edition". Ghosts was initially released digitally on the official Nine Inch Nails website without any prior advertisement or promotion. Via the official Nine Inch Nails YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
profile, a user-generated "film festival" was announced, where fans were invited to visually interpret the album's music and post their results.
Critical reception of the album has been generally favorable, with its unorthodox release attracting positive comments from many critics. Much coverage of Ghosts I–IV has compared it to the digital-download releases of Radiohead
Radiohead
Radiohead are an English rock band from Abingdon, Oxfordshire, formed in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke , Jonny Greenwood , Ed O'Brien , Colin Greenwood and Phil Selway .Radiohead released their debut single "Creep" in 1992...
's In Rainbows
In Rainbows
In Rainbows is the seventh studio album by the English rock band Radiohead. It was first released on 10 October 2007 as a digital download self-released, that customers could order for whatever price they saw fit, followed by a standard CD release in most countries during the last week of 2007. The...
as well as Saul Williams
Saul Williams
Saul Stacey Williams is an American poet, writer, actor and musician known for his blend of poetry and alternative hip hop and for his leading role in the 1998 independent film Slam.-Biography:...
' The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust!
The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust!
The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust! is the third album by Saul Williams, released on November 1, 2007. Williams worked closely with Trent Reznor on the album. The title of the album is a reference to David Bowie's 1972 album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from...
, the latter Reznor himself produced. The album was nominated for (but unable to win) two 2008 Grammy Award
Grammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
s, in the categories "Best Rock Instrumental Performance" and "Best Box Set or Limited Edition Package". These nominations represented the first time music released under a Creative Commons license had been nominated for a Grammy Award.
Recording and music
Trent Reznor
Michael Trent Reznor is an American multi-instrumentalist, composer, record producer, and leader of industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails. Reznor is also a member of How to Destroy Angels alongside his wife, Mariqueen Maandig, and Atticus Ross. He was previously associated with bands Option 30,...
announced in 2007 that the band had completed its contractual obligations to its record label, Interscope Records
Interscope Records
Interscope Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group that currently operates as one third of UMG's Interscope-Geffen-A&M label group.-History:...
, and would no longer be working with the company. Reznor also revealed that Nine Inch Nails would likely distribute its next album independently, possibly in a fashion similar to rapper Saul Williams
Saul Williams
Saul Stacey Williams is an American poet, writer, actor and musician known for his blend of poetry and alternative hip hop and for his leading role in the 1998 independent film Slam.-Biography:...
' 2007 album The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust!
The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust!
The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust! is the third album by Saul Williams, released on November 1, 2007. Williams worked closely with Trent Reznor on the album. The title of the album is a reference to David Bowie's 1972 album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from...
, which Reznor produced.
Following the Performance 2007 tour in support of the band's previous album Year Zero
Year Zero (album)
Year Zero is the fifth studio album by American industrial rock act Nine Inch Nails, released on April 17, 2007, by Interscope Records. Frontman Trent Reznor wrote the album's music and lyrics while touring in support of the group's previous release, With Teeth...
(2007), Reznor set out to make a record "with very little forethought". Ghosts I–IV originated from an experiment: "The rules were as follows: 10 weeks, no clear agenda, no overthinking, everything driven by impulse. Whatever happens during that time gets released as ... something." Reznor explained, "I've been considering and wanting to make this kind of record for years, but by its very nature it wouldn't have made sense until this point".
The core creative team behind the project was Reznor, Atticus Ross
Atticus Ross
Atticus Ross is an English musician, composer and producer. Ross, along with Trent Reznor, won the Academy Award for Best Original Score for The Social Network in 2011.-Early career:...
, and Alan Moulder
Alan Moulder
Alan Moulder is one of Britain's premier alternative rock record producers. He has worked with such artists as Depeche Mode, Erasure, Elastica, Gary Numan, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Curve, Ride, Lush and My Bloody Valentine, Lostprophets, Shihad, Ivyrise and Placebo, as well as with many American...
