"All the Love in the World" is a song by

industrial rock Industrial rock is a fusion genre that fuses industrial music and rock music. It initially originated in the 1970s, and drew influence from early experimental and industrial acts such as Cromagnon, Throbbing Gristle, Einstürzende Neubauten a ...

act

Nine Inch Nails Nine Inch Nails, commonly abbreviated as NIN and stylized as NIИ, is an American industrial rock band formed in Cleveland in 1988. Singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer Trent Reznor was the only permanent member of the band ...

. It appears on the 2005 release ''

With Teeth ''With Teeth'' (stylized as '' ITH_TEETH') is the fourth studio album by American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails, released by Nothing Records and Interscope Records on May 3, 2005. The album was produced by Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent R ...

''.

Musical structure

The song, which features

Dave Grohl David Eric Grohl (born January 14, 1969) is an American musician. He is the founder of the rock band Foo Fighters, in which he is the lead singer, guitarist, and principal songwriter. Prior to forming Foo Fighters, he was the drummer of gru ...

on percussion, begins with a "wet drum beat", as described by David Raposa of Pitchfork. Trent Reznor's vocals start off mellow, sullen and pensive and eventually go back and forth between

falsetto ''Falsetto'' (, ; Italian diminutive of , "false") is the vocal register occupying the frequency range just above the modal voice register and overlapping with it by approximately one octave. It is produced by the vibration of the ligamentous ed ...

vocals and near-shouting. Instrumentation includes

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

loops and

trip hop Trip hop (sometimes used synonymously with "downtempo") is a musical genre that originated in the early 1990s in the United Kingdom, especially Bristol. It has been described as a psychedelic music, psychedelic fusion of hip hop music, hip hop ...

reminiscent beats.

Critical reception

David Browne of ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cul ...

'' praised the song, stating that "newfound expansiveness emerges in the glorious epic ''All the Love in the World,'' which shifts effortlessly from

drum-and-bass Drum and bass (also written as drum & bass or drum'n'bass and commonly abbreviated as D&B, DnB, or D'n'B) is a genre of electronic dance music characterized by fast breakbeats (typically 165–185 beats per minute) with heavy bass and sub-ba ...

tranquillity to

acid-house Acid house (also simply known as just "acid") is a subgenre of house music developed around the mid-1980s by DJs from Chicago. The style is defined primarily by the squelching sounds and basslines of the Roland TB-303 electronic bass synthes ...

beats and even finds Reznor singing in something resembling a romantic croon." David Raposa of Pitchfork interpreted the song as "a track that can easily be read as a response to his fading celebrity in the wake of the success of countless imitators." He also went on to criticize the track as "ninth-grade poetry" and "something that sounds like it would be played in an 80s goth club."

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

ranked "All the Love in the World" as the most dramatic song on ''With Teeth'', by specifically noting that "the remains of the overly dramatic mishmashed late 1990s sound still surface ("All the Love in the World")". Marc Spitz of ''

Spin Spin or spinning most often refers to: * Spinning (textiles), the creation of yarn or thread by twisting fibers together, traditionally by hand spinning * Spin, the rotation of an object around a central axis * Spin (propaganda), an intentionally b ...

'' mentioned the song as one of "gospel-piano prettiness." Mike Schiller of

The A.V. Club ''The A.V. Club'' is an American online newspaper and entertainment website featuring reviews, interviews, and other articles that examine films, music, television, books, games, and other elements of pop-culture media. ''The A.V. Club'' was cre ...

wrote: "despite some seriously arrested development in the lyric department, the song traverses a ton of musical ground in a slow transformation from drum’n'bass-touched slow-burn to barreling-down-the-highway “ Free Bird” jam, complete with tambourines and lots of multi-tracked vocals." Thomas Inskeep of ''

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'' described the song as "fairly subdued" and "as mournful as Reznor gets."

Live performance

"All the Love in the World", despite being from an album released eight years prior, was first played in concert November 5, 2013 at the AT&T Center in

San Antonio, Texas ("Cradle of Freedom") , image_map = , mapsize = 220px , map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = United States , subdivision_type1= State , subdivision_name1 = Texas , subdivision_t ...

and has been played regularly on later dates of the tour.

Cultural references

The song was mentioned in a book about earlier album ''

Pretty Hate Machine ''Pretty Hate Machine'' is the debut studio album by American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails, released by TVT Records on October 20, 1989. Production of the record was handled by NIN frontman Trent Reznor and English producer Flood, among ...

'' written by Daphne Carr. In the book, Carr said "All the Love in the World" was one of Nine Inch Nails' deeper songs noting the lyrics "Watching all the insects march along, seem to know just right where they belong, smears of face reflecting in the chrome, hiding in the crowd I'm all alone."

References

External links

* {{Authority control 2005 songs Nine Inch Nails songs Songs written by Trent Reznor Song recordings produced by Trent Reznor Song recordings produced by Alan Moulder Trip hop songs