Album title: Pretty Hate Machine
Artiste: Nine Inch Nails
Genre: Industrial Rock, Electronica
Year: 1989
Label: TVT
Producer: Trent Reznor/Flood/Keth Leblanc/Adrian Sherwood/John Fryer
Chronological position: Debut album
Notes:
Album chart position: 67 (UK) 75 (US)
Singles: “Down in it”, “Head like a hole”, “Sin”
Lineup:
Trent Reznor: Pretty much everything
Review begins
Originally conceived as a set of songs he worked on while doing odd jobs in a record studio, Trent Reznor's music piqued the interest of record labels and a strong underground following ensured that, though his debut album did nothing chartwise, it became one of the releases of the year and gained him an army of cult fans. “Head like a hole”, one of the singles to be released from it, starts the album off and it's very synthpop, with thick buzzy synths, clicking percussion and snarling guitars. Reznor's voice however is nothing like you'd expect a Depeche Mode or Human League singer to be and owes more to the grunge movement I think than electropop. There's certainly a lot of anger there, whereas synthpop seems to be usually either not that bothered or just totally detached, that sort of robotic persona popularised by Gary Numan. I feel I may have heard this before; it sounds familiar.
I like the anger and aggression, the angst mixed with the danceable synthpop. The only thing I've heard comparable to this would be The The. Grungepop? Darkgrunge? “Terrible lie” is in fact really close to Matt Johnson's work, even the percussion sounds similar, and the idea of stopping everything but it while you sing the verse is totally Matt. Builds up nicely, but it's too derivative of The The for me. “Down in it” has a sort of rap feel to the vocal delivery with sharp guitar allied to beeping synths (samplers?) and a loud vocal chorus. Oh come on! He even uses the “voice on a radio” that Johnson used on
Infected. “Sanctified” has a great hypnotic bassline and really hits the spot. The snappier, angrier guitars work well here. I really like this one.
And this one. The dark, brooding, almost minimalist feel of “Something I can never have” is really special, and his vocal is tight and bitter but not as angry as up to now. Another standout I feel. Kind a lot of Numan about this, though with, you know, feeling. Dripping with it in fact. Excellent. The desperation in his vocal is palpable. “Kinda I want to” returns to the dance/rock with plenty of The The, though it seems to have something like a goat bleating in the beginning (Vote GOAT!), not sure what that is, but it rocks nicely. Faster and more synth-driven is “Sin” then things slow down in a crunchy, snarly way for “That's what I get”, with Reznor dialling up the anger to ten. Great blasting synths on this. Now hes really channeling Johnson as we move into the penultimate track; I can't believe he hasn't been listening to
Soul Mining, Infected and
Burning Blue Soul, but this is classic The The. Oh, it's called “The only time” and it sounds so much like “That sinking feeling” that it's really not funny.
The album then closes on “Ringfinger”, which is a sort of mixture of hard rock and dancy synths, a bit odd but not a bad closer. Nice piano line running through it and it's good to hear the guitars raging away even if they're a little in the background.
TRACK LISTING AND RATINGS
Head like a hole
Terrible lie
Down in it
Sanctified
Something I can never have
Kinda I want to
Sin
That's what I get
The only time
Ringfinger
Afterword: I'm just kind of shocked how similar to the music of The The this is, right down to Reznor's vocal at times. I hope he didn't just copy Matt. But given that I love The The, this is right down my alley so there's very little on it I don't like (nothing actually) and much I really love. A very impressive debut, but would be more impressive if I believed the sound was original. Maybe it is, but I've heard enough The The to know when someone is influenced by their sound to an almost worrying degree.
Rating: 