Head Like A POLL: ILM Artist Poll #119 - Nine Inch Nails

https://i.imgur.com/Yf5cHlX.jpeg

1. Songs: Rank up to your top 30 songs by Nine Inch Nails. How To Destroy Angels tracks and tracks from Reznor's soundtrack work are eligible too.

2. Releases: Rank up to your top 10 releases by Nine Inch Nails. Albums, EPs, live albums, and remix albums are all eligible, as well as How To Destroy Angels releases and Reznor's soundtrack releases.

3. Remixes: Rank up to your top 10 remixes, either of Nine Inch Nails tracks or remixes of others by Nine Inch Nails/Trent Reznor.

Send ballots to ilmninpoll AT gmail dot com. Order ballots from highest (#1) to lowest, without numbers, and include your username.

Voting closes approx 12:01am GMT on 19 April 2024 (~3 weeks time)

YAAAAAAY LETS FUCKIN GO

(also this will be difficult)

Got a news alert about some young kids covering "Wish" for charity, which seems ... crazy.

lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2U0flA_Yp64

one obscurity i wanna highlight immediately is "and all that could have been" from still

i think you have that backwards: still is the second disc on All That Could Have Been :)

and rules, obv

xp to josh - least embarassing line in the nine inch nails song "wish"

stoked for the poll!

Hell yeah you just made my spring

How do people generally feel about lurkers submitting ballots for artist polls? Is it frowned upon? Apologies for the ridiculous question...

it's completely fine! the more ballots the better

i did a discog run only a few years ago so i should be able to do this from memory … might just run it again tho

still was my fave nin thing for ages, between “and all that could’ve been” and all of the instrumentals

from my relisten so far tds kinda towers over everything else but fragile left on its own is close

still is so good though yeah, that's a contender for #1 album

I will repeat my frequent assertion that 21st century NIN albums > 20th century NIN albums, and count on being the person who votes The Slip highest.

But I'm curious where the three most recent EPs will end up.

It's strange to realize as a one-time superfan that I now have not heard the majority of NIN albums.

What if I said the Broken EP is the best thing he ever did?

You'd be mostly right, especially if you throw in the bonus tracks.

3 weeks, OK. This is a good motivator to listen to everything post-"With Teeth", most of which I've never heard and/or only heard once.

OH GOD you're including the soundtracks. Fuckkkkk

It's so daunting. I'm going to listen to Cortini's "Sonno" and contemplate my participation, that's a lot of music to sort through

The releases post 'Hesitation Marks' I'm very hazy on, a good opportunity to explore.

I will however be ignoring the soundtracks, as I do have other stuff to do over the next three weeks.

Thanks for organising ufo!

I love that record (Sonno). Looks like it's currently off streaming, but still on Bandcamp thankfully.

Does Further Down the Spiral count as remixes? Even the self-remixes?

as i’ve posted in every nin thread for the past few years:

hesitation marks >>>>>>

I've not listened for years, but remember finding it mostly a bit of a drag? 'Copy of A' and 'Satellite' are bangers though.

I'll start there, thanks ivy.

Im nervous my ballot might include the entire downward spiral but we'll see

it took me a few years to realize how good it was

xp

I'm just listening to hesitation marks for the first time, 'everything' stood out as being almost like... the beatles?!?!? ('almost' doing a lot of work there of course.)

I owned every halo up to 11, then just stopped bothering, didn't even buy the fragile, though I'm reasonably familiar with it. maybe played the next two albums once or twice. I'll do my best to catch up over the next three weeks.

I have a sense With Teeth might be A-tier and just caught me in an awkward post-fandom stage when I was too busy listening to Can or whatever.

I'm going to have a lot of With Teeth tracks. I remember being really impressed by Hesitation Marks too but don't think I've heard anything since, except for an odd track or too that didn't leave much of an impression.

ivy’s five-point campaign for hesitation marks as the best nin album:

1. it’s the funkiest. maybe a side/meta argument i could make is that trent’s funkiness is what ultimately separates him from his peers in industrial/ -rock and -metal and is one of the reasons his music ended up being so successful. e.g. the sheer amount of space between the bass drum and the snare in “closer” and how it’s such a wide and unstable space it makes you want to snap your body in half from the intensity of the gravity

2. it’s the most minimal i.e. it does the most with the least. not that i’m looking for minimalism from nin (i am all about the brutality and anger being dramatically contrasted with the melancholic stillness and beauty) but what can i say it really fucking works when combined with the aforementioned funkiness, like watching a construction site come to life and breakdance

3. idk sometimes i can’t listen to the downward spiral or the fragile because they are consummate bummers, that’s why they’re so good obv, like the guy swam deep in the voidlike blackness of his own bullshit and resurfaced to tell us about it, and we recognized something in it in ourselves, and that very dynamic is the reason why i became a nine inch nails fan. but there’s something so much more I HATE TO SAY IT BUT mature about the way this album depicts the same feelings still following you even if they never quite take over entirely like they used to

4. prob the most instances of “this song ended in a very different place from where it started” on a nin album

5. i saw them twice in this period, first with gybe! and second with soundgarden, two of the best shows ive ever seen (obv, its nin). i took my mom with me both times. she got really into nin just from osmosis, a side-effect of raising a kid like me. they played “the hand that feeds” all the time on one of the music video channels i watched. it’s still her favorite song

But I'm curious where the three most recent EPs will end up.
Voting for at least 3 tracks from these. I like the post reunion stuff significantly higher than everything after TDS but pre breakup/pause. Tried With Teeth again a little while ago preparing to be pleasantly surprised and couldn’t even get through the whole thing.

“How the west was really won” from the Watchmen show is also top tier

the last three tracks on with teeth are really where it’s at

it took me a few years to realize how good it was

The thing about Hesitation Marks (as I've said before) is that all the advance singles kinda sucked as singles, but worked brilliantly in the context of the whole album.

Are Reznor remixes in the running? His remix of Curve's "Missing Link" is pretty cool.

i'm not really expecting anyone to vote for the soundtracks that's more just there if anyone really wants to include them because they already have strong opinions

reznor remixes of others/self are eligible for the remixes poll

the best track on with teeth is "all the love in the world"

bad witch is excellent and probably a top 4 release for me

Oh right, listening to Bad Witch now and it's ringing a bell, sounds fantastic.

the whole Year Zero remixed album pretty much rules imo

i was starting to figure out my ballot last night and my top 10 might be just Broken minus “Pinion” lol

Broken still goes, i love it so muchhhhhhh

i don't really care for broken beyond "wish" honestly

(recoils)

i enjoyed this comment on those kids doing a cover of Wish: “Fistbump… Thank god that little girl said Fistbump”

the dfa influence is so strong on with teeth it's pretty funny. "only" especially

Totally, so blatant but it works.

The Fragile: Deviations 1 > The Fragile imho, though there's a few songs that def benefit more from the vocals.

I feel I can play Deviations end to end with no need for skipping.

Years ago I made a custom mixtape of the Fragile I called "Center" (complete with outtro/intro editing to make it work as a fluid whole). Here's the track list:

The Way Out Is Through
The Day the World Went Away
Somewhat Damaged
Into the Void
Just Like You Imagined
The Fragile
The Frail
The Big COme Down
Complication
The Mark Has Been Made
10 Miles High
Pilgrimage
Underneath It All
La Mer
The Great Below

This would possibly be my #1. Also it was truly tough picking The Way Out Is Through over Somewhat Damaged as an opener. They're both perfect for that.

