This selection was picked by Gen X dad.

This was released as a free download from Nine Inch Nails’ official online store. We’ll be reviewing its companion release Ghosts VI: Locusts in an upcoming post.

Gen X dad says… Ghosts V: Together is a follow up to the 2008 release Ghosts I-IV – a collection of 36 (38 if you reconstruct two additional tracks from the multi-track files found on a data DVD included with the deluxe set, which of course I did) instrumental tracks that mostly range between two and four minutes. Since the release of the first four volumes, Trent Reznor and his longtime collaborator Atticus Ross have become well known for their soundtrack work. Ghosts V: Together is a timely, welcome, and evocative addition to their catalog.

The songs here are generally longer as well as more detailed and nuanced than the previous entries. As this is a collection of ambient instrumentals some might think of it as an option for background music. It isn’t. This is music for deep listening and contemplation.

Perhaps it is the current situation we’re in – sheltering at home, social distancing, feeling off balance, and only connecting online with loved ones and friends – but the first two tracks (Letting Go While Holding On and Together) left me both comforted and somewhat shattered. Things take a bit of a darker turn on the next track, Out In The Open, which sets things up well for following With Faith, which alternates between a hopeful pulse and tense, underlying repetition.

Though this is a digital-only collection, the album’s centerpiece is the lengthy exercise in unease and melancholy that is Apart. At 13 plus minutes it slowly and effectively erodes what’s come before. It peaks around the nine-minute mark with a deep, pulsing bass tone that fades at first only to come back rumbling and brooding beneath the long, high tones as the track fades away. Eventually there is only its low, irregular growl.

The following Your Touch offers some welcome respite with its mix of glitchy pops, rolling piano chords, and reverb-laden string lines. Things then wrap up in some ways as they began with both Hope We Can Again and Still Right Here acting as bookends to the first two tracks. When the drums (the only ones on the entire album), kick in midway on Still Right Here it is a brief, but much needed release. However, they quickly fall apart amidst vocals samples and distortion as the track begins a long wind down.

It is a great collection. It is free. Download it now.

Gen Z son says… Back in 2008, Nine Inch Nails released a double album, Ghosts I-IV. Unlike their previous work, which established their signature sound (loud, aggressive rock), that album focused more on ambient instrumentals. Years later, a hit would surface from the album’s track 34 Ghosts IV, when the well-known song Old Town Road by Lil Nas X, which features a guitar riff from the song, was released.