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What better way to stick it to the same record execs that dumped Trent Reznor a couple months back (not that he cared much) than to immediately release a sprawling 36-track instrumental album on the Internet? The answer: Twist the knife by giving away the first nine tracks as a free download. As a fan of textural electronic – especially from NIN itself – this is definitely a welcome surprise and a nice way to start the week. Inevitably, Digg crushed Trent’s servers. So he uploaded a torrent to Pirate Bay, adding further to the notion that below the rock-god demeanor, Trent’s just like us!!, increasing the public display of goodwill and creating his own ad-hoc publicity machine. So, is Ghosts any good? In short, yes. The album sounds like most of Reznor’s instrumental forays and even a bit like some of his scoring work for Natural Born Killers and Lost Highway. Which is to say, if you expect the next “Closer” you won’t be pleased. But if you appreciate well-produced high-quality music from one of the biggest names in electronic music for dirt cheap (five bucks for the whole package) you’d be hard pressed to beat this deal. I gave Ghosts an extra 1/2 star as a measure of support for someone trying to work the system instead of punish his buyers. But I’ll also plunk down the virtual five-spot once the server crush passes. So keep it up, Trent. We’re all pulling for you.