Nine Inch Nails - Pretty Hate Machine
|
Our Price: $13.98 Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Buy Used: from $2.88 (click here) Category: Music CD See more new music releases 
|
|---|
Buy this Music CD at online store in your country
Canadian Music Store
Canadian Music Store
Free Music Notes for Pretty Hate Machine
Free Music Review: Pretty "Hate"
Hit: 5 Stars
Woe. Pain. Anger. Rejection. And some very catchy industrial beats.
Trent Reznor has become legendary for the sound he perfected in "Pretty Hate Machine," his exceptional debut album. Wrapped in catchy industrial beats and sizzling basslines, he exposes all the rage and pain from being betrayed. Like a bad breakup, it's raw and rough and painful, but there's a strange catharsis once it's over.
It opens on a high note with the ear-blowing "Head Like A Hole," which alternates between dark techno and explosive hard-rock. "Bow down before the one you serve/you're gonna get what you deserve... Head like a hole, black as your soul/I'd rather DIE than give you control!" Reznor snarls. And he sounds like he means it, too.
That mix of rage and bitterness permeate the songs that follow. Not every song is a rockin' ragefest: "Something I Can Never Have" is a sweeping, haunted ballad with Reznor lamenting that "I'm starting to scare myself." It's one of the most powerful songs on a hard-hitting record, and shows Reznor's anguished vocals at their best.
But the majority are harder, angrier songs with Reznor's rough industrial-pop, raw singing and sparse electronic beats. The second half does drag a bit, but is pulled back up by the explosive "Sin" ("You give me the reason/you give me control/I gave you my purity/and my purity you stole!") and hauntingly out-there "Ringfinger."
"Pretty Hate Machine" could, in a sense, be seen as a concept album -- a mapping of the painful emotions in a breakup. Okay, painful breakups are not a big deal in the musical world -- every cheesy popstar does them. The difference is, Trent Reznor does them with passion, genuine anger, and explosive music that mirrors the betrayed feelings.
Reznor gets much flack for his angsty songwriting and accompanying vocal style. But it has to be admitted that even when the songwriting is sub-par -- the rather whiny, it's-God's-fault "Terrible Lie" -- Reznor's rough vocals bring them to life in all their painful glory.
This is also Nine Inch Nails' most minimalist album -- no soundscapes, just the guitars and electronics. The instrumentation matches the theme of inverted love -- Reznor throws in some poppy industrial beats, which manage to be darkly catchy and gritty at the same time. Underlying all of this is some smoldering, twisted guitar and drum machines.
Explosive rage, betrayal, confusion and pain lie at the heart of "Pretty Hate Machine," an unforgettable debut that Reznor has yet to equal in pure emotion.
Free Music Review: Sixteen years and the legacy lives on.
Hit: 4 Stars
It's hard to believe that the original edition of Nine Inch Nails' first album has gone out of print. Even bigger shame is just finding out that the Rykodisc reissue was going to be remastered in 5.1 audio with new packaging and extra tracks added in, all by Trent Reznor himself. But he wanted a paycheck out of it that Rykodisc wasn't willing to cough up. So that's officially defunct, and to much dismay.
Still, the album stands as a modern masterpiece. Every track is stellar mayhem, and the fine craftsmanship is mesmerizing. No track feels out of place. "Something I Can Never Have" is the true standout track, as it's the slowest, moodiest song on the album. "Pretty Hate Machine", as a whole, evokes a certain feeling, as if it's the soundtrack to some beautiful, twisted dream. It's best described as a party album having some sort of psychotic episode. The dark, chaotic synth-pop stylings of this landmark industrial record work perfectly in making you bang your head while maintaining a definite atmosphere throughout.
As delicious as this entire record is, it's just missing something. More specifically, it's missing the tracks "Purest Feeling" and "Maybe Just Once", two stellar tracks that were on the original demo (entitled "Purest Feeling" and available on eBay as well as the Limewire file-sharing service). I don't know why Mr. Reznor didn't include them on "Pretty Hate Machine", as they would've completed the recipe to one mind-blowing album. But oh well, I guess.
Free Music Review: An Incredible Display of Brilliance
Hit: 5 Stars
This is one of the primary influences that changed 80's music into the 90's, and the 90's into today. This is Trent's first official album, and is very ballad influenced. This is his most mesmerizing set of darkness, wonder, anguish and love. If you have never bought a NIN CD before, even though this is an outstanding album, start with the Downward Spiral. The Downward Spiral is harder and more complicated, but if you go from that album to this album, you will understand it better. If you have Downward Spiral, and want to see Trent's original ballad type style, buy this album.
DM
Free Music Review: Groundbreaking.
Hit: 4 Stars
Hailed as the album that brought pop sensibilities into industrial music, "Pretty Hate Machine" is a real breakthrough in its genre. Nine Inch Nails (aka Trent Reznor) constructed an album of pain and anguish, of a mood of loss and anger, or mourning. The arrangements are sparse, far moreso than Reznor's later work, and its a much more pop record than any of his other material, and its got its own unique charm to it.
The album succeeds best when Reznor keeps the backgrounds simple enough to really allow his voice to carry the work-- blessed with the ability to really invest passion into his singer, he excels at the morbid ballad "Something I Can Never Have", prodded gently by the mournful piano line and the fantastic "Sin"-- full of anger and rage over a straightahead beat, Reznor really cuts right into it and the results are nothing short of stunning. The infectious rhythms and the great delivery together with an irresistable chorus hook sink the song right in your head. Add to that a couple really great angry tunes to open the record up (the anthemic "Head Like a Hole" and "Terrible Lie"), a great wacky piece with a funky bass line that threatens ballad form even as it rejects it ("Sanctified"), and a couple pieces with confessional lyrics and great delivery ("Kinda I Want To", "The Only Time") and you've got a great record. In fact, the only thing on here that doesn't really work for me is closer "Ringfinger"-- it always seemed a bit lifeless.
One thing Reznor excels at is a sense of unity in his works-- "Pretty Hate Machine" is successful not just as a collection of songs, but as an album with a unified feel. It does drag a bit on the second half (although "Sin" is there to shake it up), but overall its a fantastic debut. Recommended.
A note for longtime fans-- this reissue is unchanged sonically from the previous release. Apparently, the goal was to get it on the market, not do some sort of deluxe edition. Hopefully one day we'll see that.
Free Music Review: What's the point!
Hit: 1 Stars
No bonus tracks, or remastering. Trent Reznor, where are you at re-releasing this?