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

(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

yeah phm is forward looking but also of its time in a way i find kinda charming

because i've heard the main albums so often, i'm running through the ancillary material right now: the scores, the ghosts, the remix albums, etc. i don't think i've listened to ghosts v since april 2020, i remembered it being wispy and ambient with pretty, out-of-focus piano chords that sound buried inside of a looming cloud. it is that but it's also really great. ghosts vi is more of a hodgepodge, a soundtrack to post-apocalyptic video game that never got made

can we vote for "old town road" in this?

idk if i can separate "the frail" and "the wretched" - those two have always been one piece for me.

same

i never really like voting for covers in these polls - but his are so good i might have to make an exception. just off the top of my head there's: Life On Mars, Zoo Station, Metal (Gary Numan obvs), Dead Souls, Get Down Make Love... prolly lots more

Adam Ant's "Physical."

I like meat, aka BASS, so the 2010 remaster of PHM feels essential to me. I have the original on vinyl and never listen to it because it sounds too thin for my tastes nowadays

"old town road" can go in a production side poll if people want one (do people want one?)

I cannot stop hearing hesitation marks track 3 as "I came back home, ted".

not gonna listen to the trent/atticus scores exhaustively, just kinda gravitating toward the ones i'm most interested in or have seen the films of, but jeez they're all very good. my favorite so far is the one for the ken burns vietnam doc

bones and all was my favorite movie of 2022 and a lot of that was down to the score, which i didn't register was reznor/ross until the movie was over. of course there are a lot of ominous woodwinds that sound like a breeze blowing through a bag made of skin, but the chiming nylon guitar that the score centers around seems to create a portal to reznor's most open-hearted material. i am probably voting for "(you made it feel like) home"

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

I can't really overstate how highly I regard Trent/Atticus as a film composer dyad, I think their work will echo for decades to come

in what ways can you hear it deviate from anything they might have released as nine inch nails?

yeah, to me their scores always sound like NiN instrumentals, for better or worse. when I'm watching the TV/movies they've scored, I often wish they would go more outside their comfort zone - but maybe they have and I missed those pieces. Soul is the only one I remember feeling outside of what NiN might do

ok just scratch my last post, because I completely forgot about Mank. that was way outside of what NiN would do

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