Pretty Hate Machine

Trent Reznor is, of course, the voice and the creative engine behind Nine Inch Nails.

He debuted in 1989 with Pretty Hate Machine, a dark synth-heavy record.

After two EPs in 1992, Broken and Fixed, he released his masterpiece, The Downward Spiral, in '94.

It hit number two on the Billboard 200 and went four times platinum.

It was broken, right? And then they released Fixed and it's like, [laughs] But when I was first getting into Nine Inch Nails, I would almost never go to this EP.

I would always go to Pretty Hate Machine, which is their '89 album, or '88, and then can't remember the name at the moment.

But they were like my two.

It only took one listen of like one of the songs on this EP for me to go, "Oh, I've been missing out on this."

A hot and cold, on again, off again, I'd say.

[laughs]

So this and Pretty Hate Machine, which is their first album, are ones that I will always go back to.

And sometimes I'll, like, dip into With Teeth or, um, listen to a bit of Closer, which is, like, comes and goes where I'm like, "I've never-- I'm not in the mood for that."

song.

If I'm right, it was on Pretty Hate Machine, which was maybe released in 1989.

So if you want to dabble in the dark side of 80s synth, there you go.

Old Nine Inch Nails.

It's an EP from Nine Inch Nails.

It's a follow-up, their second major release, um, and it's, it's sort of the thing that's, that's between Pretty Hate Machine and The Downward Spiral.

And if you know the kind of progression of Nine Inch Nails, Pretty Hate Machine and Downward Spiral don't sound very-

Anything alike

... anything alike.

The Pretty Hate Machine is more of, like, a synth pop record-

Techno

... whereas by the time you get to Downward Spiral, it's got, I think it's got Closer on it.

Okay, some of my favorite albums were released in it.

Fumbling Towards Ecstasy, Sarah McLachlan, Nine Inch Nails, Pretty Hate Machine, 90s, Violator, Depeche Mode, 1990.

Damn.

Yep, yep.

Those were some fantastic songs.

But before that, I mean, Pretty Hate Machine, 89.

That's when

he first came to Knoxville.

Like this is from the Broken album, which I think is 1992.

But she also had Pretty Hate Machine, which I think is 89 or 90.

I don't remember exactly.

So it got a lot of play in our house, or at least in our bedroom.

Because prior to this...

It was literally just Pretty Hate Machine, Broken, and Downward Spiral.

Downward Spiral, yeah.

Which at that point, that's legendary album.

Let's leave pilgrimage and let's discuss the other, uh, yeah.

Um, So I put to keep, no, you don't.

not only is it like riffy and fun, but there's elements of it that remind me of pretty hate machine.

That's the, that's the song where I go, this could have just been right on pretty hate machine.