Controversial Nine Inch Nails opinions

[chroipahtz]

I very distinctly remember people were middling about With Teeth and The Slip, at best. Everyone I talked to was like "cool. new NIN music." but there was very little gushing like there is with HM. Those albums are listenable, but they're not of the caliber we're used to from Trent, and the majority made their opinions clear about this.

Year Zero was a bit different, because of all the weird meta-stuff surrounding it, but that album seemed to garner more praise than the other two I just mentioned (and probably for good reason, since it's better realized and has less filler).

[Amaro]

Year Zero is Hesitation Marks vomit.

[Halo Infinity]

I think there are a LOT of people, here, who would disagree with you, myself included. And, it's not just about the "sound," it's about the whole package. Broken represents the definite audible SHIFT that happened to Nine Inch Nails after Pretty Hate Machine.

That's exactly what I was thinking, and I forgot to point that out at the time. I also don't remember the exact interview, if there was one, but I remember Trent saying something about wanting to go into a heavier direction after hearing how heavier the live versions of Pretty Hate Machine songs became. Something about being inspired by his live band.

Oh, and thank goodness for NinWiki: http://www.ninwiki.com/Broken#Inspiration

[ManBurning]

Great way to make yourself feel better by trashing everyone else, though.

With Teeth is more like a golden turd. Notice it gets left out of the set, except for the two huge singles...even Trent knows it.

Not making myself feel better at all here my friend. In fact, my initial reaction reaction to [With_Teeth] was it was one of the greatest records ever.
Now, whether that was the feeling I was just describing a moment ago where you just go head over heels with the fact that NIN is back to releasing music or not is something I cannot speak for as 2005 has come and gone and there have been many records since then. But my initial reaction to W_T was it was AMAZING!

Now, coincidently, I was actually working on another post in the "Rank the albums" thread. I ranked the albums in 2011 and then I thought, how about I quote my original post and see if my feelings are the same from 1.5 yrs ago. Now, as I was working on my new "ranking" I noticed something, my thoughts on the records changed, and that was only in the span of less than 2 years (Dec 2011 til AUg 2013). So it got me thinking, if an opinion on a record can change that quickly for myself, maybe it can for others as well.

Anyway, the point is... I wanted an accurate representation of my rankings and I was stumped with how to order 3 albums... [With_Teeth], Year Zero, and Hesitation Marks. So I went to wikipedia to look at each albums tracklisting and decided to make a list of how many songs I like on each album. While doing that, I came to a VERY scary conclusion. I only like 5/13 songs on that album!! So then I thought "You know what...[With_Teeth] IS GARBAGE... so I put a halt on my updated ranking of albums to go edit my post here and OMIT the fact I said [With_Teeth] was a gold brick... it is not... far from, it is a piece of trash.

See how fast an impression of an album can change? Just by looking at a tracklist. I thought that album was the TITS in 2005. Now, the question is... Why? Why did i think that album was so amazing back then? Was it the feeling of getting music from my favourite band again? Was I just young and my musical tastes have grown now? It is an interesting question...

So ya know, it's not me trying to look better than everyone here by saying that many of you may only be thinking Hesitation Marks is amazing now, i'm just stating that my mind of an album has changed before as time went on. Other way around as well, first few times I listened to the Fragile, I was not impressed. Coming off TDS, and getting a more relaxed, mellow, mature record like The Fragile is a hard thing to do. Opinions of an album can change with time, that's why I say I would like to have seen everyone initial reactions to the albums. People can say how they felt about the album, but if they went back and read a written log of a review or something they wrote back then, they might be pleasently surprised on how much they no longer agree with their original thoughts of a record as time went on.

Anyway, [With_Teeth] is crap. Going back to ranking my albums now...

[Christo]

I absolutely detest Alessandro's voice.

[GavinCollins420]

I absolutely detest Alessandro's voice.

:O

Ten characters

[chroipahtz]

I absolutely detest Alessandro's voice.

Oh no you didn't.

[BenAkenobi]

Alessandro is the best thing that happened to nin since Chris

[elevenism]

i LOVE the video for deep and i don't understand what's wrong with it.
I've LOVED that's what i get since i was 12 and i don't understand whats wrong with that either!

And i think i like YZ better than TDS. TDS was fucking GREAT when i was 14...15...16...and it's still fucking great.
but it kinda makes me wanna kill myself now...

[Khrz]

Well, mission accomplished then !

[EndlessLoveless]

With Teeth is not crap!?!? All the love in the world, love is not enough, the line begins to blur, beside you in time!?!?! Those songs are fucking unreal! Granted there are a few songs that are my least favorite, but the good out weighs the bad. I know everyone has thier own opinion, but fuck man, to say its crap...that means to me that there isnt one redeeming quality to it. And just the songs the line begins to blur and beside you in time alone, were well worth the wait and make up for the not so good tracks.

