Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral
What I Used to Think:
A bunch of shrill garbage with no real musical talent ever being displayed. There is not really any musicality to these songs, they're just heavy noise for the sake of being heavy noise. Trent Rezner thinks he's a genius, I think he's a talentless hack. People try and tell me that this album shows emotion, but other than "Hurt" I wasn't hearing any. In fact, this was the most dull, emotionless album I think I had ever heard, and I thought Rezner was pretty damn pitiful.
What I Think Now:
Genius. Yep, once again, I've completely flipped a switch on an album. Just like "Loveless" (which I will not be writing one of these for), I started to hear the intricacies in every single dark note on this album. Some of these tunes are pure brilliance, including the popular singles "Closer" and especially "Hurt," which is one of the most powerful songs I've heard (and Cash's cover was miraculous as well). The album dips down into emotions and thoughts that most people will never understand, and for that I commend Rezner nowadays. I'm not sure if many people can understand the dark place that songs like "Big Man with a Gun" go to, which may or may not hurt the first impressions of many listeners. It's a difficult listen, and that's because it's meant to be that way. This is a record for the ages.
Was I Wrong?
Incredibly. But I'm not ashamed, it's just an album that does not cooperate with many listeners on a first try, and true appreciation comes through via repeated chances.