Hands up - I was wrong. “With Teeth” has grown on me a lot - so much so that I’ve listened to it solidly since I got back from holiday as I missed having it there. The track I keep listening to repeatedly has to be “Only”. I don’t know what it is about it that I like but it appeals. Even “The Hand that Feeds” has grown on me a lot which just goes to show that when you listen to a new song for the first time, you really need to listen to it through two headphones and not through one.

It’s still not the best album but I understand it. Whereas “Pretty Hate Machine” and “Downward Spiral” were outspoken “angry young man” albums, NIN’s latest is very much a disillusioned late thirty-something album. “Man on the verge of a mid-life crisis” if you like. The lyrics generally seem to convey a sense of dissatisfaction and restlessness and a feeling of being trapped in a life that was never intended. Very much like being stuck behind a desk doing a tedious job (something I can definitely relate to).

My original impression of this album was that it wasn’t as aggressive or as dark as previous releases and that there wasn’t as much heart in it. I was wrong. There is, but it suits a time and a place and a way of thinking. This is no longer teenage angst rock and is much more sublime interpretation of mid-life mediocrity and tedium. In some ways it’s darker than anything before because of the implications rife in tracks such as “Every Day Is Exactly The Same”, “The Line Begins To Blur” and “You Know What You Are” that as much as you might fight, things are never going to change and you’d do just as well to sit down, shut up and take it on the chin up the arse like everyone else.

So yes, I like the new Nine Inch Nails album. A lot. And I’m really looking forward to seeing them live.