Bands Whose First Album Is Their Worst

[tragabigzanda]

[epilogue]

It looks photoshopped. I photoshopped it. For the joke.

You should get dime to tweet that photo to Mark Hamill. Let's see if we can get Lament in Episode 9.

[epilogue]

Nine Inch Nails

Come on, there are like four other albums worse than Pretty Hate Machine.

Pretty Hate Machine is my favorite NIN album.

[tragabigzanda]

Top 10 maybe?
Hello Morning
Close Captioned
The Kill
Place/Position
Do You Like Me?
Latest Disgrace
Recap Modotti
Nightshop
Break
Life & Limb

I'd maybe bump Life & Limb for Epic Problem

[epilogue]

Nine Inch Nails

Come on, there are like four other albums worse than Pretty Hate Machine.

Pretty Hate Machine is my favorite NIN album.

While not my favorite, I think that's a perfectly reasonable opinion to hold. The drop off after The Fragile is pretty obvious though, right?

I would agree, yes. But I'm also a pretty casual NIN fan as it is. I'll defer to people are more experienced with their catalog.

[Kevin Davis]

I was a big NIN fan in high school but stopped relating to their subject matter and lost track of them for years. But a couple years back I had a 19 year-old employee who was really into them; he was the first kid who talked about the music of my generation the same way I talked about Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, etc. when I was in high school, which was a strange but satisfying thing (he told me I was lucky because I was around when "Razorblade Suitcase" came out -- I doubt that's something I will ever hear again). Anyway, after listening to him prattle on about the genius of "Year Zero" and "Hesitation Marks," I went back and dusted off some of my old NIN CD's, picked up some of the albums I'd missed, and had a short summer fling with the band again.

Reznor's lyrics speak to me less now than ever, but what I found myself appreciating in this second go-round that I didn't appreciate as a kid were the sophisticated sonics -- for as industrial and aggressive as some of his music is, there is a great deal of textural nuance to it. And I don't know that I'd have been able to really appreciate this element of Reznor's music without first having developed a taste for hip-hop, or certain forms of electronic music -- things that force rock audiences to consider what it means to create sound without a live band, and ultimately reach the conclusion that it's ultimately way trickier to compose music in this format than it is to get a couple guys together and bang out a few songs in a garage.

Listening through this lens, I ended up rating "PHM" pretty low (though not lower than "With Teeth," and I've never heard "The Slip"). There are some strong singles on it, but it does sound kind of chintzy by comparison, and like most of NIN's albums, the songwriting by itself doesn't carry it. Like Joey, I'm a pretty casual fan, but most of what I like about NIN was done better elsewhere.

[epilogue]

I haven't listened to a full NIN album in ... at least 5 years. The only two I ever bought were PHM and Downward Spiral. The rest I either borrowed or downloaded or streamed.

When I say PHM is my favorite, I mean it's the one I liked the best and returned to most often back when I listened to them at all. I'm sure I'd have a different take now. Maybe I'll throw it on one of these days and see what happens.

[parasolmonster]

Over the last few years NIN has become my favorite band. I'm continually amazed at the depth of the music. I can obsess over an album, listening to it for months on end and then come back to it a few months later and find new things that blow me away. There are so many songs that I don't get, that suddenly click for me a year later. For example, I hated Year Zero when it came out. I thought all the songs sounded the same and it was a mess. However, 9 months later I saw some of the songs live and it clicked. It's now in my top three. Now I go back and forth between The Fragile, Year Zero, and Hesitation Marks as being my favorite. Trent's modern lyrics really speak to me
While I can enjoy Pretty Hate Machine from time to time, for the most part I find the music to be dated and simply a starting point for Trent's growth as a musician. Plus I find the lyrics on that one record to be junior high level poetry at best.

[LoathedVermin72]

THERES ONLY ONE THING LEFT TO DO

1. TDS
2. The Fragile
3. PHM
4. With Teeth

5. who cares

[tragabigzanda]

[LoathedVermin72]

Apparently With Teeth is underrated

[Kevin Davis]

Over the last few years NIN has become my favorite band. I'm continually amazed at the depth of the music. I can obsess over an album, listening to it for months on end and then come back to it a few months later and find new things that blow me away. There are so many songs that I don't get, that suddenly click for me a year later. For example, I hated Year Zero when it came out. I thought all the songs sounded the same and it was a mess. However, 9 months later I saw some of the songs live and it clicked. It's now in my top three. Now I go back and forth between The Fragile, Year Zero, and Hesitation Marks as being my favorite. Trent's modern lyrics really speak to me
While I can enjoy Pretty Hate Machine from time to time, for the most part I find the music to be dated and simply a starting point for Trent's growth as a musician. Plus I find the lyrics on that one record to be junior high level poetry at best.

Is there a chance that you're my former employee?

[tragabigzanda]

[Kevin Davis]

The NIN record most in line with my current tastes is "Ghosts I-IV" -- that album is a real scenic journey, little vignettes that to me paint far more compelling micro-scenes than Reznor does with his melodies (which are often pedestrian) or his words (which sometimes plumb some pretty low angry-white-male depths). I find myself reaching for it often, and always hearing new things. After that it's probably "The Fragile," and after that we're down to cherry-picking favorite songs for playlists, though the occasional through-listen to "TDS" or "Broken" isn't out of the question...

[epilogue]

I've never heard Ghosts.

[BurtReynolds]

I always thought NiN was kinda corny, which is funny because I love Tool. But I feel like Tool was in on the joke.

[BurtReynolds]

It's probably just his voice. It doesn't match the music IMO

[epilogue]

If I was goin to rank the albums I've heard it would be:

PHM
Downward Spiral
The Fragile
Year Zero

I know I've heard stuff on With Teeth but I couldn't tell you what those songs are and I'm pretty sure I haven't heard the entire album.

Don't really remember much from Year Zero either.

[Kevin Davis]

"Year Zero" starts and finishes strong, but the (very long) middle of the album feels like bad modern-rock -by numbers. "Ghosts" is all instrumental (and two discs of it), but if that doesn't scare you off, I'd definitely recommend it. It's kind of Brian Eno meets modern day Mogwai.

[epilogue]

"Year Zero" starts and finishes strong, but the (very long) middle of the album feels like bad modern-rock -by numbers. "Ghosts" is all instrumental (and two discs of it), but if that doesn't scare you off, I'd definitely recommend it. It's kind of Brian Eno meets modern day Mogwai.

I'm all about good instrumental records. I'm always looking for new instrumentals.