Pretty Hate Machine - Nine Inch Nails

Advantages: Sincerely emotional music, Dark and heavy.
Disadvantages: Not everyone will like it.

...track sounds great and are pretty heavy too (although perhaps not as heavy as some songs from later albums). Something I Can Never Have is possibly the most important track on the album. It is a powerful song with very sincere dark lyrics. It is not heavy at all and is almost dominated by Trent’s voice. The reason I say it is important is because it shows that Nine Inch Nails would not just be about heavy music. The music is genuinely emotional ...
...soft when that is a more powerful way of conveying the emotion. The album is full of good tracks but a couple of other that I think stand out are ‘Terrible Lie’ and ‘That’s What I Get’. Both demonstrate that the music genuinely means everything to Trent Reznor. For this reason there are no weak tracks. Because the emotions that are the basis of songs are painful ones the album is very dark, if you are listening to ... Read review

Advantages: Innovative and illustrative of its time
Disadvantages: Often lacks depth and perspective

Nine Inch Nails are possibly the most popular industrial group there is, though the term group is a little inaccurate. In truth NIN is the brain child of Trent Reznor and he has remained the only consistent band member. There are many reasons for the popularity including more melodic and traditional structures than their industrial contemporaries and striking lyrics. This album was released in 1989 and was the result of a demo Reznor had been working ...
...recording studio. Working with top producers such as Flood, Keith LeBlanc, Adrian Sherwood and John Fryer, Reznor takes credit for all of the vocals, a great deal of the arrangement, programming, producing, engineering, digital editing and mixing and the majority of instrumentation including keyboards, drum machines and guitars. In fact the only other musician given credit on the album was Richard Patrick who plays guitar on 'Sanctified'. The album ... Read review

Advantages: Acessible introduction to NIN and industrial in general
Disadvantages: Sounds badly dated in places

Trent Reznor is not a happy man. From naming his band after the length of the nails, which crucified Christ, and spouting platitudes such “Hey God, I think you owe me a great big apology” this much is obvious. The man, however, is undoubtedly talented, and along with the likes of Ministry, virtually invented the whole sub genre we now term industrial. So it stands to reason, that this album ‘Pretty Hate Machine’ must have ...
...of the earliest blends of electronica with guitar certainly, but the driving, pounding wall of sound that characterised NIN’s later work is completely absent here. It is from the ‘Broken’ Ep that the likes of Marilyn Manson, Orgy and so on were spawned. As a reference point, ‘Pretty Hate Machine’ owes an awful lot more to Depeche Mode then it does to Metallica. This means lots of spooky sounding synth noises with some ... Read review

Advantages: Broke Industrial into the mainstream
Disadvantages: Not as original as some would have you believe

Pretty Hate Machine was seen by many critics as a major breakthrough in rock music, with its blend of electronics and rock aesthetics. It also made Trent Reznor a household name and dragged Industrial music form its underground ghetto into the bright lights of the mainstream. Pretty Hate Machine may be seen by many as a radical step into new musical territories, however for those who know their musical history, Pretty Hate Machine was in the main ...
...Musically Pretty Hate Machine is not a bad album. It’s combination of synthetic beats and bass with more obvious rock dynamics is extremely well executed by Mr Reznor. The problem for me is that I can too easily hear the influence of other bands in the majority of the tracks on the album. A criticism, which can be, levelled at many bands first releases and Nine Inch Nails like so many others fail to escape this trap. The album begins with ... Read review

Advantages: Almost full to the brim of catchy music
Disadvantages: 'Down In It'

1) Head Like A Hole 2) Terrible Lie 3) Down In It 4) Sanctified 5) Something I Can Never Have 6) Kinda I Want To 7) Sin 8) That's What I Get 9) The Only Time 10) Ringfinger Trent Reznor, love him or loathe him, is the brain child and creative genius behind one of the most publicised and talented one man band which has ever seen the light of day. This debut, released in 1989, is the most simple album made by Reznor, but it adds together excellent ...
...one of the most important industrial records of all time. To describe the sound of this album is not an easy task, with the almost gothic atmosphere it creates, the cutting edge industrial beats and mesmerising lyrics compiled by Reznor add to great effect. The industrial sound of Nine Inch Nails’ early work is centred around catchy (almost dancey) beats, but these are not your average run of the mill sounds. There are different feels scattered ... Read review

Advantages: Original, heavy, sincere music.
Disadvantages: Not to everybody’s taste.

...Broken is the 1992 EP follow up to Nine Inch Nails debut ‘Pretty Hate Machine’. Although it is not a full-length album it is a brilliant CD and the music is amazing. The production sounds excellent (much better than Pretty Hate Machine) and this makes the music sound even better. Nine Inch Nails sing about emotions, painful emotions. Broken is therefore a dark CD and it sounds very angry and tormented in places. This is music from the heart. The sound is ‘Industrial Metal’. Guitars and drums mix perfectly with distortion and electronic samples. The track listing is as follows: 1. pinion 2. wish 3. last 4. help me I am in hell 5. happiness in slavery 6. gave up 98. physical 99. suck NB – tracks 98 and 99 on the CD are bonus tracks that come after tracks 7-97 being 3 second blank tracks... Read review

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Advantages: 6 BECK VIDEOS (1 BY SPIKE JONZE)
Disadvantages: DVD AUDIO ONLY PLAYS THROUGH A DVD PLAYER, SO NO ALBUM PLAYING ON STEREO

...I'm a huge Beck fan and despite not over enjoying certain tracks here and there, Sea Change is still an all time favourite. Sea Change (produced by Nigel Godrich), originally released on 4 different CDs, with just the covers differing and none of them giving you the lyrics in a less annoying and difficult to read style, is still one of my favourite albums. This DVD-A, despite including the videos, isn't a whole world different. But for suckers like me, who not only bought the 4 CDs and a promo version of the album, just had to have these pleasingly amateur-esque videos. If ever anybody poured their heart out on an album like Beck does here, please let me know. Trent Reznor didn't do bad on Pretty Hate Machine by Nine Inch Nails. (Entirely different bag though!). STANDOUT TRACKS*. Opening with The Golden Age* preparing you somewhat... Read review

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Advantages: Well, the live show's quite good
Disadvantages: But music DVDs are only really for devoted fans, right?

...- somewhere between dark and gothic and 80s camp - on stage, it?s all there for twelve songs. Granted, several later hits are obviously absent (?Enjoy The Silence?, ?Personal Jesus?) but plenty of older favourites are present. ?Master And Servants? could almost have come from Nine Inch Nails? Pretty Hate Machine, but for all the oh-so-dark-and-moodiness of this and ?Blasphemous Rumours?, you can tell the band are enjoying themselves from the way they smile through ?Strangelove?. Anyone who saw Dave Gahan at Glastonbury last summer will no doubt be shocked how much younger he looks - but then this was fifteen years and a lot of drug problems ago. Clearly enjoying being both a pin up and centre of attention, he dances around the stage revelling in the attention. For any fan of early ?Mode it?s a great set - rounded off with the superb climax... Read review

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