. Live-band
Nine Inch Nails live performances
Nine Inch Nails, an industrial rock band fronted by Trent Reznor, did various live performances throughout the world, including tours in North America, South America, Europe, Australia, Japan, and China. While Reznor controls the creative and musical direction of Nine Inch Nails in-studio, the...
member Alessandro Cortini
Alessandro Cortini
Alessandro Cortini is an Italian musician best known for touring and recording with the American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails from 2004 to 2008. Currently, Cortini is also the frontman for the Los Angeles based electronic-alternative band SONOIO. In addition, he was a touring member of The...
and studio musicians Adrian Belew
Adrian Belew
Adrian Belew is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and record producer...
and Brian Viglione
Brian Viglione
Brian Viglione is the drummer for The Dresden Dolls. Additionally, he was a prominent member of New York City's cabaret punk orchestra, The WORLD/INFERNO Friendship Society...
also contributed instrumental performances on select tracks. Reznor described the band's early intentions for the project as "an experiment", and explained the group's process: "When we started working with the music, we would generally start with a sort of visual reference that we had imagined: a place, or a setting, or a situation. And then attempt to describe that with sound and texture and melody. And treat it, in a sense, as if it were a soundtrack."
The musicians created the album tracks through improvisation and experimentation. As a result, the initial plan to release a single EP of the material expanded to include the increasing amount of material. Viglione contributed percussion to tracks 19 and 22. He stated that Reznor's instructions to him were to "build a drumkit. Piece together any stuff that you want to bang on; rent what you want to rent. Have fun and ... be creative—See where your mind and your ideas take you." Viglione's makeshift drum kit included a 50-gallon trash can, a pair of water cooler jugs, and a cookie tray with a chain across it. Alessandro Cortini is credited on a total of ten tracks from Ghosts for his contributions on guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
, bass guitar
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
, dulcimer
Appalachian dulcimer
The Appalachian dulcimer is a fretted string instrument of the zither family, typically with three or four strings. It is native to the Appalachian region of the United States...
, and electronics. Cortini recounted in an interview that he was brought onto the project two weeks into the process, and that his involvement evolved from "first recording some extra parts to some tracks" and eventually into "a collaboration on [the] tracks noted in the booklet". Adrian Belew was also brought on for select instrumental contributions, but as the project evolved Reznor expanded Belew's involvement and shared writing credit with him on two tracks.
Ghosts I–IV is an almost entirely instrumental album, with only a few tracks containing sampled vocals (such as a sample doctored from the Trial of Saddam Hussein
Trial of Saddam Hussein
thumb|300 px| Saddam Hussein sits before an Iraqi judge at a courthouse in Baghdad, 1 July 2004.The Trial of Saddam Hussein was the trial of the deposed President of Iraq Saddam Hussein by the Iraqi Interim Government for crimes against humanity during his time in office.The Coalition Provisional...
). Reznor described the album's sound as "the result of working from a very visual perspective—dressing imagined locations and scenarios with sound and texture; a soundtrack for daydreams." PopMatters
PopMatters
PopMatters is an international webzine of cultural criticism that covers many aspects of popular culture. PopMatters publishes reviews, interviews, and detailed essays on most cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, films, books, video games, comics, sports, theater,...
' review of the album compared its musical style to that of Brian Eno
Brian Eno
Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno , commonly known as Brian Eno or simply as Eno , is an English musician, composer, record producer, singer and visual artist, known as one of the principal innovators of ambient music.Eno studied at Colchester Institute art school in Essex,...
and Robert Fripp
Robert Fripp
Robert Fripp is an English guitarist, composer and record producer. He was ranked 42nd on Rolling Stone magazine's 2003 list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" and #47 on Gibson.com’s "Top 50 Guitarists of All Time". Among rock guitarists, Fripp is a master of crosspicking, a technique...
, ultimately categorizing it as "dark ambient
Dark ambient
Dark ambient is a subgenre of ambient music that features foreboding, ominous, or discordant overtones. Although it had its roots in the 1970s, Dark ambient emerged in the 1980s and 1990s with the introduction of newer, smaller, and more affordable Effects units, synthesizer and sampling technology...
". The review went on to describe the music as "a tonal painting, a collection of moods and not all of these moods are good ones." National Public Radio compared the album to the music of Erik Satie
Erik Satie
Éric Alfred Leslie Satie was a French composer and pianist. Satie was a colourful figure in the early 20th century Parisian avant-garde...
and Brian Eno; Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
Another Green World
Another Green World is the third studio album by British musician Brian Eno. Produced by Eno and Rhett Davies, it was originally released by Island Records in September 1975. As he had done with previous solo albums, Eno worked with several guest musicians including Phil Collins, John Cale and...
