NIN

[Guest justsoyouknow]

My friend recently got me into NIN by giving me a copy of Pretty Hate Machine...for 1989, that record sounds way ahead of its time. But I wondered what the smusic board thought about Nine Inch Nails....your thoughts?

[Guest LooseCannon]

I spent much of my high school years infatuated with NIN, it probably didn't hurt that I'm originally from the Cleveland area. My favorite album these days is Pretty Hate Machine. Favorite song is "happiness in slavery." I still think it's good stuff even if these days it has the stank of being out of style.

[Guest Kinetic]

I, too, was a big Nine Inch Nails fan in high school--particularly my freshman and sophomore years. I'd have to give the nod to The Downward Spiral, personally. Their best song is so easily "The Perfect Drug," though. There isn't even any competition. Had Reznor made an album of material in that vein, rather than the ridiculously bad The Fragile, people might actually still care about his band.

[Guest godthedog]

everyone seems to go through a nine inch nails phase in high school, & then realize how bad the lyrics are when they no longer have enough angst to relate to them. i'd say reznor's the number one 'teen angst & self loathing' artist of the 90s, and that's really saying something. i recall many a night when i thought about how much of a genius reznor was, trying to emulate him & writing horribly overblown & cliched lyrics, like "inside of me i am nothing" (yes, that's an actual line from a song i wrote when i was 12).

 

i kind of wish reznor would grow up & get over that awkward adolescent boy phase, but i still enjoy my NIN albums quite a bit. the music is good, i just don't listen to it that much. 'the downward spiral' is easily the best one; reznor knows how to put a song together, there's lots of stuff going on in every track that adds to the atmosphere. cliche as it is, i think his best song is 'closer'. all the little layers & hooks in that song are just amazing.

[Guest Kinetic]

Those two covers at the end of Broken are great.

 

Oh, and I actually wanted to touch on something that godthedog mentioned...just because I was thinking about this today. It really does seem like everyone of this generation who's gone on to discover more, let's say, esoteric music has had both a metal and Nine Inch Nails phase--sometimes both simultaneously. Seriously. Every male I talk to who shares my taste in music to some degree listened to almost the exact stuff I did in middle school and early high school. It just strikes me as odd. I feel an essay coming on.

[Guest converge241]

my favorites in order:

 

pretty hate machine

broken

downward spiral

the fragile

 

just a coincidence they go in order

 

fixed and the uk version of further down the spiral are the best of the throw away halos

 

im 26 and will never grow out of them i just add new stuff on. (ive had that discussion w/Kinetic) The music did have more of a hold on me when i was younger though.

 

its tough to pick songs but id go

(not in order)

 

somehwat damaged

just like you imagined

suck (the original w pigface is good too with him singing)

a warm place

ringfinger

ruiner

gave up

[Guest godthedog]

Those two covers at the end of Broken are great.

 

Oh, and I actually wanted to touch on something that godthedog mentioned...just because I was thinking about this today. It really does seem like everyone of this generation who's gone on to discover more, let's say, esoteric music has had both a metal and Nine Inch Nails phase--sometimes both simultaneously. Seriously. Every male I talk to who shares my taste in music to some degree listened to almost the exact stuff I did in middle school and early high school. It just strikes me as odd. I feel an essay coming on.

reznor's music is all about teen angst, self-loathing, nihilism...all those things that are VERY attractive to teenage males trying to discover their identities. his music is basically made for that demographic, so naturally, everyone likes NIN when they're going through a phase like that.

 

i've noticed a very similar tendency with stanley kubrick movies. males 15-18 or so just love kubrick, i guess because his films tend to be very dark & strange & trying to grasp at something profound. afterwards, they start to be bothered by things they didn't worry about before (like his long pauses, slow pacing, inability to gel with the actors after 1964, etc). i was talking with a friend of mine about this the other day, how we used to think kubrick was the greatest director ever, & now his films just seem pedestrian to us: very crisp & pretty looking, but detached & emotionally flat.

 

anyway, the teen/trent dialogue would make a good topic for a column.

[Guest DARRYLXWF]

My favourite Metallica album is RTL

[Guest godthedog]

well, that was...random.

[Guest La Parka Es Mi Papa]

My favorite Nine Inch Nails album is probably Broken. Favorite song would have to be March Of The Pigs or Wish, can't pick one.

[Guest Sebastian_the_Bastard]

NIN rocks. My favorite CD is The Downward Spiral. Great CD, though somewhat depressing.

 

I really like "Head Like a Hole".

 

-Sebastian

[Guest Edwin MacPhisto]

Add another to the "loved 'em a few years back, only like them now." The Fragile is bloated, and probably could have benefited from a cut down to 70 or 80 minutes. Downward Spiral's my favorite, but Broken is my number one choice for an angry day. 22 minutes of concentrated rage, and I can dig that.

 

The lyrics, particularly those on Pretty Hate Machine, definitely tip the angst-meter big-time, but they gel with the music ridiculously well on Downward Spiral. "The Becoming," "Reptile," "Closer," and "Mr. Self-Destruct" hold up especially well. I think it has something to do with the fact that these songs each express a sort of direction or desire, going past the "I'm lost in the abyss of myself" self-loathing that permeates a lot of the rest of his work and towards an actual goal. Zing.

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

I listened to NIN in that year or so span when I'd pretty much exhausted Sabbath and hadn't discovered death bands yet. 8th/9th grade, as many others have said. As far as Kubrick goes, Full Metal Jacket is still my favorite movie of all time, outside of that, count me in the "like not love" column.

 

Anymore, NIN's lyrics are just waaaay too vague and meaningless, IMO. Fine stuff when you're confused about hair in funny places, but when it all grows in, Nails just loses its lustre. I still dig a few tracks though, A Warm Place, Ringfinger, and Wish all come to mind.

[Guest converge241]

"The Fragile is bloated, and probably could have benefited from a cut down to 70 or 80 minutes. "

 

yes. there is too much masturbation on there, should have concentrated on the quality songs and release it as a single album