Nine Inch Nails New Album 'Strobe Light' Produced by Timbaland

by Jarrett Martineau | April 1, 2009 at 10:59 am

Leave it Trent Reznor to push his evolving musical aesthetic in ever-more daring and innovative directions.

Reznor announced the release of a brand new Nine Inch Nails album, Strobe Light, on Wednesday — unexpectedly, produced by mega-pop hit maker Timbaland.

The album is a download-only exclusive on the NIN website featuring a strikingly beautiful portrait of Reznor clad in this season's most stylish sunglasses as its cover art.

For this special release, which Reznor is offering at the low, low price of only $18.98 for a digital download — plus a well-worth-it $10 "convenience fee" — NIN enlisted a who's who of experimental and underground artistic collaborators including: Bono, Fergie, Sheryl Crow, Justin Timberlake, Jay-Z to join the proceedings, in addition to contributions from noted musical new-comers like Al Jourgensen and Maynard James Keenan.

With Timbaland on board, and with tracks such as the triumphant "clap trap crack slap" and the soaring harmonies of "laid, paid and played" this could well be Reznor's Kid A — a singularly revolutionary and eerily melancholic vision of the future of contemporary music, filtered through the mind's eye of two modern day Mozarts.

Here's the full Strobe Light tracklisting:

1. intro skit
2. everybody's doing it (featuring chris martin, jay-z AND bono)
3. black t-shirt
4. pussygrinder (featuring sheryl crow)
5. coffin on the dancefloor
6. this rhythm is infected
7. slide to the dark side
8. even closer (featuring justin timberlake and maynard james keenan)
9. on the list (she's not)
10. clap trap crack slap
11. laid, paid and played (featuring fergie of the black eyed peas and al jourgensen)
12. feel like being dead again
13. still hurts (featuring alicia keys)
14. outro skit

Tour dates to follow? We can only hope so.