One last thing - while it's a remix, this is the best song to have been released since The Fragile imho, the Fennesz remix of In This Twilight

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NzfJeaFgOA

with teeth is just kinda bland overall though. if it leant into the dfa thing more it'd be better - more dance-punk-y stuff like "the hand that feeds"/"only" would have been better, "all the love in the world" (although it's great as is) should have gone full piano house, etc.

though "all the love in the world" is still really great, easily the best thing there

xp I heard With Teeth many years after release so I didn't peg the DFA influence until the way Trent sings the title of the album in the title track. Then I started to notice DFA in many other moments on the album

year zero on the other hand feels like an attempt at making homogenic into a rock album

the sound design & drum programming are consistently cool but the songs aren't consistently there

you can really tell the slip was recorded in only three weeks, the sound design is unusually really rough and ugly, the arrangements feel like rough drafts

but there is some good stuff there - i'd forgotten just how catchy "discipline" is for instance

the fennesz remix of "in this twilight" is fantastic yeah

xp I heard With Teeth many years after release so I didn't peg the DFA influence until the way Trent sings the title of the album in the title track. Then I started to notice DFA in many other moments on the album

― Vinnie, Saturday, March 30, 2024 5:45 AM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

I’m curious if there was any influence - I immediately caught the JM vocal tick on the title track but With Teeth only came out a few months after the LCD debut.

Hesitation Marks is convincing me that I need to get fully caught up. It's really good.

gonna listen to the how to destroy angels record today for prob the first time since it came out

hesitation marks is way better than i remember, easily the best proper album since the fragile, though it isn't on that level. the songs are consistently the strongest since then and it's full of interesting textures. it's also unusually uninterested in being a rock album, besides "everything" which is goofy and doesn't quite work

I’m curious if there was any influence - I immediately caught the JM vocal tick on the title track but With Teeth only came out a few months after the LCD debut.

Ah, didn't realize that. But LCD's debut was years after their first single, so there was plenty of time for Trent to hear and incorporate Murphy's vocal tic. Or who knows, maybe they were both independently copying Mark E Smith

LCD would never copy anyone.

can i vote for halsey's "easier than lying"

production work for others is where i'm drawing the line and idk if there's really enough of it for a side poll of its own?

and yeah reznor obviously hadn't heard the lcd soundsystem debut when making with teeth but there had been that run of singles + other dfa productions, and i checked some interviews from the time and he's constantly talking about how much he likes lcd soundsystem lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5eIE9xpBH4

the dfa mix of "the hand that feeds" is nice enough too

if people do want a side poll for production work then i can do that though

Was relistening to TDS for the poll and wondered how many of us were introduced to that Eno ambient sound through “A Warm Place”

Or how many people were introduced to the David Bowie deep cut it cops?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xm2ciX0_UP8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvmzwPiZzMM

if a how to destroy angels track makes my ballot, it'll be "too late, all gone"

So what's the verdict with At the Heart of It All? 100% written by RDJ, not a remix of any NIN song, just a contributed track. Beauty of Being Numb's 1st half credits the whole band including Trent, despite the latter half also being 100% RDJ. Latter seems like a "remix" or collab, but the former? Can we slot it in our song ballots despite its only NIN accreditation being its existence on Further Down the Spiral?

the first part of "the beauty of being numb" is derived from "mr. self destruct" so it's fine to include as a remix even though the second part is just an original aphex twin piece

i think that "at the heart of it all" can count as a remix too if you really really want it to, since that's what it was originally presented as, but not for the main tracks poll

"While I'm Still Here"/"Black Noise" is my new favourite NIN song.

otm

not an experienced nin-er but am planning to dive deep and put a ballot together for this.

anyone have the story as to why there are two distinct versions of phm on streaming services with different covers but essentially the same tracklist?

one is just the 2010 remaster iirc

are there big differences? seems kinda dramatic to do away with the color palette haha

remaster is much meatier but i love the thin depeche mode xerox sound of the original so i almost never play it

yeah phm is forward looking but also of its time in a way i find kinda charming

because i've heard the main albums so often, i'm running through the ancillary material right now: the scores, the ghosts, the remix albums, etc. i don't think i've listened to ghosts v since april 2020, i remembered it being wispy and ambient with pretty, out-of-focus piano chords that sound buried inside of a looming cloud. it is that but it's also really great. ghosts vi is more of a hodgepodge, a soundtrack to post-apocalyptic video game that never got made

can we vote for "old town road" in this?

idk if i can separate "the frail" and "the wretched" - those two have always been one piece for me.

same

i never really like voting for covers in these polls - but his are so good i might have to make an exception. just off the top of my head there's: Life On Mars, Zoo Station, Metal (Gary Numan obvs), Dead Souls, Get Down Make Love... prolly lots more

Adam Ant's "Physical."

I like meat, aka BASS, so the 2010 remaster of PHM feels essential to me. I have the original on vinyl and never listen to it because it sounds too thin for my tastes nowadays

"old town road" can go in a production side poll if people want one (do people want one?)

I cannot stop hearing hesitation marks track 3 as "I came back home, ted".

not gonna listen to the trent/atticus scores exhaustively, just kinda gravitating toward the ones i'm most interested in or have seen the films of, but jeez they're all very good. my favorite so far is the one for the ken burns vietnam doc

bones and all was my favorite movie of 2022 and a lot of that was down to the score, which i didn't register was reznor/ross until the movie was over. of course there are a lot of ominous woodwinds that sound like a breeze blowing through a bag made of skin, but the chiming nylon guitar that the score centers around seems to create a portal to reznor's most open-hearted material. i am probably voting for "(you made it feel like) home"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=plSbcQqgqSQ

I can't really overstate how highly I regard Trent/Atticus as a film composer dyad, I think their work will echo for decades to come

in what ways can you hear it deviate from anything they might have released as nine inch nails?

yeah, to me their scores always sound like NiN instrumentals, for better or worse. when I'm watching the TV/movies they've scored, I often wish they would go more outside their comfort zone - but maybe they have and I missed those pieces. Soul is the only one I remember feeling outside of what NiN might do

ok just scratch my last post, because I completely forgot about Mank. that was way outside of what NiN would do

Need to get April 19 on the calendar because I NEED to be part of this poll

remixes are going to be a tough one for me, since they aren't something i normally reach for; but going back through my old CDs rips, i think these two versions of closer on the single might actually be better than the original

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tp8tj850L2A

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IM1mFMwWL5Q

I really had forgotten how much I like With Teeth

Although I can’t say I’d noticed how much “Getting Smaller” cribs from “Planet of Sound” by the Pixies until now

with teeth is my favorite nin album for sure

i may try and throw something together for this. due for another deep dive

scores arent going to figure jn my ballot but: personal fave is def Vietnam, i fucking love that score so much

and Mank score is so good

I will vote in this, and this will be my #1 ranked remix:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1zQwl4scf0

I might as well drop this here https://www.stereogum.com/2258106/nine-inch-nails-plan-new-album-music-festival-tv-show-xr-game-clothing-line-etc/news/

at least they're starting to think about a new album at last

all the other stuff is hard to believe it'll be remotely worthwhile

love the symmetry between "la mer" and "into the void," down to how one's the penultimate track on the first disc and the other is track two on the second

I've been listening to The Fragile in full for the first time in probably a decade. I don’t think it’s ever not going to be my favourite NIN album. The cumulative effect of it just sweeps me up like none of the others. This vast and mysterious alternate reality.

i'm actually listening to fragile deviations rn and god...... the production.......!!!!