(1975) and the rhythm collages of My Life in the Bush of Ghosts
My Life in the Bush of Ghosts (album)
The album was recorded entirely with analogue technology, before the advent of digital sequencing and MIDI. The sampled voices were synchronized with the instrumental tracks via trial and error, a practice that was often frustrating, but which also produced several happy accidents.Also according to...
(1981). Robert Christgau
Robert Christgau
Robert Christgau is an American essayist, music journalist, and self-proclaimed "Dean of American Rock Critics".One of the earliest professional rock critics, Christgau is known for his terse capsule reviews, published since 1969 in his Consumer Guide columns...
also compared the album to the work of Brian Eno, summarizing Ghosts
Ghosts I–IV features a wide assortment of musical instruments, including piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
, guitar
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
, bass
Bass guitar
The bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
, synthesizer
Synthesizer
A synthesizer is an electronic instrument capable of producing sounds by generating electrical signals of different frequencies. These electrical signals are played through a loudspeaker or set of headphones...
, marimba
Marimba
The marimba is a musical instrument in the percussion family. It consists of a set of wooden keys or bars with resonators. The bars are struck with mallets to produce musical tones. The keys are arranged as those of a piano, with the accidentals raised vertically and overlapping the natural keys ...
, tambourine
Tambourine
The tambourine or marine is a musical instrument of the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zils". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, though some variants may not have a head at all....
, banjo
Banjo
In the 1830s Sweeney became the first white man to play the banjo on stage. His version of the instrument replaced the gourd with a drum-like sound box and included four full-length strings alongside a short fifth-string. There is no proof, however, that Sweeney invented either innovation. This new...
, dulcimer
Appalachian dulcimer
The Appalachian dulcimer is a fretted string instrument of the zither family, typically with three or four strings. It is native to the Appalachian region of the United States...
, and xylophone
Xylophone
The xylophone is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars struck by mallets...
, many of which were sampled and distorted electronically. Percussion instrument
Percussion instrument
A percussion instrument is any object which produces a sound when hit with an implement or when it is shaken, rubbed, scraped, or otherwise acted upon in a way that sets the object into vibration...
s, contributed primarily by Brian Viglione, were constructed largely out of found objects and house-hold items.
Artwork
Rob SheridanRob Sheridan
Rob Sheridan is an American graphic designer, director, and photographer best known for his extensive work with the band Nine Inch Nails....
acted as the album's art director, in collaboration with Artist in Residence. Sheridan was also art director for the previous two Nine Inch Nails studio albums, With Teeth
With Teeth
With Teeth is the fourth studio album by American industrial rock act Nine Inch Nails, released on May 3, 2005, by Interscope Records. The album was produced by Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor and long-time collaborator Alan Moulder. It was Reznor's first original studio album since The...
(2005) and Year Zero
Year Zero (album)
Year Zero is the fifth studio album by American industrial rock act Nine Inch Nails, released on April 17, 2007, by Interscope Records. Frontman Trent Reznor wrote the album's music and lyrics while touring in support of the group's previous release, With Teeth...
. Since Ghosts was released in a variety of versions, some of the versions feature somewhat differing (or additional) album art and related artwork. A 40-page PDF
Portable Document Format
Portable Document Format is an open standard for document exchange. This file format, created by Adobe Systems in 1993, is used for representing documents in a manner independent of application software, hardware, and operating systems....
comes with each version of the album and contains a photograph for each of the 36 tracks. These photographs are also embedded into the ID3
ID3
ID3 is a metadata container most often used in conjunction with the MP3 audio file format. It allows information such as the title, artist, album, track number, and other information about the file to be stored in the file itself....
tags of every downloadable track.
Release
The Null Corporation
The Null Corporation is an independent record label which releases the work of Nine Inch Nails and How to Destroy Angels. The Nine Inch Nails albums, Ghosts I–IV and The Slip, have been released in physical formats under the Null Corporation imprint...
. Retail copies of the album were distributed by RED Distribution
RED Distribution
RED - An Artist Development Company is a Sony Music Entertainment-owned sales and marketing division that handles releases for over sixty independent record labels....
on April 8 on CD and vinyl formats, and May 1 for the "Deluxe" and "Ultra-Deluxe" editions. The smallest Ghosts package contains the first nine tracks, available for free online from either the official Nine Inch Nails website or officially from various BitTorrent tracker
BitTorrent tracker
A BitTorrent tracker is a server that assists in the communication between peers using the BitTorrent protocol. It is also, in the absence of extensions to the original protocol, the only major critical point, as clients are required to communicate with the tracker to initiate downloads...
s, including The Pirate Bay
The Pirate Bay
The Pirate Bay is a Swedish website which hosts magnet links and .torrent files, which allow users to share electronic files, including multimedia, computer games and software via BitTorrent...