[Janus3659]

I recall lurking here back in 2005 when With Teeth came out. There was a lot of fapping going on. Seriously, it was almost awkward. I remember Sunspots especially had a dedicated thread with lots of admiration within. I remember Getting Smaller dividing the ranks - you either loved it or hated it.

I don't really get the With Teeth dislike, but I can guess. It's accessible and lacks a lot of the, IDK, industrial sound from most other NIN. It's a rock/pop album. It also attracted a lot of people who weren't previously Nine Inch Nails fans.

I personally love the album. I skip maybe two tracks when I listen to it (You Know What You Are and The Hand That Feeds). THTF got ridiculously overplayed. There was the Bush thing... I'm over it. YKWYA - I got no real reason I can point to but I've NEVER liked the song. Day one to now, even performed live. Just not a fan. Yet I like All the Love in the World. EDIETS really struck a chord with me at the time... even still today, I suppose. Love is Not Enough is forgettable but I'll still listen to it. The Collector is a good track. The title track took me a little while to grow on me, but now it is one of my favs on the album. TLBTB is fucking amazing. I love Getting Smaller. I love Beside You In Time and I REALLY fucking love Right Where it Belongs. Sunspots is a great song. There's nothing like a song with good build up. Only... I remember Only getting tons of praise when the album leaked and I got a copy of it and then didn't listen to it. I waited for my physical copy (three? I got the regular CD, the Dualdisc, and the Japanese Import... and the Vinyl. Jesus.) and I remember wanting to hear Only cause everyone on here was fapping away about it. It definitely wasn't what I expected. And I couldn't stop listening to it.

[Elke]

Dude, WITH_TEETH is awesome. If for no other reason than it marks the rebirth of the Treznor.

But seriously, that album has a lot going for it. Yes, it's poppy and accessible and whatever. I've never been one for too much TDS wank, and compared to that everything is light entertainment, inlcuding Hesitation Marks. The only song on W_T that I never really got was Love Is Not Enough, but I can still appreciate it as a solid song. It probably has some of the best lyrics Trent ever wrote (or definitely, if you prefer the glass half empty approach, the least bad lyrics), just technically speaking [break out the flip-flops to contradict that]. It has some beautiful sonic landschapes (the second half of ATLITW, Sunspots, BYIT, RWIB]. It has some stuff you can actually vacuum to, that doesn't make you want to kill yourself, like THTF or The Collector. It has some actual singing, which is always a bonus. It has real drums, played by Dave Grohl. Also awesome. It has Home (at least my version does), which is fucking beautiful. It has really nice artwork.

I guess it just depends on what your entrypoint was into NIN, whether you like certain songs or albums, or not. If you get hard listening to Fixed, W_T's probably not going to be it for you. But on the whole, it's not bad. It's definitely not a whole album of Deep.

[Amaro]

I dunno if it's because I've always been in love with the beat, or what, but Love Is Not Enough is an essential With Teeth track for me. From the moment I first heard it, till today. It's simple, and seething, Trent's vocals being a huge part of that. The production is ace too.

For you to go and take THIIIIIIIIIS...nnnmsmash it apart...

Love Is Not Enough factoid: It was the first song written for With Teeth.

Also on the subject of With Teeth--apparently a great deal of the album's songs (if not all?) were originally written on piano.

[Amaro]

oh nos double post

[Kyle]

It has some beautiful sonic landschapes (the second half of ATLITW, Sunspots, BYIT, RWIB]. It has some stuff you can actually vacuum to,

Mostly because of the vacuum cleaner solo in Sunspots.

[accelestar]

I *hate* Piggy. I always skip it when listening to TDS or any live album. I think it's such a boring waste of time that I get physically angry when they devote a spot to it in a setlist. I can't place exactly why I hate it so much, but I just find it far too boring and uninteresting to spend any time listening to.

[ninedead]

ok so i guess this will be a controversial opinion but it seems like 'While I'm Still Here (Breyer P-Orridge 'Howler' remix)' is trent showing us that he can still put out a song that could fit on TDS but he just doesnt want to haha. this is nothing against HM or any other album but this song is just so good and i wish we could get a whole album like this again.

[Krazy]

I *hate* Piggy. I always skip it when listening to TDS or any live album. I think it's such a boring waste of time that I get physically angry when they devote a spot to it in a setlist. I can't place exactly why I hate it so much, but I just find it far too boring and uninteresting to spend any time listening to.

Agreed. Outside of the physical copy of TDS it's deleted from everything else. The 'Nothing Can Stop Me Now' live version is pretty damn good though.

