Released the same year as Ghosts, and just over a year after Year Zero, Reznor released The Slip in the middle of a blitz of creative fertility. The first few songs on the album have an almost garage-rock sound to them, while its back end slips into chilly ambience — more remnants from Ghosts, maybe. Where Year Zero was all about loops, The Slip is all about percussion, and its titanic drum sound is probably its best feature. The Slip explosively decompresses from excitement to boredom, but still sports its gems. “Discipline,” the album’s radio single, is a so-stiff-it’s-funny disco track about Trent getting clean as well as his love of S&M. You can read it as a tongue-in-cheek re-imagining of “Closer,” complete with a music video that sported an 8-bit NIN dressed as the Village People. On the other hand, the album’s raucous closer, “Demon Seed,” sounds like Reznor’s take on boom-bap hip-hop, albeit with him crooning and growling instead of actually rapping.