. The entire album was also made available for download directly from the band for US$5. Physical copies of the album were available for pre-sale online, with immediate access to the digital version. A two-disc version includes two audio CDs and a 16-page booklet for $10. A "Deluxe Edition" is available for $75 and includes two audio CDs, a data-DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
containing multitrack
Multitrack recording
Multitrack recording is a method of sound recording that allows for the separate recording of multiple sound sources to create a cohesive whole...
files of the album, a Blu-ray Disc
Blu-ray Disc
Blu-ray Disc is an optical disc storage medium designed to supersede the DVD format. The plastic disc is 120 mm in diameter and 1.2 mm thick, the same size as DVDs and CDs. Blu-ray Discs contain 25 GB per layer, with dual layer discs being the norm for feature-length video discs...
with the album in high-definition stereo and accompanying slide show, and a 48-page hardcover book with photographs. A $300 "Ultra-Deluxe Limited Edition" included everything in the "Deluxe" edition, as well as a 4-LP 180 gram vinyl
Gramophone record
A gramophone record, commonly known as a phonograph record , vinyl record , or colloquially, a record, is an analog sound storage medium consisting of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove...
set in a fabric slipcase, and two exclusive limited edition Giclée
Giclée
Giclée , is a neologism coined in 1991 by printmaker Jack Duganne for fine art digital prints made on ink-jet printers. The name originally applied to fine art prints created on IRIS printers in a process invented in the late 1980s but has since come to mean any high quality ink-jet print and is...
prints, unique to each copy. These were limited to 2,500 pieces, each copy numbered and signed by Trent Reznor. Reznor described the limited edition release as "the most luxurious physical package we've ever created." Finally, the album was also released on 4-LP 130 gram vinyl, set in a double gate fold package, for $39.
The album is licensed under a Creative Commons
Creative Commons
Creative Commons is a non-profit organization headquartered in Mountain View, California, United States devoted to expanding the range of creative works available for others to build upon legally and to share. The organization has released several copyright-licenses known as Creative Commons...
Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike
Creative Commons licenses
Creative Commons licenses are several copyright licenses that allow the distribution of copyrighted works. The licenses differ by several combinations that condition the terms of distribution. They were initially released on December 16, 2002 by Creative Commons, a U.S...
license, in effect allowing anyone to use or rework the material for any non-profit purpose, as long as credit is provided and the resulting work is released under a similar license. Reznor explained this move by saying "It's a stance we're taking that we feel is appropriate [...] with digital technology, and outdated copyright laws, and all the nonsense that's going on these days". Jim Guerinot, manager of Nine Inch Nails, explained the unconventional release of the album as "[not] a reaction to what doesn’t exist today. [...] it’s more just like, 'Hey, in a vacuum I can do whatever I want to do.'" The digital-release of the album reportedly required an extensive overhaul of the Nine Inch Nails website in order for the site to cope with the influx of traffic, online-payments, and customer service needs of releasing the album. These upgrades cost Reznor approximately $20,000 to implement. Despite these measures, upon the release of Ghosts the site crashed, and additional servers
Server (computing)
In the context of client-server architecture, a server is a computer program running to serve the requests of other programs, the "clients". Thus, the "server" performs some computational task on behalf of "clients"...
were necessary to handle the traffic.
Reznor wrote that "more volumes of Ghosts are likely to appear in the future." Since finishing touring with Nine Inch Nails to focus on the in-studio side of the band, Reznor has repeated his intention to make another Ghosts album in the near future.
Film festival
Nearly two weeks after the release of the album, Reznor organized and announced a user-created "film festivalFilm festival
A film festival is an organised, extended presentation of films in one or more movie theaters or screening venues, usually in a single locality. More and more often film festivals show part of their films to the public by adding outdoor movie screenings...
" as an accompaniment to the album, hosted at the official Nine Inch Nails YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
channel. It was revealed that the album was stripped of much artwork and song titles to provide a blank canvas for the project.