My actual first time ever hearing NIN:

I was staying at my Aunt’s house while on a family road trip, and looking through my cousin’s CDs. My cousin is a few years older than me. I was extremely sheltered musically at that point. He had lots of CDs from bands that I hadn’t heard yet: Korn, Limp Bizkit, Rage Against the Machine, Tool, Radiohead. I knew Radiohead slightly from the "High and Dry" video, and didn't want to risk straying from what I already knew. So I found that song title on the back of The Bends, put on the CD that was in the case, skipped ahead to track 3, and made it to "Your God is dead, and no one cares" before turning it off in horror.

Did you consider your cousin planned the whole thing

I haven't listened to much NIN beyond The Downward Spiral, but I want to participate in the poll and have been doing my best to catch up. After getting exhausted by Halos the other day, I decided to switch gears and see if Trent Reznor had ever been a podcast guest. I wasn't actually expecting him to be into that sort of thing, but I was wrong! So I listened to him get interviewed by Rick Rubin on the Tetragrammaton podcast and Lizzy Goodman on Difficult Artist. I thought they were solid interviews, and I learned a lot. In both interviews, he discusses some of the music that got him interested in music, and in both interviews, he recounts a teenage trip to the record store where the clerks were playing Frank Zappa's Sheik Yerbouti. This was a formative experience for him, and I got a little chuckle out of that.

it's a lot of material to cover. especially considering his music can go from "horrifying", loud, angry music to really calm & beautiful soundscapes. sometimes from one track to the next. not sure how you'd even go about digging up the tracks that would appeal to you the most. he is def not a musician you can just to go the "big hits" to discover the truly best music he has to offer.
also legit lol at jmm's story. i expect heresy to be your #1.

rip keith leblanc

There was to me a certain Rosetta stone quality to the credits of "Pretty Hate Machine." Production by Flood, Keith LeBlanc, Adrian Sherwood, and John Fryer/This Mortal Coil, references to Prince, PE, Jane's Addiction ... if you were a kid that heard or bought this in 1989 and sought out some of those names, you were pretty hip or ahead of the curve. For a lot of people I knew, Nine Inch Nails served a similarly eye-opening role as Nirvana did a few years later.

it's a lot of material to cover. especially considering his music can go from "horrifying", loud, angry music to really calm & beautiful soundscapes. sometimes from one track to the next. not sure how you'd even go about digging up the tracks that would appeal to you the most. he is def not a musician you can just to go the "big hits" to discover the truly best music he has to offer.

Yeah, it's a lot to process, but I've been happy finding new stuff. Even if I don't get through everything, I know I'll have enough to put a ballot together.

oh wow "you made it feel like home" is wonderful

please share more highlights from the soundtracks, i've never dug through them and there's too many to get through all of them for this but i really wanna hear highlights. which soundtracks are the must-hear ones?

Didn't "Seven" use a Nine Inch Nails instrumental track, or remix, for its opening credits? That was very effective, even back then.

you made it feel like home is so good, love that false ending. worked really well in the movie.

I've also never heard that song, refreshing to hear Reznor sing in a different way than his usual

I think in Gone Girl the song is edited quite a bit but "Consummation" is one of the most scary and effective music moments I can remember in a movie

Didn't "Seven" use a Nine Inch Nails instrumental track, or remix, for its opening credits? That was very effective, even back then.

Closer (Precursor)

*another* closer remix!!

There's five on the Closer single! Precursor is by Coil.

"eraser (polite)" is def the funniest nin remix

If I were able to tally how many times I’d listened to NIN tracks over the decades, remixes would probably top that list

fixed is my favorite release from this band period. unwelcoming and ugly industrial collage with dance beats. probably syncs up great with tetsuo the iron man

I should listen to fixed. Further Down The Spiral is what I generally consider to be my favorite nin album. Probably I should check out other remixes, a lot of the time I like them more than the originals.

v1 or v2?

The one I have on CD which is also the one on streaming services now. I forgot that there was another version of this album. I've never listened to the other one.

they're both on spotify, they share a lot of tracks but the uk one (v2) has heresy & ruiner remixes which are more conventional than all the coil/thirlwell stuff but will be high up in my ballot.

oh, Tidal only has v1. I'll try and check out the other remixes.

though the remixes I like the most are generally the ones that totally tear the original apart. I especially like the eraser remixes and self destruction, final.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Further_Down_the_Spiral

It hurts my heart to think that an NIN fan might not have heard this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WX5O6n1LrK8

Wtf, I’ve never heard that before!!

Further Down the Spiral was such a scary & mysterious record for me, all the more so because I hadn't heard the actual Downward Spiral in full. I will definitely be doing some vote-splitting by voting for FDtS versions of songs.

I loved The Downward Spiral to pieces, but might have loved the U.S. and UK versions of Further… (and the “Closer” EP, and even the “March of the Pigs” EP) even more. My fandom was at its apex in 94/95, though it was pretty high from 92-93 too, which is when I was introduced to NIN.

I like the heresy version even more than ruiner:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sjwrM7LMYP0

both of those remixes are so freaking good

this is nowhere near ballot stage yet so i figured it'd be cool to share a longlist of remixes i really liked in my runthrough

head like a hole (copper)
closer to god
reptilian
ruiner (version)
heresy (version)
eraser (denial; realization)
the perfect drug (spacetime continuum)
the hand that feeds (photek)
only (richard x)
in this twilight (fennesz)
the beginning of the end (ladytron)
me i’m not (olof dreijer)
copy of a (simian mobile disco)
satellite (hot chip)
machines of loving grace - burnt offering
curve - missing link (screaming bird mix)
kmfdm - light (fat back dub)
megadeth - symphony of destruction (gristle mix)
peter gabriel - growing up (trent reznor remix)
david bowie - i can’t give everything away (farewell mix)

Will def check out these tracks!

the ep trilogy are definitely the strongest proper releases since the fragile but my main problem with them is they're all too short. i would have loved a full length album's worth of the ideas on each of them. the sound design on each is so good

don't forget about "i'm afraid of americans (v1 mix)"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J91IBtGE69I

the opn mix of "find my way" is nice, it's just opn doing his thing from r+7 underneath the vocals but it's fascinating to hear that approach with vocals over it

Every time I return to “Only” I like it more than I remembered liking it. Definitely will make the ballot.

i love his sarcastic delivery of the verses in “Only” - it’s really funny!

and the drums rule

AND IT WORKED!

YES IT DID!

so good

back in the day I made my own version of Ruiner by cutting and pasting parts from the two released versions in CoolEdit

hope it's on your ballot

The two instrumentals on “The Slip” are so great

Should Johnny Cash's "Hurt" be an honorary nominee? Just to see if it lands in the final list?

blocked

MAYBE I'M ALL MESSED UP
MAYBE I'M ALL MESSED UP
MAYBE I'M ALL MESSED UP IN YOU

so many songs on phm are like “is it cool to want to fuck guys????”

yeah its basically the whole album

i kinda want to dig into Ghosts but also i’m like do i reallllllly want to dig into Ghosts

i used to have a few fave tracks from it but jfc i was a lot more energetic towards those pursuits back then ie listening to really long instrumental albums

so many songs on phm are like “is it cool to want to fuck guys????”

