 Critical response to Ghosts I – IV was generally favorable , with an average rating of 69 / 100 based on 12 reviews on Metacritic . Seth Colter Walls of Newsweek described the album as " the kind of absorbing musical experience that the surviving ranks of know @-@ it @-@ all record @-@ store clerks would be pushing on customers , if only they could offer it for sale . " IGN gave the album a rating of 8 @.@ 7 out of 10 and wrote , " The music is so engrossing and encompassing that time ceases to be a factor — at least until the music finally stops . " PopMatters gave the album an 8 out of 10 and described the album as " 36 tracks , but no songs " , and went on to call it " dark , brooding [ ... ] haunting . " Pitchfork Media criticized the album by saying " nearly every one of the untitled instrumental sketches here feels emaciated and half @-@ finished " , and gave the work a 5 @.@ 0 out of 10 @.@ 0 . Blender also criticized the album , summarizing the review by saying " Nine Inch Nails return with no label oversight , no boundaries and no tunes . " The Washington Post stated , " There 's too much here . Yet it 's the most interesting NIN in years . " The review went on to describe each track as " the sonic equivalent of a silver orb hovering in your living room [ which then ] explodes into a million shiny balls of mercury that splash to the floor before trickling , magnetically , back into a large round mass . " 