Reznor explained that the endeavor was not meant as a contest, but as "an experiment in collaboration and a chance for us to interact beyond the typical one-way artist-to-fan relationship." Over 1,000 video submissions have been posted and over 6,000 members have joined the festival group since the beginning of the film festival in March 2008. The official YouTube group states there is no set time limit for the video submission. Video submissions are being added sporadically to the NIN Ghosts group.
Live performances
Ghosts I–IV material was implemented into Nine Inch Nails live performancesNine Inch Nails live performances
Nine Inch Nails, an industrial rock band fronted by Trent Reznor, did various live performances throughout the world, including tours in North America, South America, Europe, Australia, Japan, and China. While Reznor controls the creative and musical direction of Nine Inch Nails in-studio, the...
typically as a distinct section of instrumental songs mid-way through the show. Ghosts material was performed in this manner primarily as part of the "Lights in the Sky" tour in 2008, immediately after the album's release. During these segments the music was largely acoustic, as opposed to the electric instrumentation of other Nine Inch Nails live sets. The Ghosts segment included instrumentation from a marimba
Marimba
The marimba is a musical instrument in the percussion family. It consists of a set of wooden keys or bars with resonators. The bars are struck with mallets to produce musical tones. The keys are arranged as those of a piano, with the accidentals raised vertically and overlapping the natural keys ...
, harmonium
Harmonium
A harmonium is a free-standing keyboard instrument similar to a reed organ. Sound is produced by air being blown through sets of free reeds, resulting in a sound similar to that of an accordion...
, glockenspiel
Glockenspiel
A glockenspiel is a percussion instrument composed of a set of tuned keys arranged in the fashion of the keyboard of a piano. In this way, it is similar to the xylophone; however, the xylophone's bars are made of wood, while the glockenspiel's are metal plates or tubes, and making it a metallophone...
, double bass
Double bass
The double bass, also called the string bass, upright bass, standup bass or contrabass, is the largest and lowest-pitched bowed string instrument in the modern symphony orchestra, with strings usually tuned to E1, A1, D2 and G2...
, and various homemade percussion instruments. The Ghosts section was later scrapped for the "NINJA" and "Wave Goodbye" tours, as Reznor felt the instrumental songs did not fit with the set lists.
Sales and chart performance
The album's initial release on the official Nine Inch Nails website suffered problems as the website was inundated with traffic, and was not fully operational until extra servers were added to handle the influx of downloads. A week after the album's release, the official Nine Inch Nails site reported over 750,000 purchase and download transactions, amassing over $1.6 million in sales . Pre-orders of the $300 "Ultra-Deluxe Limited Edition" sold out in less than 30 hours of its release, and grossed $750,000 overall. Ghosts I–IV was the fourth most played album of 2008 on Last.fmLast.fm
Last.fm is a music website, founded in the United Kingdom in 2002. It has claimed 30 million active users in March 2009. On 30 May 2007, CBS Interactive acquired Last.fm for UK£140m ....
, and was the best-selling album on Amazon MP3
Amazon MP3
Amazon MP3 is an online music store owned and operated by Amazon.com. Launched in public beta on September 25, 2007, in January 2008 it became the first music store to sell music without digital rights management from the four major music labels , as well as many independents...
.
The physical release of the album placed on numerous charts worldwide (virtually none where it had involvement in the number one position), including a peak position of number 14 on the Billboard 200
Billboard 200
The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists...
album chart. The album also reached the top spot on Billboard
ARIA Charts
The ARIA charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling singles and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA commenced compiling its own charts in-house from the week ending 26 June...
, number 58 in Austria, number 3 in Canada, number 26 in New Zealand, and number 60 on the UK Albums Chart
UK Albums Chart
The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart...
.
Critical reception
Critical response to Ghosts I–IV was generally favorable, with an average rating of 69% based on 12 reviews on MetacriticMetacritic
Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,...