― ivy., Saturday, 6 April 2024 17:11 (yesterday) bookmarkflaglink

Feel like this is basically the whole NIN discography (or what I know of it) but yeah discovering PHM and Araki’s The Living End at the same time had a massive impact on my personal development circa 14 years old.

I had forgotten how pretty Coil’s work on the second half of “The Downward Spiral (The Bottom)” is.

has anyone ever asked trent how he feels about there being a mario enemy named after him

Porter Ricks – keyboards, programming and synthesizer
Bill Rieflin – drums on "La Mer"

i just love the credits of the fragile

also every time i revisit it i remember "the wretched" is the coolest-sounding song i've ever heard. the sound design, the wall-of-noise guitar solo, those liquid guitar licks at the end that must be belew

but since i'm rereading the credits now, it seems like they aren't!

BACK AT THE BEGINNING
SINKING, SPINNING

I had a "This is about me!!!" moment while listening to it the other day.

not that my ballot needs any more instrumentals on it but i have really been feeling "ripe (with decay)" lately

it might not make my ballot but I just listened for the first time to the add violence ep when out for a run and was really feeling the 6 minute decaying machine ending of the background world.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9oq4x980Uw

fuuuuuck

killer

what if my ballo was just The Frail / The Wretched x 30 times

*ballot

I don't even remember how/why I was given a ticket to that tour (the Madison Square Garden show where Manson came out to sing "Starfuckers"). I don't even think I wrote about it for anyone, but it really was pretty amazing, and the videos bring it all back full strength.

revisited with teeth, a record i struggle with a little, it was the first major release by a band i loved to disappoint me, mostly for what it wasn't; i wanted still to be a signpost for future nin, for them to get increasingly abstract and quiet and instrumental, and here were 13 tracks with vocals that were for the most part just nine inch nails songs; even the poppiest tracks on the fragile felt like trent was lost in the woods of the production and with teeth he was more like a rock band frontman, making maybe the most normal nin record of all, at least if i keep myself from thinking about its bookends and "only." on some level i still wish it were more of the dance record implied by "only," "all the love in the world" and "beside you in time," really love the glitchy and droney techno space exploration of the latter song especially, as if he were listening to a lot of oval at the time along with the purported dfa influence. but if i zoom back and try to look at it objectively, yeah it's a collection of songs that range from good to great. lots of cool stuff on it, like the whisper-quiet piano bridge of "with teeth." just missing something for me. almost wish he had gone with the insane concept album idea he originally had for it of it being a series of false awakenings in different realities, but i understand why he didn't want to go that route after the fragile

still: "sunspots" is the most underrated (and sexiest) nin song

I was surprised by how much I still like With Teeth, i went in the other day expecting to be disappointed maybe

I need to sit with Still a bit more on its own, that one prob still grabs me the least. Not that it’s bad, it just blends a little too much into Year Zero & With Teeth when you listen them all end-to-end


I wish he would do some full on immersive genre-exercises, like a jazz record or an all-out dance/club record

now i am watching beside you in time and really enjoying how many people in the crowd are documenting the show on their clunky digital cameras and flip phones

oh of course all the with teeth songs fucking rip live

lol, I forgot about this review

https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/5798-things-falling-apart/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=koD4Zd_AAP0

holy shit, is "beside you in time" my favorite nin song???

amazing how the crowd starts clapping to the beat at the beginning and actually keeps time pretty well. also the live presentation (the smashing glass)... my goodness. i should've seen them on this tour

live "with teeth" goes full power ballad in the quiet piano section. ahhh

I feel like a crazy person sometimes when I tell people my favorite NIN release might be FIXED, I feel like for me at that time it was a gateway drug from alternative rock and industrial music into techno. Big fan of PHM, Broken, Downward Spiral too obv. But I did kind of check out at that point.

Broken was actually the first release of theirs I really got into, just so much good stuff on there.

I think with fixed I'm probably most specifically thinking of the remix of happiness in slavery

the whole thing is so good, i love the glitchy neverending remixes of "wish," a song i wish would literally never end

i think the And All That Could Have Been live version of “Sin” is my personal definitive version

This poll dredged up a high school memory. I was visiting a friend's school one night to see a school play, and at the intermission, I overheard a group of girls talking about a fomenting scandal. Some guy from their clique had his notebook compromised, and contained therein was a list of all the alt/metal girls in the school, with a Nine Inch Nail song title representing each of them. Went something like this:

"...and Megan was Something I Can Never Have..."
"Damn right, he can never have me!"
"...Emily was A Warm Place..."
"That's kinda sweet, but..."
"...but get this, for Kim, he put REPTILE!"
"Ew, that so fucked up!"
"'She spreads herself wide open to let the insects in' - what the fuck is that supposed to mean, Rob???"
"Fucking pervert."

I remember one time in high school I was dropping off some paper in a recycling dumpster (at another school -- long boring story) and noticed that some crazy soul had earlier climbed into said dumpster (presumably after it had been emptied) and used a magic marker to decorate the whole interior with the NIN logo and those of a few other contemporary acts (kinda remember Pantera and Metallica) plus what I assume were relevant song lyrics...I would've needed a flash light to fully make out those.

My primordial NIN memory is from middle school, I was somehow friends with a couple of alt girls in a nearby town. We were talking on the phone, as you did, and she put the receiver right on the boombox speaker and played Wish. Of course it sounded like a staticky mess of blown-out noise, so really the ideal version of that track, nothing I heard from them really compared after that.

one of my favorite memories is from my first or second year of college 1994/95 (i cant remember) & we were in our dorm rooms day-drunk celebrating finishing exams & playing the Downward Spiral cd, sitting on the floor with the lyric insert yelling gross lyrics snippets to each other across the hallway to crack ourselves up SHE LEAVES A TRAIL OF HONEY TO SHOW WHERE SHES BEEN

i saw the premiere of “we’re in this together” on trl when i was in middle school, really striking song that i barely understood. by the time “starfuckers, inc.” was playing on mtv regularly i knew i wanted to hear the whole thing (“starfuckers” is really good if you’re 12 years old and already have a taste for fucked electronic percussion a la the prodigy and smashing pumpkins “eye”) and i asked my parents to buy me a copy. prob would’ve had the most naughty words-per-capita on any cd i owned had i not gotten into eminem and korn the summer before. those were the acts that were hot with the kids at the time, not nin, and i didn’t meet someone who cared about them until high school

regardless i’ll always remember this: one of my dad’s clients had a beach house in california he would occasionally lend us for a week in the summer; one year i brought the fragile with me and i still associate the album with walking around that beach house. i had only lived in single story homes in nevada and the beach house seemed to have stairs that led everywhere, floor to floor, inside to outside, and whenever my parents were off doing something i was too bored to attend (getting groceries etc.) i would just explore the space with my headphones on. it’s why i think of that album as an environment unto itself to this day

year zero: have always really enjoyed this one, the production is soooo fucked, but it has stronger effect as a whole than as individual songs. "the great destroyer" is going to make my ballot (one of his best melodies + the second half is like cliffjumping into a waveform), though the gross and ugly songs in the first half get stuck in my head all the time ("vessel," "me i'm not")

the slip: it's fine

hesitation marks: can i have an extra ballot to vote for every song on this record???? by the time the end of "all time low" happens you sort of know what you're in for, i.e. this basement leads to innumerable subbasements where terrible things have happened even though it's eerily quiet in there now. first album since the fragile where i think of trent as a voice trying to stay afloat as the music hits him with successive waves of detail, trying to find a way out, maybe giving up on finding a way out, maybe finding a weird kind of freedom and peace of mind in knowing there is no way out. in addition to "all time low" i have to find room for "find my way" "satellite" "various methods of escape" "running" "in two" "while i'm still here"... christ

Gonna revisit Year Zero today. I disliked it at the time because I didn't think NIN needed to be making overtly political gestures; leave the anti-GWB crank-yanking to Green Day and Ministry, was my thinking. That said, I liked "Survivalism" and "Capital G" at the time and still do.

