Head Like A POLL: ILM Artist Poll #119 - Nine Inch Nails

it took me a few years to realize how good it was

xp

I'm just listening to hesitation marks for the first time, 'everything' stood out as being almost like... the beatles?!?!? ('almost' doing a lot of work there of course.)

I owned every halo up to 11, then just stopped bothering, didn't even buy the fragile, though I'm reasonably familiar with it. maybe played the next two albums once or twice. I'll do my best to catch up over the next three weeks.

I have a sense With Teeth might be A-tier and just caught me in an awkward post-fandom stage when I was too busy listening to Can or whatever.

I'm going to have a lot of With Teeth tracks. I remember being really impressed by Hesitation Marks too but don't think I've heard anything since, except for an odd track or too that didn't leave much of an impression.

ivy’s five-point campaign for hesitation marks as the best nin album:

1. it’s the funkiest. maybe a side/meta argument i could make is that trent’s funkiness is what ultimately separates him from his peers in industrial/ -rock and -metal and is one of the reasons his music ended up being so successful. e.g. the sheer amount of space between the bass drum and the snare in “closer” and how it’s such a wide and unstable space it makes you want to snap your body in half from the intensity of the gravity

2. it’s the most minimal i.e. it does the most with the least. not that i’m looking for minimalism from nin (i am all about the brutality and anger being dramatically contrasted with the melancholic stillness and beauty) but what can i say it really fucking works when combined with the aforementioned funkiness, like watching a construction site come to life and breakdance

3. idk sometimes i can’t listen to the downward spiral or the fragile because they are consummate bummers, that’s why they’re so good obv, like the guy swam deep in the voidlike blackness of his own bullshit and resurfaced to tell us about it, and we recognized something in it in ourselves, and that very dynamic is the reason why i became a nine inch nails fan. but there’s something so much more I HATE TO SAY IT BUT mature about the way this album depicts the same feelings still following you even if they never quite take over entirely like they used to

4. prob the most instances of “this song ended in a very different place from where it started” on a nin album

5. i saw them twice in this period, first with gybe! and second with soundgarden, two of the best shows ive ever seen (obv, its nin). i took my mom with me both times. she got really into nin just from osmosis, a side-effect of raising a kid like me. they played “the hand that feeds” all the time on one of the music video channels i watched. it’s still her favorite song

But I'm curious where the three most recent EPs will end up.
Voting for at least 3 tracks from these. I like the post reunion stuff significantly higher than everything after TDS but pre breakup/pause. Tried With Teeth again a little while ago preparing to be pleasantly surprised and couldn’t even get through the whole thing.

“How the west was really won” from the Watchmen show is also top tier

the last three tracks on with teeth are really where it’s at

it took me a few years to realize how good it was

The thing about Hesitation Marks (as I've said before) is that all the advance singles kinda sucked as singles, but worked brilliantly in the context of the whole album.

Are Reznor remixes in the running? His remix of Curve's "Missing Link" is pretty cool.

i'm not really expecting anyone to vote for the soundtracks that's more just there if anyone really wants to include them because they already have strong opinions

reznor remixes of others/self are eligible for the remixes poll

the best track on with teeth is "all the love in the world"

bad witch is excellent and probably a top 4 release for me

Oh right, listening to Bad Witch now and it's ringing a bell, sounds fantastic.

the whole Year Zero remixed album pretty much rules imo

i was starting to figure out my ballot last night and my top 10 might be just Broken minus “Pinion” lol

Broken still goes, i love it so muchhhhhhh

i don't really care for broken beyond "wish" honestly

(recoils)

i enjoyed this comment on those kids doing a cover of Wish: “Fistbump… Thank god that little girl said Fistbump”

the dfa influence is so strong on with teeth it's pretty funny. "only" especially

Totally, so blatant but it works.

The Fragile: Deviations 1 > The Fragile imho, though there's a few songs that def benefit more from the vocals.

I feel I can play Deviations end to end with no need for skipping.

Years ago I made a custom mixtape of the Fragile I called "Center" (complete with outtro/intro editing to make it work as a fluid whole). Here's the track list:

The Way Out Is Through
The Day the World Went Away
Somewhat Damaged
Into the Void
Just Like You Imagined
The Fragile
The Frail
The Big COme Down
Complication
The Mark Has Been Made
10 Miles High
Pilgrimage
Underneath It All
La Mer
The Great Below

This would possibly be my #1. Also it was truly tough picking The Way Out Is Through over Somewhat Damaged as an opener. They're both perfect for that.

One last thing - while it's a remix, this is the best song to have been released since The Fragile imho, the Fennesz remix of In This Twilight

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8NzfJeaFgOA

with teeth is just kinda bland overall though. if it leant into the dfa thing more it'd be better - more dance-punk-y stuff like "the hand that feeds"/"only" would have been better, "all the love in the world" (although it's great as is) should have gone full piano house, etc.

though "all the love in the world" is still really great, easily the best thing there

xp I heard With Teeth many years after release so I didn't peg the DFA influence until the way Trent sings the title of the album in the title track. Then I started to notice DFA in many other moments on the album

year zero on the other hand feels like an attempt at making homogenic into a rock album

the sound design & drum programming are consistently cool but the songs aren't consistently there

you can really tell the slip was recorded in only three weeks, the sound design is unusually really rough and ugly, the arrangements feel like rough drafts

but there is some good stuff there - i'd forgotten just how catchy "discipline" is for instance

the fennesz remix of "in this twilight" is fantastic yeah

xp I heard With Teeth many years after release so I didn't peg the DFA influence until the way Trent sings the title of the album in the title track. Then I started to notice DFA in many other moments on the album

― Vinnie, Saturday, March 30, 2024 5:45 AM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

I’m curious if there was any influence - I immediately caught the JM vocal tick on the title track but With Teeth only came out a few months after the LCD debut.