. Seth Colter Walls of Newsweek
Newsweek
Newsweek is an American weekly news magazine published in New York City. It is distributed throughout the United States and internationally. It is the second-largest news weekly magazine in the U.S., having trailed Time in circulation and advertising revenue for most of its existence...
described the album as "the kind of absorbing musical experience that the surviving ranks of know-it-all record-store clerks would be pushing on customers, if only they could offer it for sale." IGN
IGN
IGN is an entertainment website that focuses on video games, films, music and other media. IGN's main website comprises several specialty sites or "channels", each occupying a subdomain and covering a specific area of entertainment...
gave the album a rating of 8.7 out of 10 and wrote, "The music is so engrossing and encompassing that time ceases to be a factor—at least until the music finally stops." PopMatters
PopMatters
PopMatters is an international webzine of cultural criticism that covers many aspects of popular culture. PopMatters publishes reviews, interviews, and detailed essays on most cultural products and expressions in areas such as music, television, films, books, video games, comics, sports, theater,...
gave the album an 8 out of 10 and described the album as "36 tracks, but no songs", and went on to call it "dark, brooding [...] haunting." Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork or P4k, is a Chicago-based daily Internet publication established in 1995 that is devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its focus is on underground and independent music, especially indie rock...
criticized the album, however, by saying "nearly every one of the untitled instrumental sketches here feels emaciated and half-finished", and gave the work a 5.0 out of 10.0. Blender
Blender (magazine)
Blender was an American music magazine that billed itself as "the ultimate guide to music and more". It was also known for sometimes steamy pictorials of celebrities....
also criticized the album, summarizing the review by saying "Nine Inch Nails return with no label oversight, no boundaries and no tunes."
The Washington Post
The Washington Post
The Washington Post is Washington, D.C.'s largest newspaper and its oldest still-existing paper, founded in 1877. Located in the capital of the United States, The Post has a particular emphasis on national politics. D.C., Maryland, and Virginia editions are printed for daily circulation...
stated, "There's too much here. Yet it's the most interesting NIN in years." The review went on to describe each track as "the sonic equivalent of a silver orb hovering in your living room [which then] explodes into a million shiny balls of mercury that splash to the floor before trickling, magnetically, back into a large round mass."
The album's unorthodox distribution methods also garnered the attention of various news agencies, such as Wired
Wired (magazine)
Wired is a full-color monthly American magazine and on-line periodical, published since January 1993, that reports on how new and developing technology affects culture, the economy, and politics...
s Eliot Van Buskirk, who labeled Ghosts as "a remarkably extensive release". Ben Worthen of The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal
The Wall Street Journal is an American English-language international daily newspaper. It is published in New York City by Dow Jones & Company, a division of News Corporation, along with the Asian and European editions of the Journal....
hypothesized that "most business execs [...] could learn a lot from [Reznor’s] experiments with online business models." Many news agencies compared the release to Radiohead
Radiohead
Radiohead are an English rock band from Abingdon, Oxfordshire, formed in 1985. The band consists of Thom Yorke , Jonny Greenwood , Ed O'Brien , Colin Greenwood and Phil Selway .Radiohead released their debut single "Creep" in 1992...
's 2007 "pay-what-you-want" digital release of In Rainbows
In Rainbows
In Rainbows is the seventh studio album by the English rock band Radiohead. It was first released on 10 October 2007 as a digital download self-released, that customers could order for whatever price they saw fit, followed by a standard CD release in most countries during the last week of 2007. The...
, as well as the similar release of Saul Williams
Saul Williams
Saul Stacey Williams is an American poet, writer, actor and musician known for his blend of poetry and alternative hip hop and for his leading role in the 1998 independent film Slam.-Biography:...
' album The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust!
The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust!
The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust! is the third album by Saul Williams, released on November 1, 2007. Williams worked closely with Trent Reznor on the album. The title of the album is a reference to David Bowie's 1972 album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from...
the same year, which Reznor produced. Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
Tiny Mix Tapes
Tiny Mix Tapes is an online music and film webzine that focuses primarily on new music and related news. In addition to its reviews, it is noted for its subversive, political, and sometimes surreal news, as well as its mix tapes generator.-History:Originally called Tiny Mixtapes Gone to Heaven and...
said "the circumstances surrounding the release are so forward-thinking that they could be considered just as key to appreciating the album as the music itself." Business website The Motley Fool
Motley Fool
The Motley Fool is a multimedia financial-services company that provides financial solutions for investors through various stock, investing, and personal finance products. The Alexandria, Virginia-based private company was founded in July 1993 by co-chairmen and brothers David and Tom Gardner, and...
wrote an article on the album's release titled "Music Industry Gets Nailed Again", forecasting that "Innovators like Nine Inch Nails are paving the way for new media business models that may bypass the middleman while making sure artists and fans are happy." In its review of The Slip, however, PopMatters described Ghosts I–IV in retrospect as an "aimless batch of ... instrumentals packaged in a brilliant marketing scheme" and that it was "basically a CD release with a couple of mail-order special editions available for the 'true fans'."
