NIN: The Greatest Hits

[BRoswell]

Looked for a thread and didn't find one, so here we are. Trent announced that there's going to be a greatest hits compilation released in 2014, so that begs the question: what tracks do you want to hear on this damn thing?

I don't really have any suggestions since I imagine it'll somewhat follow the patter of the Definitive NIN torrent releases. One thing I would like to see is a greatest hits collection along the lines of Pink Floyd's Echoes. All the songs included get remastered and put into a proper, non-chronological edit with all the tracks flowing into each other. That would make it feel less like a greatest hits cash-in and more of a proper mix of songs supervised by Trent himself.

I also think a DVD and/or Blu-ray with all the videos they've done over the years would be a nice inclusion.

[Vertigo]

Well, I say this about every release, but multitracks to go along with them would be fantastic, and make it more worth buying for existing fans (who might be tempted to nab the two new tracks by other means). Love the DVD/BD idea, maybe it could be padded out with interviews about each of the CD's tracks.

As for the tracklist itself, rather than just picking out the singles (which could easily fill out the disc), it might be a good idea to throw some fan favourites in there too, like Leaving Hope or The Line Begins To Blur. Not sure about remastering them as TDS, PHM and (hopefully) Fragile will already have been breathed on, and I'm not sure any of the others really need remastering.

[eversonpoe]

and I'm not sure any of the others really need remastering.

i think any of the post-fragile albums are fine, but broken could definitely do with a good updated mix & remastering.

[cashpiles (closed)]

Greatest Hits compilations usually include one or two new songs. So that would be wicked if that was the case with this one.

[BenAkenobi]

Down in it should be on it, always loved that one

[ambergris]

Let's see...

1. Closer (the signature hit)
2. Wish (got a Grammy, hey!)
3. Happiness in Slavery (got one as well)
4. Head Like a Hole (the breakthrough hit)
5. Hurt (maybe the most popular NIN song)
6. The Perfect Drug (it doesn't appear on an album format, yet)
7. The Day the World Went Away (US top 20)
8. The Hand that Feeds (UK top 10)
9. Every Day is Exactly the Same (year-end nr. on US hot Dance, also Nr.1 in Canada)
10. Survivalism (also Nr. 1 in Canada)
11. Some token Ghosts track
12. Discipline (token The Slip track)

^^ Those are the must-haves


But in my opinion, there should also be:

13. Burn (the most prominent 'rare' song?)
14. Deep (of course!)
15. That Tetsuo Song (the most recent NIN production?)
16. some random song because there's one slot left (Sin, or March of the Pigs, or Starfuckers Inc., or even I'm Afraid of Americans?) Edit: No wait, Leaving Hope!
17. a new song (please?)
18. a new song (pretty please?)
19. That's What I Get (no, that was a joke)

[seasonsinthesky]

err, two new songs are confirmed for the release. it was right in the announcement, people.

they're gonna have to leave off some singles to make room for them. as it stands, a chronological mix of all the singles hits a full single CD runtime (~78 mins):
Head Like a Hole (Clay, one assumes)
Down in It
Sin (one of the single versions, probably Short)
Wish
Happiness in Slavery (edit?)
March of the Pigs
Closer (full length or possibly the radio edit)
Hurt (quiet?)
The Perfect Drug (complete version, i hope)
The Day the World Went Away (single version?)
We're in This Together (radio edit?)
Starfuckers, Inc. (either the Halo 13 version or "Starsuckers"?)
The Hand That Feeds
Only
Every Day is Exactly the Same (radio version? it's better than the original anyway...)
Survivalism
Discipline

and that's leaving off Into the Void, too. so either a few will be dropped (probably Sin and maybe Discipline? it wasn't on Interscope, right?) or this is going to be split across discs. it'd be cool to have this as the main disc and have a bonus disc with the new songs and outtakes and b-sides. good place for Not So Pretty Now and Non-Entity, at least.

and a music video collection would be awesome, especially if it has treats like the Into the Void alternate video and the Mark Pellington WITT!

[Blackbookpress1984]

Seeing as all of this is speculation, I would love to see some some sort of dexlue packagin that includeds more then just 2 cds worth of material and some digital content. A book would be really nice. (Choeed & cambria did thei when they released the neverender set) and they will do a nother book when the 2nd part of the new album comes out.

