What is your favourite LP release by Nine Inch Nails? I will include the Broken EP as a lot of fans tend to like that one. For me, it's The Downward Spiral. A demanding listen, but a rewarding one. Bleak and dark, it's an all time classic.
Really difficult to choose between Pretty Hate Machine, The Downward Spiral, and The Fragile for me. They all hit at different, but equally influential, points in my life. But since I can only pick one, I went with the Spiral.
I think The Downward Spiral is a better album. Trent was going for something dark and gloomy and it's dead on point. But if I had to listen to only one album it would be Pretty Hate Machine. Pretty Hate Machine is what it is purveyed in the title. I don't think NiN has done anything that anybody can consider pretty since. I love the other albums, but everything is since the first album has tended toward desperation rather than hope. I think the song Down In It is prophetic in Trent musical journey. "Kinda like a cloud I was up, way up in the sky And I was feeling some feelings you wouldn't believe Sometimes I don't believe them myself And I decided I was never coming down Just then a tiny little dot caught my eye It was just about too small to see But I watched it way too long It was pulling me down I was up above it I was up above it (Now I'm down in it)"
Yeah, went with Spiral, but, though I don't love it all equally, it's literally all good. An incredible body of work.
Every NIN release has its classic moments, but their pinnacle is The Fragile which never ceases to astonish
I was 16-17 or so when Pretty Hate Machine came out. I lived in SC at the time, and frequented this weird independent record store at the time. I walked in one on afternoon browsing (ah, the day before online shopping), and the employee said, “You HAVE to get this.” He knew my taste leaned towards Bowie/Prince. I trusted him and got it. I live in NYC now. I love public transport. But I sooooo miss being in my car, driving to random places of town, listening to Pretty Hate Machine. Just what teenage me needed.
Had to go with Spiral, as it was my DSOTM.... But it pains me not to choose The Fragile, Broken or PHM. I return to PHM and The Fragile mostly, these days. Bonus shoutout to Further Down The Spiral!
Saw them at Lollapalooza '91 and was thoroughly unimpressed by them--realizing then and later on that they were like Iron Maiden for poser industrial fans, in that they sold way more t-shirts than albums--and onstage they were horrifically bad, looking dorky as hell and it came out later in one of Henry Rollins' books that all the onstage "destruction" of gear was choreographed. The tech guys would tell the band what they could trashed based on what they had backups of. Absolutely pathetic lol. However I voted for Broken because I did enjoy the tune "Last."
It’s probably not my favorite, but, the one album I’m still intrigued with and look forward to hearing again the most is Hesitation Marks. There’s something about the production of the CD I have that draws me in. I’m confused. It sounds loud, yet, I’m able to turn it up. I know all the tricks in the book, but, this one, I don’t understand how they did it. I’ve heard there’s two versions and one just super limited and loud and sounds like what you’d expect of modern mastering. Mine isn’t like that.
Pretty Hate Machine, caught them supporting it so much it really was drilled into me. Helter Skelter in Hollywood to an empty room before they broke, amazing experience.
Fragile and Spiral are 1.a. and 1.b. for me. I haven't gotten into the post-Fragile stuff, and while I like Pretty Hate Machine and Broken, they are somewhat immature works IMO.
The Fragile. It’s the best mix of his layered production work and heavy, angry songs. It’s his masterpiece. Though his more recent masterpiece might actually be a film score.
Pretty Hate Machine wins for me. Apart from "Closer", I cannot really dance to anything else by NIN after the first album cycle.
The Downward Spiral is on another level altogether. I like songs from other albums more than I like songs from TDS, but as an album, it's pretty much untouchable in their discography. With that said, The Fragile is nothing to scoff at. What a beast of an album! Star...Inc, however, is absolute trash, and the album never quite gets its groove back after that song in the same way the back half of TDS does. For anyone saying "I gave up after The Fragile," check out the three EPs that came out a few years ago! They really get back to some of the darkness that I felt was missing in NIN's work after The Fragile
I went with PHM. That and The Fragile are the only ones I can honestly say that I've listened to with any regularity over the years. I do confess to never even having heard the two newest Ghosts albums though. The first one was cool, but that and subsequent soundtrack work began to all sound very samey to me. I actually think one of the best things Reznor has done was the Quake soundtrack.
Those EPs really are awesome. Bad Witch has some amazing Bowie-esque moments. And I love when he plays the sax.
The choice between The Downward Spiral and The Fragile is almost an impossible one, as I love both, they were a soundtrack to my teen-angst years and both are modern music masterpieces. In the end I chose The Fragile cause it’s one of very few albums I discover in new way every time I listen to it. One of the best double-albums as well, such a great flow.
Always loved that Quake sndtrk too! Always felt so silly... But I still have the old PC game, very cool that you can throw it in a CD player and listen like any proper CD
I’ve posted about this in other threads but I’ll mention it here too - Trent & Atticus’s score for the new movie Bones and All is very very good. I haven’t stopped thinking about the movie or the music since I saw it. There are some moments in the score that really remind me of the Fragile. And I think this might be the best tender Trent song since “Something I Can Never Have”:
Love the chords & choral vocals @ the end of that song. Very fun/interesting to hear TR still trying different styles of arrangement in his writing... Dude never sits still, style-wise! Disney sndtrck-esque moments (maybe moreso Randy Newman specifically) in the writing tactics there (the "For a minute... Just a minute..." part.) Kinda singer/songwriter-ish, that track. Whether or not I enjoy or connect w everything he tries, it is very appreciated by me as a listener that he never sticks w what's comfortable.