Awards and recognitions
Ghosts was nominated for two Grammy AwardGrammy Award
A Grammy Award — or Grammy — is an accolade by the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to recognize outstanding achievement in the music industry...
s, under the categories Best Rock Instrumental performance for the track "34 Ghosts IV", and Best Boxed Set or Limited Edition Package for the "Ultra-Deluxe" edition of the album. These nominations represented the first time music licensed under Creative Commons had been nominated for a Grammy Award. Following the release of Ghosts and the similar online release method of the band's follow-up, The Slip, Reznor was awarded the Webby Artist of the Year Award at the annual Webby Awards
Webby Awards
A Webby Award is an international award presented annually by The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences for excellence on the Internet with categories in websites, interactive advertising, online film and video, and mobile....
in 2009. Rolling Stone magazine named Reznor number 46 in its "100 People Who Are Changing America" list, concluding that he has "been more creative than anyone in embracing the post-CD era".
Track listing
All songs written and composed by Trent ReznorTrent Reznor
Michael Trent Reznor is an American multi-instrumentalist, composer, record producer, and leader of industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails. Reznor is also a member of How to Destroy Angels alongside his wife, Mariqueen Maandig, and Atticus Ross. He was previously associated with bands Option 30,...
and Atticus Ross
Atticus Ross
Atticus Ross is an English musician, composer and producer. Ross, along with Trent Reznor, won the Academy Award for Best Original Score for The Social Network in 2011.-Early career:...
, except where noted.
Ghosts I
- "1 Ghosts I" – 2:48
- "2 Ghosts I" – 3:16
- "3 Ghosts I" – 3:51
- "4 Ghosts I" – 2:13 (Alessandro CortiniAlessandro CortiniAlessandro Cortini is an Italian musician best known for touring and recording with the American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails from 2004 to 2008. Currently, Cortini is also the frontman for the Los Angeles based electronic-alternative band SONOIO. In addition, he was a touring member of The...
, Reznor, Ross) - "5 Ghosts I" – 2:51
- "6 Ghosts I" – 4:18
- "7 Ghosts I" – 2:00
- "8 Ghosts I" – 2:56
- "9 Ghosts I" – 2:47
Ghosts II
- "10 Ghosts II" – 2:42
- "11 Ghosts II" – 2:17 (Cortini, Reznor, Ross)
- "12 Ghosts II" – 2:17
- "13 Ghosts II" – 3:13
- "14 Ghosts II" – 3:05
- "15 Ghosts II" – 1:53
- "16 Ghosts II" – 2:30
- "17 Ghosts II" – 2:13 (Cortini, Reznor, Ross)
- "18 Ghosts II" – 5:22
Ghosts III
- "19 Ghosts III" – 2:11 (Cortini, Reznor, Ross, Brian ViglioneBrian ViglioneBrian Viglione is the drummer for The Dresden Dolls. Additionally, he was a prominent member of New York City's cabaret punk orchestra, The WORLD/INFERNO Friendship Society...
) - "20 Ghosts III" – 3:39
- "21 Ghosts III" – 2:54
- "22 Ghosts III" – 2:31 (Cortini, Reznor, Ross, Viglione)
- "23 Ghosts III" – 2:43
- "24 Ghosts III" – 2:39
- "25 Ghosts III" – 1:58 (Adrian BelewAdrian BelewAdrian Belew is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and record producer...
, Reznor, Ross) - "26 Ghosts III" – 2:25
- "27 Ghosts III" – 2:51 (Belew, Reznor, Ross)
Ghosts IV
- "28 Ghosts IV" – 5:22
- "29 Ghosts IV" – 2:54 (Cortini, Reznor, Ross)
- "30 Ghosts IV" – 2:58
- "31 Ghosts IV" – 2:25
- "32 Ghosts IV" – 4:25
- "33 Ghosts IV" – 4:01 (Cortini, Reznor, Ross)
- "34 Ghosts IV" – 5:52
- "35 Ghosts IV" – 3:29
- "36 Ghosts IV" – 2:19
Bonus tracks
Included with the "Deluxe" and "Ultra-Deluxe" releases were two additional bonus tracks, accessible only by reconstructing them from multi-track files provided on the DVD. The second bonus track features musical elements and a similar song structure to "Demon Seed", track 10 from what would be the next Nine Inch Nails release, The SlipThe Slip (album)
The Slip is the seventh studio album by American industrial rock act Nine Inch Nails, released on July 22, 2008. It was the fourth consecutive Nine Inch Nails release to be produced by frontman Trent Reznor with collaborators Atticus Ross and Alan Moulder...
