cdm72's Full Review: Pretty Hate Machine by Nine Inch Nails
It was 1995, I believe, and I’d just bought a new computer desk. I remember that very clearly, the desk. It was my first new one since high school, a 3-piece set with a desk, a hutch, and a printer stand. My other purchase that day was PRETTY HATE MACHINE by Nine Inch Nails. This was not my first NIN purchase, that was THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL a few weeks earlier, and I’d heard nothing about it and was only buying it because Spiral had so impressed me. This was before every person in the free world had 24/7 access to every bit of information ever conceived, so at the time all I knew about PRETTY HATE MACHINE was that I didn’t have it.
I put it in and gave it a listen while my brother and I assembled my new desk. From the first song, “Head Like a Hole”, I knew I’d made a wise purchase that day.
Self-loathing is nothing new in music or any other form of entertainment. The Catholics have been doing it for centuries. I kid. Flagellate yourselves once for me, Catholics. But sometimes you come across that artist who says the same old thing, only with style. That was the case with Nine Inch Nails Ubermensch Trent Reznor.
“hey God
why are you doing this to me?
am i not living up to what i'm supposed to be?
why am i seething with this animosity?
hey God
i think you owe me a great big apology.”
For real, dude? That’s hardcore. It was 1989 when this record was released. Skid Row was singing about the Youth Gone Wild and how Ricky was a young boy. Motley Crue was kickstarting our hearts and Warrant assured us Heaven wasn’t too far away. Meanwhile Nine Inch Nails said, “I’d rather die than give you control.”
I honestly can’t say whether I would have dug NIN back in 1989. My focus was mostly Prince, although I did, and still do own, those hair metal albums mentioned above. But Trent Reznor’s use of what sounds like heavy machinery and industrial saw blades as the backdrop to his manifesto might have been a bit much for my delicate ears.
But time passed, I started writing horror and experimenting with pushing the boundaries of what was acceptable in the genre and what was just gratuitous tripe. And my tastes began to evolve as well. I found myself no longer satisfied with the same old romantic comedies or social injustice dramas being pumped out on the Hollywood conveyor belt. I completely missed the point of the Nirvana boom; I was never an angst-ridden teen and didn’t see the big deal. But that “Closer” video once THE DOWNWARD SPIRAL came out blew me away. I never could get a good listen to the song on MTV, but when I bought the cd and heard it I thought, “Wow, I didn’t know you could do THIS with music.”
From then on I’ve been a NINaholic.
PRETTY HATE MACHINE is the jump point. It’s where Reznor first begins to explore his themes of self-loathing and general all-around discontent with society.
“God Money, I’ll do anything for you.”
Indeed.
“You give me the reason.
You give me control.
I gave you my Purity.
My Purity you stole.
Did you think I wouldn't recognize this compromise.
Am I just too stupid to realize.
Stale incense old sweat and lies lies lies”
And what’s probably the most un-romantic, but undoubtedly awesome love song ever penned:
“well you've got me working so hard lately.
working my hands until they bleed.
if i was twice the man i could be.
i'd still be half of what you need
still you lead me and i follow
anything you ask you know i'll do.
but this one act of consecration is what i ask of you
ringfinger.
promise carved in stone.
deeper than the sea.
ringfinger.
sever flesh and bone
and offer it to me.”
You just don’t say that to a chick, man. But he did. Can’t say it worked; in all my years of following NIN, I’ve never heard of “Reznor and [insert significant other’s name here].” But it’s awesome nonetheless. Lyrically, at the time, no one could touch him, because he wasn’t just saying things in ways no one else was, he was saying things in general no one else was. Like I said, self-loathing was nothing new, but you can’t deny the sarcasm and pent-up frustration in Reznor’s words:
“shut up.
so what, what does it matter now.
i was swimming in the hate now i crawl on the ground.
and everything i never liked about you is kind of seeping into me.
i try to laugh about it now but isn't it funny how everything works out.
i guess the jokes on me.”
And it’s not just the lyrics-in fact it’s not even mostly the lyrics. Trained as a classical pianist, Reznor seems able to play just about anything he finds laying around and make it rock. Check out “The Only Time” when it sounds like he’s tapping on a light pole’s guide wire with a metal bar-not what he’s actually doing, as far as I know, but that’s what it sounds like. And it works. Like Prince before him-one of the main reasons I have such respect for him-Trent Reznor IS Nine Inch Nails, writing and performing just about everything that appears on his records. And given the depth and complexity of his songs, the myriad layers of sound you find with each listen, it’s all the more amazing that one man manages all that. Even if most of it is done with computers.
He has basically two emotions, rage (“Down in It”) or morose (“Something I Can Never Have”) and when he’s being seductive (“Kinda I Want to” or “The Only Time”), he does it with a wicked sneer you know you can’t trust because soon after he will hurt you. But he lays down that funky bass line and it’s all gravy, baby.
His guitars are gravelly and his drums are deep. His keyboards are crisp and melodic without being airy or too pretty. Always one to stay on top of technological advancements, Reznor is a brilliant producer, using just about every trick a state of the art studio allows without one note of it seeming out of place or over the top. Trent Reznor is a master, pure and simple. And PRETTY HATE MACHINE is only the beginning of his evolution into a full-blown entity in and of himself. With this simple 10 song release in 1989, Trent Reznor and Nine Inch Nails were about to start a musical revolution, whether he knew it or not.
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