“The Great Destroyer” is a fantastic song

fun to realize that year zero is set in 2022 and is as much about climate disaster and widespread drug overdose as it is about fascist republicans

I love the modwheelmood remix of the great destroyer - I mean it sounds like a straightforward song and the original version sounds like a remix (a pretty great one).

Ha I heard the modwheelmod version first because I bought the remix album first and absolutely fell in love with it

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeSXE5np_Tk

Hahahaha

first reznor-related thing i ever heard was "i'm afraid of americans" which i saw playing on the tvs at tower records when i was like 9

pretty sure i first heard about "closer" by watching vh1's i love the 90s lol

one song i really like on the slip is "head down," watching a live performance of it confirmed it

Another NIN memory from childhood. Around the same period that I heard Head Like a Hole and Down In It for the first time, our local alternative rock station played 88 Lines About 44 Women, a song that I found quirky and funny and, as a middle schooler, didn't understand at all. The DJ announced the song "that was 88 Lines About 44 Women by The Nails!" I assumed that he said that as shorthand for Nine Inch Nails, and went a year or two thinking it was some rare, early NIN track.

new world
new times
mutation
feels all right

I've never listened to NIN's quake soundtrack -- what's the consensus -- Underrated or dated folly?
I like the idea of an alt-universe where NIN were a chiptune-only outfit.

it's a great dark ambient album

I like the Quake soundtrack a lot but it's very much associated to the game for me (I played it a lot back then) so very hard for me to evaluate on its own. I basically just have those first levels playing in my mind when I put it on.

i had no idea that existed until this poll started! i really enjoyed it.

this poll has really driven home for me just how incredibly talented Reznor is as a music composer and abundantly clear why he would've been sought out for film/tv scores.

how incredibly talented Reznor is as a music composer and abundantly clear why he would've been sought out for film/tv scores.

People in this thread will mostly disagree and I've posted this many times before, but I like almost everything about Nine Inch Nails music except the vocals and lyrics, so all his soundtrack work and other instrumental stuff sounds very good to me. I am very tempted to just submit an all-instrumental ballot.

he's so good at mood and texture, why does he have to put some lyrics on top of that just to say that nobody likes or understands him?

I like almost everything about Nine Inch Nails music except the vocals and lyrics

He's got some good lines, but he's got some really bad ones. The lyrics can ruin a NIN song faster and more decisively than almost any other band.

if you don't love trent's utter lack of lyrical shame you're not a real fan

otm

i used to have hang-ups about trent's lyrics, used to think nin would be better if he were a better lyricist or made entirely instrumental music, but i really don't think so anymore, because those first few albums are pretty juvenile but completely fucking fearless and visceral and unguarded. he is not a good poet but good poetry is not where this music gets its power, its power is in how he is saying exactly what he feels

also i only had the chance to reflect on this after going through the discog again for this poll, but uh the lyrics on hesitation marks and the ep trilogy are pretty good, on the whole?

if you don't love trent's utter lack of lyrical shame you're not a real fan

I agree with this. I'm a partial fan.

I mean, it varies from song to song and album to album (and maybe depends on your age - most of these lyrics are perfect if you’re a teenager).

i am always blown away by how his performances of those early songs are/were always so committed. like he would sing “hurt” every night & never half-ass it, but fully put himself right in the anguish every time

there’s something about his ownership, and idk his compassion towards his younger self that i really like

Yeah, as bad as some of his lyrics are (mostly due to really obvious rhymes where he's kind of written himself into a corner that there's no non-clichéd path out of), I do respect that he fully commits to the bit onstage.

I recently noticed how the eighth note beep boops that start at the chorus of Kinda I Want To sound a lot like the beep boops in the Genesis song Tonight, Tonight, Tonight from their 1986 album Invisible Touch.

i understand not liking reznor's lyrics (they are pretty goofy especially early on though he's definitely gotten better over time) but his voice is fantastic, it's really perfect for what he does. easily one of the best rock singers of his generation.

I was listening to Soundgarden today, and yeah, there's a certain type of skilled screamer/screaming that is just hard to dismiss. Not that I would compare Reznor to Cornell, because that's not fair. As for lyrics, I dunno, I never really gave them any thought in NIN. Would they have been better juvenilia if they were more like Depeche Mode? I don't think so. If anything they're often funnier, and Reznor's transparency/immaturity/shallowness or whatever lends them an honesty I'd probably prefer over theatricality, let alone self-conscious poetry. Besides, a lot of lyrics, like most band names, are pretty bad, but by and large you need them.

got this in the mail today

https://i.imgur.com/f2BSnRN.jpeg

i read that interview the other day! it’s really good. and the fashion shoot is great, they really went for it.

ghosts v is really quite nice isn't it, especially "still right here". that piercing tone in "hope we can again" is real unpleasant though

Halo 8

https://i.imgur.com/fEV0eZu.jpeg

lol

I like almost everything about Nine Inch Nails music except the vocals and lyrics

while it def appealed to me as an angsty teen/20-something, it certainly holds back some of his tracks when i listen now. tho i am envious of those who can just embrace his lyrics for what they are lol
Reptile is a track i fucking *loved*. i. loved. it. sonically it's mind blowing. at the time, i'd never heard anything like it and i'm still in awe today at that sound. but then those lyrics get in the way of me really appreciating the way i used to. basically it's the difference between making my top 30 and not (i reserve the right to change my mind here).

was tempted to type all that out in the form of NIN lyrics.

