cdm72's Full Review: The Perfect Drug [Single] by Nine Inch Nails
Don't bother with this tripe. Unfortunately my professionalism in this matter prevents me from saying simply "Don't bother with this tripe" and moving on to the next review. So it is I must elaborate on just why you should not bother with this tripe.
The Nine Inch Nails song “The Perfect Drug” was originally written for and included on the soundtrack for David Lynch’s 1997 movie LOST HIGHWAY. I know the song was, at the time, for me, a huge deal. I’d been into NIN for about 2 years at that point and already had Halos 2, 5, and 8, the ones that mattered. I may have had Halo 4 at that time, too. What I didn’t have was a NEW NIN album, with songs I hadn’t already heard whether in original or remixed form. So when “The Perfect Drug” started showing up on the radio and, surprise surprise, MTV, I was all aglow. Surely a new full-length NIN album couldn’t be far behind, right? Right? Guys?
Right?
The lyrics weren’t the greatest (you make me hard when i'm all soft inside / I see the truth when i'm all stupid-eyed) , but it had this manic drumbeat and the classic obsessive theme Reznor does so well, mixing desperate love with bleak hopelessness. It hit the spot in a time of NIN-withdrawal.
On the heels of the LOST HIGHWAY soundtrack, you knew it was only a matter of time before the remixes hit the record stores. Thus was born HALO 11: THE PERFECT DRUG VERSIONS.
Or tripe as we’ve come to understand it.
Halo 11 contains 5 remixes of “The Perfect Drug” and I use the term remixes lightly. Naturally a good remix should be able to take a good song and drive it off into some unexpected directions, but I believe a hint of the original should always be present. When Phil Collins’ “In the Air” tonight was remixed with that dance beat several years ago (still not sure who thought that was a good idea), the tone of his voice and the lyrics was still present. The music was all wrong, but you could still detect a hint of a great song underneath. Not so with ANY of the Halo 11 “versions”.
“The Perfect Drug” is a desperate song, it does not require electronic dance beats. Not only that, it detests electronic dance beats. So bringing in 4 techno artists to remix your goth/industrial/rock song seems a little skewed to me. When I hear the lines “I come along but I don't know where you're taking me / I shouldn't go but you're wrenching dragging shaking me / turn off the sun pull the stars from the sky / the more I give to you the more I die” I don’t think of a rave with flashing lights and pounding bass, I think of sleepless nights and uneaten meals and crying into your pillow.
But Reznor, or someone, thought it would be keen to bring in a bunch of techno people (Meat Beat Manifesto, Plug, Spacetime Continuum, and The Orb) to add their own totally anonymous and absolutely pointless touches.
I’ve tried listening in different orders, 5, 3, 1, 4, 2, or 3, 1, 4, 2 5, but no matter in what order I play Halo 11, one song sounds like another. There’s no personality here, and that’s saying something considering there were 5 personalities at work (Nine Inch Nails is credited with version 3). And if it’s not bad enough there’s so little of the song present to give someone listening to it for the first time any indication whatsoever of just where this song’s origins lie, the original version isn’t even included on the disc. So if you’d never heard “The Perfect Drug” and picked up Halo 11 hoping to get a taste of this NIN classic and to see what awesome remixes were included, you’d be SOL. Instead, you’d put on the cd and eventually find yourself asking “What the fk am I listening to?”
On the bright side, you’d be spared that silly “stupid-eyed” line. Then again, you’d be spared all the other lines as well because the only lyrics included on Halo 11 (aside from one instance in song 2 where 3 lines are uttered) are “You are the perfect drug”. Over. And. Over. Halo 11 lasts 34 minutes and the ONLY lyrics are “You are the perfect drug.” That’s ridiculous.
None of the versions on Halo 11 are anything to comment specifically on; as I said, one sounds like the next to me. In fact, the entire cd sounds like nothing more than one extended dance mix. I have to look at the counter on my cd player before I even know I’ve progressed from one track to the next. Needless to say, I don’t spend a lot of time listening to Halo 11. Nor should you. Don’t bother with this tripe.
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