.
- "37 Ghosts" – 2:20
- "38 Ghosts" – 4:51
Chart positions
| Chart (2008) | Peak position |
|---|---|
| Billboard 200 Billboard 200 The Billboard 200 is a ranking of the 200 highest-selling music albums and EPs in the United States, published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is frequently used to convey the popularity of an artist or groups of artists... |
14 |
| Dance/Electronic Albums | 1 |
| Independent Albums Independent Albums The Billboard Independent Albums is a chart of the highest-selling independent music albums and extended plays in the United States, compiled by Nielsen SoundScan and published weekly by Billboard magazine. It is used to list artists who are not signed to major labels... |
2 |
| Top Rock Albums | 3 |
| Top Alternative Albums | 3 |
| Australian ARIA Charts ARIA Charts The ARIA charts are the main Australian music sales charts, issued weekly by the Australian Recording Industry Association. The charts are a record of the highest selling singles and albums in various genres in Australia. ARIA commenced compiling its own charts in-house from the week ending 26 June... |
15 |
| Austrian Charts | 58 |
| Top Canadian Albums | 3 |
| New Zealand RIANZ Recording Industry Association of New Zealand The Recording Industry Association of New Zealand is a non-profit trade association of record producers, distributors and recording artists who sell music in New Zealand... Charts |
26 |
| UK Albums Chart UK Albums Chart The UK Albums Chart is a list of albums ranked by physical and digital sales in the United Kingdom. It is compiled every week by The Official Charts Company and broadcast on a Sunday on BBC Radio 1 , and published in Music Week magazine and on the OCC website .To qualify for the UK albums chart... |
60 |
Personnel
- Trent ReznorTrent ReznorMichael Trent Reznor is an American multi-instrumentalist, composer, record producer, and leader of industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails. Reznor is also a member of How to Destroy Angels alongside his wife, Mariqueen Maandig, and Atticus Ross. He was previously associated with bands Option 30,...
– performance, production, art direction - Atticus RossAtticus RossAtticus Ross is an English musician, composer and producer. Ross, along with Trent Reznor, won the Academy Award for Best Original Score for The Social Network in 2011.-Early career:...
– programming, arranging, production - Alan MoulderAlan MoulderAlan Moulder is one of Britain's premier alternative rock record producers. He has worked with such artists as Depeche Mode, Erasure, Elastica, Gary Numan, The Jesus and Mary Chain, Curve, Ride, Lush and My Bloody Valentine, Lostprophets, Shihad, Ivyrise and Placebo, as well as with many American...
– engineering, mix engineering, production - Alessandro CortiniAlessandro CortiniAlessandro Cortini is an Italian musician best known for touring and recording with the American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails from 2004 to 2008. Currently, Cortini is also the frontman for the Los Angeles based electronic-alternative band SONOIO. In addition, he was a touring member of The...
– guitars (4, 11, 17, 20, 24, 28), bass (4), dulcimer (22), additional electronics (19, 22, 29, 33) - Adrian BelewAdrian BelewAdrian Belew is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and record producer...
– guitars (3, 4, 7, 10–11, 14, 16, 21, 25, 27, 31, 32, 35), electronics (25), marimba (30) - Brian ViglioneBrian ViglioneBrian Viglione is the drummer for The Dresden Dolls. Additionally, he was a prominent member of New York City's cabaret punk orchestra, The WORLD/INFERNO Friendship Society...
– drums (19, 22) - Tom Baker – mastering
- Rob SheridanRob SheridanRob Sheridan is an American graphic designer, director, and photographer best known for his extensive work with the band Nine Inch Nails....
– art direction, photography, visual and physical elements - Artist in Residence – art direction, photography, visual and physical elements
- Phillip Graybill – photography
- Tamar Levine – additional photography
External links
- Official website
- Ghosts I–IV film festival on YouTube
- Ghosts I–IV at Archive.org
- Ghosts I at The Pirate BayThe Pirate BayThe Pirate Bay is a Swedish website which hosts magnet links and .torrent files, which allow users to share electronic files, including multimedia, computer games and software via BitTorrent...
- Ghosts I-IV Fan Film Collection