Nine Inch Nails | Pretty Hate Machine (Vinyl)
- Released 7/12/2011
- Cat: B001576701
Although Nine Inch Nails mastermind Trent Reznor became the poster boy for industrial rock in the early 1990s, his '89 debut, Pretty Hate Machine, actually has a stronger foothold in '80s synth-pop. The guitar-heavy opener, "Head Like a Hole," is the most aggressive track on the album and proved to be the signature song for Reznor's initial breakthrough, but much of the disc sounds like Depeche Mode in a particularly bad mood. All of the tracks on Pretty Hate Machine are based on synthesizer lines and programmed beats, with other elements--such as the distinctive bass on "Sanctified" and sampled explosions on "That's What I Get"--filling out the sound. Despite Reznor's morose lyrics, a number of Pretty Hate Machine's finest moments are energetic dance tunes, particularly "Down in It" and the surging "Sin." Oddly enough, Reznor's fiercer--and seemingly less accessible--subsequent work (the Broken EP and The Downward Spiral) led directly to his mainstream success, but Pretty Hate Machine reveals where the Nine Inch Nails aesthetic started out.
Track Listing:
Head Like a Hole
Ringfinger
Terrible Lie
Down In It
Sanctified
Something I Can Never Have
Kinda I Want To
Sin
That's What I Get
The Only Time