[kel]

"vessel" and "my violent heart" are completely unlistenable. also, "reptile" has always sucked.

and i would have LIVED for the briefly possible aaliyah-reznor collab.

[screwdriver]

I can't tell -- is it controversial to like With Teeth or to NOT like With Teeth?

I fucking love that album. Just speaking sonically, nothing else sounds like it and I think it gets ignored for how rad the production is. It merged garage drums, modular synths, piano, and super harsh guitars, and the whole thing works way better than it would if most anyone else tried that. I just fucking LOVE the way that record sounds.

Coincidentally, the songs that I'm really blasé about from that record these days are the ones he's still playing -- THTF and Only -- which are also the ones that don't sonically fit what I just described.

I think the lyrics for the most part are pretty fuckin' ok, with some clunkers (The Collector UGH) but also some moments of real crystaline beauty. I think there's something really raw about the fatalistic terror of YKWYA that gives me shivers, even though it's really 'simple' lyrically.

I can't really rank NIN albums, because they're so varied sonically it's a different day of the week thing, but I think this is an excellent entry.

[Butterscotch]

You know, I've only been here for a few days, and I can already tell that this thread definitely lives up to its name.

[steelnails95]

I love You Know What You Are

[pigpen]

People who say they can listen to The Fragile 100 times and hear something different in each track, each time are full of shit.
It's a great album, but come on..

[kel]

People who say they can listen to The Fragile 100 times and hear something different in each track, each time are full of shit.
It's a great album, but come on..

y'know, there are times i think it's immersive and great, but others it's just indulgent and almost boring.

[pigpen]

I wouldn't exactly call it boring, it's a beast of an album and to me wastes not a single moment.. It's just not the endlessly complex
record that everyone builds it up to be.
I actually can't believe it when I see people call it bloated and that it should have been cut down to a single record.. FOR SHAME!!!
There's never been an instance where I wished there was LESS nine inch nails material in existence..

[Leviathant]

People who say they can listen to The Fragile 100 times and hear something different in each track, each time are full of shit.
It's a great album, but come on..

So in the ten years that between The Downward Spiral and the 5.1 Deluxe 10th anniversary edition of The Downward Spiral, I probably listened to the album more times than there are days during that span. Figured I knew it front to back, and knew every tiny little sound that could possibly be on that album. And then the surround version came out, and at first I thought, there must be new stuff he added in here, since he had all the multitracks kicking around. And while for Big Man with a Gun, I'm pretty sure they re-recorded parts of that track, the rest of the album - all the 'new' parts that I thought had been added in... were there on my old CD, all along.

The Fragile takes that and multiplies it by at least fivefold. Have you ever inverted the phase on Just Like You Imagined, to where you can hear Mike Garson punching the piano keys, and the lower frequency synth buzzing that is otherwise unnoticeable in the thick of the mix? Or heard the flute in Starfuckers? The multitude of layers in TDTWWA - even if it's just tracks upon tracks of guitars and vocals, modulating in the stereo field.

There's stuff buried in The Fragile that you definitely hear better in high fidelity, that would be more audible in a surround mix.

[pigpen]

So in the ten years that between The Downward Spiral and the 5.1 Deluxe 10th anniversary edition of The Downward Spiral, I probably listened to the album more times than there are days during that span. Figured I knew it front to back, and knew every tiny little sound that could possibly be on that album. And then the surround version came out, and at first I thought, there must be new stuff he added in here, since he had all the multitracks kicking around. And while for Big Man with a Gun, I'm pretty sure they re-recorded parts of that track, the rest of the album - all the 'new' parts that I thought had been added in... were there on my old CD, all along.

The Fragile takes that and multiplies it by at least fivefold. Have you ever inverted the phase on Just Like You Imagined, to where you can hear Mike Garson punching the piano keys, and the lower frequency synth buzzing that is otherwise unnoticeable in the thick of the mix? Or heard the flute in Starfuckers? The multitude of layers in TDTWWA - even if it's just tracks upon tracks of guitars and vocals, modulating in the stereo field.

There's stuff buried in The Fragile that you definitely hear better in high fidelity, that would be more audible in a surround mix.

I'm not saying it's not there.. And you kind of illustrated what I was getting at.

[Elke]

"vessel" and "my violent heart" are completely unlistenable.

Oh dear me, if only I'd known that before, I'd have stopped myself from playing them both on repeat for days when they first came out!

*cough* Seriously. What's wrong with them?

[Sarah K]

I fucking love With Teeth. And all of PHM.

I want to violently molest Ilan.

HM has been super disappointing after the first couple of listens - this could change.

I agree with the earlier statements of Pilgrimage. I cannot fucking stand that shit. One time I may or may not have been under the influence of some weird ass shit, and listening to that song literally made me start gagging. It was one of the most fucked up experiences of my life.