I was listening to Soundgarden today, and yeah, there's a certain type of skilled screamer/screaming that is just hard to dismiss.

this was my first concert. i was 16 and Soundgarden was touring with NIN. i had recently gotten into soundgarden, but nin to me was just some weird band my gf's friend was into. my mom lent me the $35 (Canadian) i needed to go. opening was You Am I, Reverend Horton Heat, Pop Will Eat Itself and Marylin Manson. those opening acts alone blew me away... then, just after darkness fell, Nine Inch Nails took the stage and everything went apeshit. opening song was Terrible Lie. i was not ready. instantly lost my friends in the madness. i thought i was going to die. then, as the chaos settled into a more maintainable mad energy, i was utterly in shock at the music i was hearing. i still remember hearing Closer, Reptile and Sin for that first time. i was never the same. my music, my looks and (shortly) my girlfriend - all of it changed quickly.
soundgarden was also very good, but how can you compete with what i'd just seen

"Reptile" is a pretty extreme example of the musical sophistication vs lyrical silliness dynamic that NIN often encapsulates - perhaps because it's about someone else (to say nothing of its misogyny). When Trent is just skewering himself (say, "Becoming") the effect feels funnier even if it's not any less juvenile.

does anyone rate anything off ghosts i-iv, i'm still not finding it very compelling. it very much just is a bunch of sketches and doesn't really live up to the idea of what an instrumental nin album could be

This has been an enlightening process for me. I essentially stopped listening to NIN after Broken. I was often in the presence of The Downward Spiral when it came out, but it was sonically overwhelming to me at the time. Emotionally, it went a few steps further, to the point where I couldn't relate. I had not been that angry and depressed at age 15. TDS-era NIN megafans were their own shade of overwhelming, at least in my town. The omnipresence of Closer was also an turn-off. I liked the song, because it's obviously fucking great, but the way the masses enjoyed it - as a novelty song - sucked.

I eventually revisited TDS as an adult and enjoyed it a lot. I had checked out a few tracks from Hesitation Marks, and She's Gone Away when it was presented by The Nine Inch Nails on Twin Peaks. Haven't thought of them much, otherwise.

Now, I've listened to most of the studio albums and EPs and am trying to winnow down a 50-60 song list of dope-ass songs I discovered into a 30-song ballot, while still including significant chunks of Pretty Hate Machine, Broken, and The Downward Spiral. I have not listened to most of the Ghosts material, but my favorite NIN mode is "Funky Trent", so I'm just gonna save those for later days.

Don't think I'll have time to delve into the remixes. Might attempt a ranking of releases based on what I know, but at the same time, I feel like they deserve to have me live with them for longer than three weeks before I can assess them properly.

Hesitation Marks is really great, huh. Reminds me of Closer Musik at times.

Digging 'Memorabilia' this morning. I weirdly own CD2 of the UK version of the Closer to God single (one of the results of sometimes just buying some random thing you come upon when CD shopping in the 90s, see also my ownership of only the second CD of a Pere Ubu boxset) so I was familiar with this track, but I hadn't listened to it in probably 20 years at least. I remember also really liking this back when I got the CD (definitely the highlight of that CD single), I didn't know it was a cover back then, I liked what seemed to be to be a funkier version of NIN.

Ballot sent! Heavy on stuff from TDS which is always going to be the NIN album for me but there is just so much good stuff in the catalogue. Ranking ten albums and EPs was not easy at all!

I wish he would do some full on immersive genre-exercises, like [...] an all-out dance/club record

Out today is the Challengers soundtrack, mixed by Boys Noize.

Bad Witch (which I just listened to for the first time) was giving me real Algiers meets Blackstar vibes.

yeah that's a good description. blackstar was the main influence on it as is very obvious, it inspired reznor to play sax on a nin record for the first time

James Wooley memorial gifs (1966-2016)

https://i.imgur.com/utOLzlJ.gif

A man emblematic of 1992. Could be a member of Die Warzau, could be a member of Jackyl. Black bandanas, man - they fucking ruled.

When your rampaging angry chaos mob decides they absolutely need a keyboardist right fucking now, you must work together to acquire one.

https://i.imgur.com/QUOzLqX.gif

New Witchgang song today. Also, I just learned about Witchgang. And I hadn't even had a chance to listen to the Challengers soundtrack that came out on Friday.

lol i had no idea about witchgang but "nothing's alright" is so out of character for them

"timeless" and "runaway" sound much more in line with nin but i don't really care for either

really such an odd project

Ok I've got 15 tracks that could all be #1. Now what.

this is my latest version of a single disc fragile:

the way out is through
the day the world went away
into the void
the frail
the wretched
we're in this together
the fragile
just like you imagined
even deeper
la mer
the great below

maybe throw "the perfect drug" in between "even deeper" and "la mer"? and maybe "ripe (with decay)" at the end?

me, last week: god a nin techno record would've gone so hard
challengers soundtrack, one week later: *exists*

Roffle. Timing!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kp3MnugaPSE

ahhhhh

I’m gradually working through all the albums I hadn’t heard or hadn’t heard much.

Year Zero - I found the first stretch of this just felt too much like With Teeth part 2 (or like, Jake Fair let’s Touch Not The Cat) but after getting almost self-parodic with “Capital G” it suddenly gets… really good? “Rock Homogenic” seems correct and I am totally here for it 100%.

The Slip - this then reverts to being With Teeth part 3 but with less interesting sound design. When “Demon Seed” arrived I was like “oh cool this album is about to do a Year Zero style switch to being great!” but it turned out to be the last track.

*Jake Fairley’s

Also I think the only fantasy nine inch nails album I want to compile is Trent Reznor’s Beginner’s Guide to Gay Sex

finally caught up to Bad Witch. if you'd played me "Ahead of Ourselves" and told me it was a Brainiac song i would've 1000000% believed it.

last minute campaigning for the remixes poll:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ZT05Md0Fxg

the slip has the worst sound design of any nin release by far, it's covered in this ugly, cheap-sounding digital distortion and a lot of the sounds feel very 'default' otherwise

the rock homogenic thing on year zero mostly doesn't really live up to its potential to me, the songs aren't that strong

"the warning" and "in this twilight" are quite good but i doubt anything else will make my ballot

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEfOrECg6jI

remembering this grammys performance of "copy of a" with lindsay buckingham who is playing a very different part to whatever he does on the studio version (he's somewhere on it apparently)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h57Wg1Xa47Y

oh wow this one from the challengers soundtrack is neo-phm

xp: thanks for that! I had heard about the Trent/Lindsay/Josh thing, but had never actually watched it. That rules so hard! I actually came here because I just remembered that Trent provided backing vocals on the Queens of the Stone Age song Kalopsia, which is one of my favorites of theirs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jtPaHm6MEB4

Wow I love this Challengers soundtrack thank you for the tip

yeah it's nice, i'd love to hear the next nin album draw more on that. "yeah x10" is a clear lcd soundsystem nod

Man, finally sorting my ballots and this is ... not easy.

PHM's remaster does sound absolutely fire though. So happy to revisit these tracks without the tinny thinness of late 80's production

the rock homogenic thing on year zero mostly doesn't really live up to its potential to me, the songs aren't that strong

I find most of the songs on With Teeth relatively unmemorable too though.

In fact most of NIN’s post nineties work makes The Fragile seem much more hooky and populist (instrumental passages aside) than it was received as being at the time.

Even Hesitation Marks - which I think is mostly fantastic - isn’t so much about “good songs” for me.

(Obviously “All The Love In The World” and “Beside You In Time” are awesome, but even then a lot of that is due to their distinctive arrangements)

Probably 80% of my post-Fragile tracks on my ballot will be from Year Zero. With Teeth, The Slip and Hesitation Marks almost kinda fade into the background for me, though there's some pretty dope isolated moments on them.

i don't think with teeth is great either but the highs are higher - "all the love in the world" is going to be very high on my ballot

ballot sent.

oh shit it's time to vote!!!

i don't have very many ballots for being pretty close to deadline so are people wanting an extension

Can we have a day or two more?

