All of a sudden, I’m loving the new (well, last year’s model) Nine Inch Nails music. I’m looking for suggestions for older songs to add to a mix CD. Too lazy myself to listen to everything, so I’m hoping you all can help me. I’m beginning to think that missing out on NIN at Coachella last year was a big mistake.
BTW, I have a great NIN story. Back in the 90s, I was working in a dialysis unit in Salt Lake City. One of the technicians asked if he could put on some music, and I said sure. Most of the patients were listening to TV on headphones. Good thing, since the first song coming over the speakers was “Closer” - imagine that, hearing “I want to ____ you like an animal” clear as could be in stereophonic glory. With a clinic and staff population of about 80% Mormon, it wasn’t a popular choice, and needless to say, we didn’t hear much more of that song.
NIN at Coachella last year was amazing. Something to be seen for sure.
If I had to make a mix CD, I’d have to start with:
[ul]
[li]Perfect Drug[/li][li]March of the Pigs[/li][li]Piggy[/li][li]Ruiner[/li][li]Terrible Lies[/li][li]Sin[/li][/ul]
And All That Could Have Been does it for you… and they’re live to boot.
The playlist:
Terrible Lie
Sin
March Of The Pigs
Piggy
The Frail
The Wretched
Gave Up
The Great Below
The Mark Has Been Made
Wish
Suck
Closer
Head Like A Hole
The Day The World Went…
Starfuckers, Inc.
Hurt
IMO, The Downward Spiral is far preferable as a whole, to appreciate the concept. When heard out of context, they’re often misinterpreted (Closer being the best example).
Yeah, Downward Spiral was pretty much the definitive album of the second wave of industrial metal. Between that and the Broken EP, you’ve got most of what you could want.
I agree wholeheartedly with ultrafilter, except to add that Pretty Hate Machine sounds great even in retrospect; just keep in mind that it was very “edgy” for its time. Most modern metal/rap-metal/Nu-Metal bands have a harder edge today than NIN did on Pretty Hate Machine, but Pretty Hate Machine is still a better album than most of them are likely to put out. Listen to their musical granddaddy and have a smile.
…seriously, it was so far ahead of its time that it could be released as “pop” today and be better than most of the Top 20.
The older stuff is a bit rougher than With Teeth (which is what I assume you’re now addicted to) - as you’d expect, given that bands mature a bit over a decade and change. All of the stuff recommended here is great, though; I’m not a HUGE NIN fan, but the three albums I have are Pretty Hate Machine, The Downward Spiral, and With Teeth, and I like them all.
I saw them live in DC late last year, and the one song that really hit me live was Terrible Lie. I was never a huge fan of it on the CD, but there was such an amazing amount of energy involved with it live that it just grabbed me as everyone in the arena screamed “terrible lie!”
Does it count if I got into NIN when I was 20 and hating myself in 2004?
How can you forget Physical, the “hidden track” from Broken. For me, that actually meant a Broken CD and then a limited addition tiny cd (half the size of a regular CD) with two songs on it. Kickass! You’re just too PHYSICAL!!! PHYSICAL!!!
I was 19 when it came out and didn’t discover it until I was about 21… and it’s still one of my “desert island” cd’s. Perhaps that speaks to my emotional maturity, but more likely I think it speaks to the excellence of the album as more than just a nihilistic journey through despair and hopelessness.
While I wouldn’t say it holds the same meaning exactly, my personal connection with the album hasn’t really changed. More precisely, only the filter I perceive it through has.
Over ten years later, A Warm Place still gets me teary eyed; especially after the powerful build-up of Big Man With a Gun.
I heard Pretty Hate Machine for the first time not to log after it came out, maybe 1991. And fir this middle class suburban white dude, it completely blew away (I guess it was just the song “Head LIke a Hole”, which I still really like a lot), but I purchased the CD a few years later and would still listen to it today if I didn’t lose it. I’ve kid of lost interest in NIN since then, The Downward Spiral never did much for me, although I would give it aother whirl cause I’ve noticed my tastes have changed over the last 15 years. 15 YEARS, HOLY CHRIST HAS IT BEEN THAT LONG?!?!?
Like DaddyTimesTwo, I first heard Pretty Hate Machine in around 1989 or '90, and was completely blown away by it. That album became the soundtrack to my freshman year in college, as my friends and I played it constantly; it’s possible that the only music I heard that year was Pretty Hate Machine and some album by The Legendary Pink Dots.
Three or four years ago, I stumbled across the album again, after something over a decade without hearing it; a co-worker had it in his iTunes, and I fired it up out of curiosity.
The music was still terrific: vibrant and powerful and overwhelming. But the lyrics made it near-unlistenable for me. Too much self-loathing, too much self-pity, too much self-aggrandizement, too much self-self-self. I played it a few times, but lost interest pretty quickly.
I don’t mean to disparage the love I felt for it back when I was angsty and angry. But the jackelope of today bears very little resemblance to the jackelope of 1989, and I just can’t listen to the album the same way now.
You’ll have to get to it all eventually, beckwall, it’s all essential stuff. True that Halo 8 is a masterpiece for the ages, but I find myself listening to Halo 10 even more. Thirlwell’s remixes are a whole new level of masterpiece. And considering that without Thirlwell, there’d be no NIИ–hell, without Thirlwell, an awful damn lot of today’s music would sound very, very different–there’s a kind of tribute being paid there that adds a conceptual depth. For me at least. And yeah, Halo 5 is all good too–specially the xtras on the bonus disc–but again, Halo 6 keeps finding its way into my player. Find time for all of it.
As a non-NIN fan, I’m sure you’re probably wondering, so here is a legend for you:
Halo 8 = The Downward Spiral
Halo 10 = Further Down the Spiral
Halo 5 = Broken
Halo 6 = Fixed
I’ve been into NIN for 15 years and I still have look it up. Why do the hardcore NIN fans refer to the releases only by catalog numbers? Seriously, I’ve always wondered.
Anyway, my two favorites have always been “The Downward Spiral” and “Broken”. I’d recommend picking up the two disc remaster of “The Downward Spiral” as it not only has the full album remastered, but also includes all of the b-sides and most of the best remixes from that era. “Broken” is just a 20 minute blast of anger followed up with two extra hidden songs (like Apos, I managed to snag it early enough that I got the extra mini-cd with those two songs). Not a weak track on it, in my opinion.
I saw NIN in concert for the first time last night.
I’m a fan all over again. I was a casual fan in high school (I was 15 and hated the world in 1994, so I think I was the target demographic). I have [WITH_TEETH], but the rest have been sold. Got to go get some more someday, methinks.
I wouldn’t miss putting Head Like A Hole, Closer, Hurt, Starfuckers, Inc. and Mr. Self Destruct on a NIN mix. They played those last night and they were spectacular. Opening a concert with Mr. SD was brilliant.
Oh, and I never found Trent attractive until last night. He’s cleaned up and looks amazing. Reznor Pic
I tend to think of myself as a pretty laid back guy, but at 32 Pretty Hate Machine is still the perfect map of my subconscious that it was when I discovered it 15 years ago. I just got With Teeth a few months ago and it’s all right, a bit too polished for me.
