Diverse and beautiful.
Reznor always did best when it came to instrumentals. I loved the Still album, but it was so short I wished there'd been more. I heard about Ghost IV and saw it in BestBuy for $10 so I decided to get it. This is exactly what I wanted. Some of the pieces are more synth and beat based, others being more focused on somber piano and strings. None of the tracks have names, just numbers. My favorites are Disc 3: Track 4, Disc 4: Track 1, and Disc 4: Track 7. They evoke a strange wave of emotion that's hard to describe, if you remember "Adrift and At Peace" and "Leaving Hope" from the Still album, its kinda like that. This probably isn't the best album for Metal/Industrial fans, but if you like classical, ambient or game music this would be right up your alley.

Good but some how falls flat
This is an excellent release for trent's first release on his own private label. I enjoyed it quite a bit, the unfortunate bit of it was that it didn't include anything but music, which i understand is for trents newest fad of wanting remixes made of his music (see year zero remixed). I enjoy the industrial noise, but i wish it had had lyrics.

Finally, Some Ghosts!!!
Yeah, Spooky Spirit Stuff! And who better to write about it than the NIN? A different title for this would be Selected Industrial Works (ala Aphex Twin), which isn't too surprising. Twinner did 1 1/2 songs for Further Down the Spriral, remember?
There's quite a huge variety of styles on this album, and the more I listen, the more it grows on me! Just let your imagination conjure up some stuff! Alright, since the tracks aren't named, here's my humblish contribution for names. Of course, Ama*** doesn't get space bar...
1. Dream Engine ________________1. Klashroter
2. Astral Breeze________________2. Lightrider Flyby
3. Cycle Reply__________________3. Airshuffle
4. Amberjam __________________4. Ghostwalk (upper)
5. Time Spiral __________________5. Fuzcrunch
6. Lo-Rez Crystalflap ____________6. Shomble
7. Clert ________________________7. Kriket
8. Bim __________________________8. Plo
9. Slange ______________________9. Land Whale
10. Coat Rote __________________10. Delivery
11. Echo Plex (vant) _____________11. Ghostwalk (lower)
12. Prelude to Glen ______________12. Dim Yard
13. Glen _______________________13. Escathedral
14. Potch ______________________14. Dingy Shimmer
15. Cartoon Repair Shop__________15. Sonar Trawler
16. Ether Wheel __________________16. Dimensions
17. Welt_________________________17. Gear Fairy
18. Flange Dock __________________18. Lounge Door

useless?...
i was surprized when i bought this cd, this is the first negative review I've ever had to write about a nine inch nails cd.

i have loved all of nine inch nails' instrumentals so i figured it would be awsome.
unfortunetly it wasnt, ghosts is a creative work, but for all intensive purposes, its useless.
i expected a long, flowing, beautiful collection of insturmentals, what ghosts is is 36 compleatly different tracks that flow as smoothly as motor boat on a gravel road.
what the other reviewers said is correct, individualy most of these tracks are unique and enjoyable, but trying to memorize what each different ghost track sounds like and listen to them seporatly is almost not worth the trouble.
right now i just listen to the upbeat tracks while playing videogames, im not sure what to do with the rest of the songs though.

I have high hopes for the next ghosts album, i just hope it will flow a little better.

better luck next time trent

A long string of random music
I tried "Ghosts I-IV" and found I really couldn't get into it, because for me, one track was identical to every other other track, and every other track was the same as every other other track, and with no titles or lyrics or any sort of distinction beyond "Ghost I" and so on. The songs were, on the whole, completely unremarkable on their own.

I haven't given up on the album but thus far it just seems to be one long, four or five or however many hour, jam session with separations in tracks given sometimes at random. Maybe it works for Jazz and some Rock, but I never liked Jazz, and I have a very hit and miss relationship with many musical genres.

Maybe this was a release to recuperate from giving away the actual album "The Slip" away for free, by recording a random jam session and trying to sell it without any hype so as to surprise fans into buying it without realizing they're not buying an actual album but one big jam session where one track is as discardable as another.

And please, no comments from NIN fans saying I'm not a "real" fan or don't know what I'm talking about or can't appreciate NIN's artistic style. I absolutely loved "The Fragile" and "The Downward Spiral" and thought they were the perfect blend of art and music. But it seems with this album and every other NIN release as of late that ART is starting to become more of a priority than MUSIC, most heavily displayed by Year Zero, where the "art" of electronic noises took the place of music, and the attempt at "art" became a pretentious smug excuse to not bother to play any real instruments for more than a cameo appearance alongside the warped static.