How many ballots do you have so far?

i have 8 ballots. remarkably little consensus so far, i think results should be interesting.

how long do people need? until 12:01am gmt on monday?

i’m submitting mine today

An extension to Monday would be highly appreciated!

deadline extended until 12:01am gmt on monday then!

i'm used to most ballots being last minute when i run these but turnout's been low even compared to what i remember

I keep trying to listen to all the stuff I've only heard a few times in the vain hope of making the top of my ballot less TDS-heavy.

I have decided not to vote, but the existence of the poll has gotten me listening to a lot more NIN (and HTDA) in the last couple of weeks, so thanks for that.

please throw something together quickly if you can, the more ballots the better

The insane attention to detail on the production of Closer is making me rethink its place in my poll. Has there ever been a more self indulgent hit single than this song? Jeez. The noise and subtle distant mix of the ending piano refrain as faint synth line in the very beginning, the tape noise mixed with the beat, the epic epic coda with the whispered spoken word, it's all ridiculous and incredibly indulgent for something so catchy and memorable.

Picking 10 remixes is probably harder than picking 30 tracks though... eeesh

voted!

i abstained from remix singles, filed that in the too hard basket

also left soundtracks mostly off my ballot, again bc of too-hard-basket reasons

I feel there's too many good songs from NIN albums to warrant too much soundtrack work to place imho. Not even a Ghosts song is going to make my ballot.

Voted. My younger self would have been surprised at the #1 pick, but would understand.

undertaking this poll i will say i’m kinda awed by Trent’s output, now that i am surveying all of his work like this

so much beautiful music! it’s pretty impressive when u stop to think abt it

I've always liked his soundtrack work, especially the sadder more mellow stuff. Listening through some of them for this poll I realized that a lot of it really owes a huge stylistic debt to Thomas Newman - especially his 90s work.

i really love the version of Bowie’s “Life On Mars” he did for the Watchmen soundtrack

Same. I couldn’t not include it on my ballot.
Kinda bummed to hear the turnout so far isn’t so great. Hopefully it’s due to people being vigilant about giving his more obscure stuff a spin. I’m def glad I got aquatinted with How to Destroy Angels

yes i hope we get a flurry of ballots over the weekend!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cUaDMaCo8To

lol i had no idea this existed

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_7PFGUuckk

or this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zo7ONZlN5Zg

I had forgotten it existed, but the above video reminded me of it, this cover of warm leatherette is really good

Going through the NIN stuff between The Fragile and Bad Witch for the first time in a pretty long time made me realize I am just not much of a fan anymore. I am still going to send a ballot to take part, but yeah.. I've moved on.

:(

too much music for me to catch up on so i'm not gonna submit a ballot but planning on following along

I had moved on after Broken, but I found a ton of dope new (to me) music. The breakdown of my ballot:

Pretty Hate Machine - 8
The Downward Spiral - 5
Hesitation Marks - 4
Broken - 3
With Teeth - 3
Not the Actual Events - 2
The Fragile - 2
Bad Witch - 1
non-album - 1

...which is pretty heavily weighted on the earlier stuff, but as mentioned above, my list was originally something like 50 songs long.

Just sent in a very TDS-centric ballot

Going through the NIN stuff between The Fragile and Bad Witch for the first time in a pretty long time made me realize I am just not much of a fan anymore. I am still going to send a ballot to take part, but yeah.. I've moved on.

That stretch between The Fragile and Bad Witch was pretty difficult for me too and even though there were a couple of things I liked ok, nothing from that stretch made my ballot. I like Bad Witch though, so I'm cautiously optimistic about NIN going forward.

Going through the NIN stuff between The Fragile and Bad Witch for the first time in a pretty long time made me realize I am just not much of a fan anymore. I am still going to send a ballot to take part, but yeah.. I've moved on.

That stretch between The Fragile and Bad Witch was pretty difficult for me too and even though there were a couple of things I liked ok, nothing from that stretch made my ballot. I like Bad Witch though, so I'm cautiously optimistic about NIN going forward.

I was definitely fun being a teenager again while listening to The Downward Spiral

I've briefly unlurked to post a ballot and will be following this.

same here

I was definitely fun being a teenager again while listening to The Downward Spiral

*It* was definitely fun. No way was I fun as a teenager.

...which is pretty heavily weighted on the earlier stuff

My brother in Christ, if that's heavily weighted on the earlier stuff, my ballot is an absolute anchor, with only two songs on it post-Fragile. His career isn't nearly as balanced qualitatively as some of us NIN fans might have you believe.

Maybe it's the nostalgia talking, but Trent keeps singing the same songs (vocal tropes, melodic progressions) starting with the Fragile onward. I was cringing at more than half of Hesitation Marks' lyrics and singing, which sucks because it's some of the best production he's ever done. Really need an instrumental version of that one!

come on

Find My Way on Hesitation Marks is a huge example of this. He's sung those notes or that style on like a half dozen songs starting with Underneath It All on The Fragile.

However, OPN did a sick remix of it at least

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51xrIjki5dg

Most of my NIN friends feel similarly - and I understand if this poll sees things differently, as more people are submitting ballots from an outside/neutral perspective. I feel Trent's output took a massive hit as soon as he cleaned up. The agony, pain, desperation and darkness are NIN to me and once Trent moved on from that, so did the band imho. He's not the best singer and songwriter without the aggression and pain.

happened around 2001? i guess that tracks.. only 12/30 of the song on my ballot are from 2001 after.

I feel Trent's output took a massive hit as soon as he cleaned up.

regardless of how true this may be (impossible to ever know) it is always kind of a shitty assertion. i also feel like trent reznor would’ve never made another album after the fragile if he hadn’t cleaned up, so i guess that supports your point

we had a similar argument on the afx thread and it’s ok if you only like the old stuff bc that’s what you connected to emotionally at the time, bc that’s clearly what’s going on

yeah exactly

it’s fine to prefer the earlier stuff but you don’t just get to project all of that onto Reznor

i mean it’s the internet so you do but you shouldn’t and that is why we have to call it out for what is

trent isn’t the only one who went through changes in those decades! accept your own role in that shift and let a sober guy enjoy his creative life for ffs

I think it's less about him cleaning up and more about him trying to make the same kind of music in a completely different mindset. I think the reason Bad Witch grabbed me so much is that it was raw. It actually sounded like it was made by somebody who didn't give a fuck. He played the sax on it! I loved that. It sounded inspired and rushed out. His soundtracks and (especially )the Ghosts stuff often feel like unfinished ideas to me. The best of it sounds like a simple (and familiar) melodic idea built on and stretched out. The worst feel like unfinished songs he pulled off of an old DAT.

xp not all artists do this for me, though. Autechre's only gotten better since the 90's imho. Four Tet too. I feel they are exceptions. Most artists don't creatively survive middle age or have issues finding inspiration outside of the wellsprings that established their careers, regardless of the rosy nostalgia glasses their audiences might have for them. Trent's pivoted by scoring movies and honing his instrumental genius and has found inspiration there. NIN as a band and aesthetic concept never did.

you don’t just get to project all of that onto Reznor

I mean the dude cleaned up and his music after it didn't sound as good. The very themes that make songs like "And All That Could Have Been" so epic and beautiful just aren't there post 2001. When you make "pain" and your musical identity and brand it's challenging to pivot away from that and still connect with the audience that appreciated that when you're no longer "feeling" it in a genuine way. Nothing wrong with talking about this - this ain't projection, it's an opinion, you just don't agree with it. All good.