Hesitation Marks is convincing me that I need to get fully caught up. It's really good.

gonna listen to the how to destroy angels record today for prob the first time since it came out

hesitation marks is way better than i remember, easily the best proper album since the fragile, though it isn't on that level. the songs are consistently the strongest since then and it's full of interesting textures. it's also unusually uninterested in being a rock album, besides "everything" which is goofy and doesn't quite work

I’m curious if there was any influence - I immediately caught the JM vocal tick on the title track but With Teeth only came out a few months after the LCD debut.

Ah, didn't realize that. But LCD's debut was years after their first single, so there was plenty of time for Trent to hear and incorporate Murphy's vocal tic. Or who knows, maybe they were both independently copying Mark E Smith

LCD would never copy anyone.

can i vote for halsey's "easier than lying"

production work for others is where i'm drawing the line and idk if there's really enough of it for a side poll of its own?

and yeah reznor obviously hadn't heard the lcd soundsystem debut when making with teeth but there had been that run of singles + other dfa productions, and i checked some interviews from the time and he's constantly talking about how much he likes lcd soundsystem lol

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5eIE9xpBH4

the dfa mix of "the hand that feeds" is nice enough too

if people do want a side poll for production work then i can do that though

Was relistening to TDS for the poll and wondered how many of us were introduced to that Eno ambient sound through “A Warm Place”

Or how many people were introduced to the David Bowie deep cut it cops?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xm2ciX0_UP8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EvmzwPiZzMM

if a how to destroy angels track makes my ballot, it'll be "too late, all gone"

So what's the verdict with At the Heart of It All? 100% written by RDJ, not a remix of any NIN song, just a contributed track. Beauty of Being Numb's 1st half credits the whole band including Trent, despite the latter half also being 100% RDJ. Latter seems like a "remix" or collab, but the former? Can we slot it in our song ballots despite its only NIN accreditation being its existence on Further Down the Spiral?

the first part of "the beauty of being numb" is derived from "mr. self destruct" so it's fine to include as a remix even though the second part is just an original aphex twin piece

i think that "at the heart of it all" can count as a remix too if you really really want it to, since that's what it was originally presented as, but not for the main tracks poll

"While I'm Still Here"/"Black Noise" is my new favourite NIN song.

otm

not an experienced nin-er but am planning to dive deep and put a ballot together for this.

anyone have the story as to why there are two distinct versions of phm on streaming services with different covers but essentially the same tracklist?

one is just the 2010 remaster iirc

are there big differences? seems kinda dramatic to do away with the color palette haha

remaster is much meatier but i love the thin depeche mode xerox sound of the original so i almost never play it

my ballot has a lot of hesitation marks

same lol

I forgot all about “Everything”, it seems!

This is my least favorite song by far on that album. Just doesn't even sound like NIN to me.

can i just say that "suck" is an amazing song and cutting it from my ballot was heartbreaking

It really is! My 2nd fav on Broken behind Happiness in Slavery. It is insanely funky

Just doesn't even sound like NIN to me.

which is why i put it high up on my ballot! it def *sounds* like NIN, but feels not so much like a NIN song for me. it was like the first time i heard Into The Void. it just didn't sound like the typical type of song he would write, and it was great!

What's the new deadline for this?

roughly 12:01 am monday gmt

Just want to say that I have really enjoyed trying to get my thoughts in order for this poll. NIN are in this sweet spot for me where I am deeply familiar with enough of the music that it feels worthwhile to try to engage with the process properly, but unfamiliar with enough of it that the engagement has also been a total voyage of discovery.

ballot sent and almost before realizing my selection pool had nothing from phm or the fragile.

there is still time for ballots for a bit longer still

So you can vote for this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0mGaoMBlUbU

or this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLPcE-5YWKI

i think i'm still waiting on a ballot from western with bacon flavor, is there anyone else?

I just want to say thanks ufo for keeping this ILM madness going.

NIN isn't one of my bands but looking forward to the playlist.

xp you got mine - i was the jerk with "the frail/wretched" as one song

ah ok!

we have 20 ballots now which is alright. i don't think there's any outstanding?

ok poll's closed. rollout will be sometime soon but idk exactly when yet

how many ballots did u end up with??

oh lol nvm i can totally read i swear

I meant to vote in this, but just couldn't get it together in time. Looking forward to the rollout!

I was right *there* for NIN: into plenty of adjacent bands, danced to Head Like A Hole at various appalling indie clubs, and was friends with people who had the Reznor aesthetic in their bones (and on their feet) but the band somehow totally passed me by. Am here for the rollout.

the results rollout is underway!

And POLL That Could Have Been: ILM Artist Poll #119 - Nine Inch Nails - RESULTS

pic.twitter.com/5WYY3MQOmh

— 𝐌𝐀𝐋𝐄 𝐓𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐒 (@maletearsmusicx) May 20, 2024