FWIW Year Zero worked incredibly well though imho because Trent was able to use a concept album as a means of harnessing the NIN aesthetic in a way that wasn't "personal" to him and it was the closest thing he's done clean that I really enjoy. The only music on my ballot post-Fragile is from Year Zero.

let a sober guy enjoy his creative life for ffs

Come on now - it's okay not to like a dude's music. He's enjoying his creative life just fine regardless of my opinion of his recent lyrical output omg, no need to be so defensive

cool it with the patronizing tone

but my issue is that you are framing this around a binary of addiction vs sobriety in terms of good and bad and that is a deeply fucked narrative

you are allowed to enjoy or not enjoy whatever albums you like but once you start critiqueing feelings as “genuine” vs non-“genuine” w/r/t sobriety i am absolutely going to call it out because that kind of thinking is misguided & is actually damaging?

and if you can’t see that idk what else to say

you are framing this around a binary of addiction vs sobriety in terms of good and bad and that is a deeply fucked narrative

But...but...how else do you explain Aerosmith?

(N.B. I disagree with octobeard's analysis because I've always thought 21st century NIN > 20th century NIN)

This is the beauty of a poll. Stoked to see what the results will be

but my issue is that you are framing this around a binary of addiction vs sobriety in terms of good and bad and that is a deeply fucked narrative

I hope you're not implying that I'm suggesting that addicts with pain and trauma make better music than sober people, that's absolutely not what I'm trying to say. Addiction and his lifestyle fueled a lot of demons that he channeled in his music (and the way he expressed this was how he connected with his 80's/90's audience), this is stuff he's discussed in countless interviews - I don't think anything I'm saying is that controversial, just a difference of opinion!

I think the reason Bad Witch grabbed me so much is that it was raw.

idk i mean this didn't come out of nowhere, not the actual events is also really raw and add violence is like an attempt to compose yourself in between two breakdowns... part of why i love that trilogy of releases

there isn't really one generalization i can make about his releases post-sobriety. i think they all take a concept as far as they can, except for maybe the slip (concept for which must've been "we need new bangers in the set")

and that's basically true of all of his work beforehand

i also don't think "find my way" has anything melodically in common with "underneath it all" and every artist recycles themselves, it's called style

i also feel like there's the implication here that ppl successfully shrug off their demons after getting sober and no longer feel the tension they once did when they were fucked up. folks, that ain't the case

if you *think* it's missing, that's fair, but... let me be clear, that continues to be a projection

exactly

i've found there to be a pretty clear hierarchy with nin: 80s/90s > 10s > 00s. there's still some worthwhile stuff from the 00s but with teeth through to the slip is the weakest run. he/they have been pretty creatively reinvigorated the last decade or so though

I think it’s fair to say that his work after The Fragile generally is most interesting to the extent that it pushes in different directions rather than seeking to preserve the feeling of his earlier work - even when those directions are basically diametrically opposed e.g. Hesitation Marks vs Not The Actual Events / Bad Witch (the former of which reminds me of the abstract aggression of post-comeback Wire; the latter just builds on that with added cabaret vibes rather than more rawness, I think).

But none of that has anything to do with drugs / addiction in my view.

basically every direction he's pushed in has been good except the slip & ghosts i-iv, just the execution has varied in quality

No love for Year Zero anyone??

i've found there to be a pretty clear hierarchy with nin: 80s/90s > 10s > 00s.

hard disagree with the 80s/90s. re-listening to PHM was shocking to me. it's so completely singular in their discography. reznor kinda laid down one of those kids books where you could choose your own adventure and the future Downward Spiral area of exploration won out.

Which part of the quote are you disagreeing with?

sorry - the grouping of the 80s and the 90s output. PHM just stands as an outlier.

I agree with that in some ways but also PHM / Broken / TDS are all so different from each other that grouping any of them together as a single era seems a bit odd. Much more continuity between TDS and The Fragile IMO

oh yeah i'm just talking about these periods in terms of quality, not saying each period is distinct stylistically. broken was obviously quite a major change from pretty hate machine, before the downward spiral reconciled the two. there's more continuity between tds/the fragile but the fragile draws a lot less on synthpop and is just generally less pop.

Hesitation Marks is sounding/feeling better than remembered.

I forgot all about “Everything”, it seems!

Add Violence is SOLID.

I don’t know if I gave the 2016/2017/2018 releases enough attention at the time.

I hadn't heard Year Zero or some of the other more recent releases and there was some good stuff, but it didn't really impact my ballot. I also realized that Funky Trent is my favorite Trent, and there's a lot of either slow plodding or rock & roll uptempo grooves. Also With Teeth really did bring the hooks.

How rad would it have been if the Broken tape had put Physical and Suck on an answering machine microcassette instead of just sticking them on side b?

can i just say that "suck" is an amazing song and cutting it from my ballot was heartbreaking

I haven’t gotten to the cutting stage yet :-(

with nin cutting is inevitable (terrible joek sorry sorry i’ll go now)

my ballot has a lot of hesitation marks

same lol

I forgot all about “Everything”, it seems!

This is my least favorite song by far on that album. Just doesn't even sound like NIN to me.

can i just say that "suck" is an amazing song and cutting it from my ballot was heartbreaking

It really is! My 2nd fav on Broken behind Happiness in Slavery. It is insanely funky

Just doesn't even sound like NIN to me.

which is why i put it high up on my ballot! it def *sounds* like NIN, but feels not so much like a NIN song for me. it was like the first time i heard Into The Void. it just didn't sound like the typical type of song he would write, and it was great!

What's the new deadline for this?

roughly 12:01 am monday gmt

Just want to say that I have really enjoyed trying to get my thoughts in order for this poll. NIN are in this sweet spot for me where I am deeply familiar with enough of the music that it feels worthwhile to try to engage with the process properly, but unfamiliar with enough of it that the engagement has also been a total voyage of discovery.

ballot sent and almost before realizing my selection pool had nothing from phm or the fragile.

there is still time for ballots for a bit longer still

So you can vote for this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mGaoMBlUbU

or this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLPcE-5YWKI

i think i'm still waiting on a ballot from western with bacon flavor, is there anyone else?

I just want to say thanks ufo for keeping this ILM madness going.

NIN isn't one of my bands but looking forward to the playlist.

xp you got mine - i was the jerk with "the frail/wretched" as one song

ah ok!

we have 20 ballots now which is alright. i don't think there's any outstanding?

ok poll's closed. rollout will be sometime soon but idk exactly when yet

how many ballots did u end up with??

oh lol nvm i can totally read i swear

I meant to vote in this, but just couldn't get it together in time. Looking forward to the rollout!

I was right *there* for NIN: into plenty of adjacent bands, danced to Head Like A Hole at various appalling indie clubs, and was friends with people who had the Reznor aesthetic in their bones (and on their feet) but the band somehow totally passed me by. Am here for the rollout.

the results rollout is underway!

And POLL That Could Have Been: ILM Artist Poll #119 - Nine Inch Nails - RESULTS

pic.twitter.com/5WYY3MQOmh

— 𝐌𝐀𝐋𝐄 𝐓𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐒 (@maletearsmusicx) May 20, 2024