The book could include scans of orrigional lyrics sheets, maybe some sort of duccumentation of the artwork for the covers and a short descripton of how the songs came to be. Also, being that its going to be released in the year that marks 25 years for the band, a brief history and maybe some photo doccumentation could round out the package nicely.

What do I think they will actually realease? Mayeb a doubel disc set, or a dvd/ dvd/blu ray set with the standard saong in audio or maybe music videos. I really dont see them puching the envelope too much on this in terms of packaing due to the fact that its only going to be old material with 2 new songs.

Time will tell I guess.

But whatever it is, I know I will be picking one up.

[gorast]

I don't think we'll be seeing anything from The Slip on this one since it's an Interscope compilation, so Discipline and Echoplex (and most likely Tetsuo) are out. And there's no way Ghosts would've made it on anyway.

I'd like to see maybe half of the album be composed of obligatory hit singles (Head Like a Hole, Hurt, Closer, etc.), with the other half being non-singles that Trent is particularly proud of (maybe La Mer, Leaving Hope, In This Twilight/Zero-Sum, Reptile, make sure all the TVT/Interscope records are accounted for) and of course the two new tracks.

I forgot that 2014 is another anniversary year, so hopefully we'll get a cool DVD with some sort of featurette about NIN and all the music videos. Just as long as Interscope doesn't pull that "eight million versions of the same album" bullshit. I'd buy all of them anyway, but I hope that doesn't happen.

[[Shep]]

1. Starfuckers Inc. Vers 1
2. New Song 1
3. Ringfinger
4. Starfuckers Inc. Vers 2
5. New Song 2
6. Broken tracks 7 - 97
7. Starfuckers Inc. Vers 3

I Fail to see how this could be improved upon.

[Warped_Savant]

[Shep] -- There's a couple of other mixes of Starfuckers you could add in; just for good measure, of course.

[piggy]

While it would be a real shame to leave off any PHM tracks, a compilation covering only the Interscope years would probably be something like this:

Wish
Happiness In Slavery
March of The Pigs
Closer
Hurt
The Perfect Drug
The Day The World Went Away
We're In This Together
Into The Void
Starfuckers, Inc.
The Hand That Feeds
Only
Every Day Is Exactly The Same
Survivalism
Capital G
New Song
New Song

Various edits would probably have to be used (especially for WITT) in order to make room for the new tracks, or else one of the tracks chopped. And a second disc of random rarities would be cool.

[gorast]

I completely forgot that Interscope doesn't own the PHM tracks. That sucks. Maybe they'll work out a deal with Bicycle to have one or two tracks on the album, if they care enough.

[sheepdean]

I'm sure PHM, Ghosts and The Slip will feature, if Interscope only has one Greatest Hits in their contract, they're not gonna fuck it up and leave off Head Like A Hole, the grammy-nominated 36 Ghosts and Discipline.

[BenAkenobi]

PHM songs as live recordings may be a valid workaround, i guess

[cashpiles (closed)]

Head Like A Hole
Down In It
Sin or Terrible Lie

Wish
Last

Burn

Heresy
March Of The Pigs
Closer
Hurt

The Perfect Drug

The Day The World Went Away
We're In This Together
Into The Void
Starfuckers, Inc.

Deep

The Hand That Feeds
Only

Survivalism
My Violent Heart

Discipline



(this list doesn't all my personal favorites..although all of the songs included are personal favorites.)

[WorzelG]

I'm sure PHM, Ghosts and The Slip will feature, if Interscope only has one Greatest Hits in their contract, they're not gonna fuck it up and leave off Head Like A Hole, the grammy-nominated 36 Ghosts and Discipline.

was it 36? I thought it was 34

[sleepless]

34 Ghosts was nominated for Best Rock Instrumental Performance at the 2009 Grammys

[sheepdean]

There are 38 of the damn things, I can't remember which numbers are which

[ghostaustin]

I like the "Echoes" idea of having the tracks remastered and reordered. I could see whatever he comes up with for that being padded at the front and back by the two new songs.


edit: or start the compilation with My Violent Heart. I love starting mixes/playlists with that song. But I highly doubt Interscope would go for that.

[gorast]

There are 38 of the damn things, I can't remember which numbers are which

But 34's like the best one, that's the one I always remember

[wizfan]

It would be funny if there were snippets of less well-known songs or remixes here and there. Remember how The Fragile CD had a portion of Ten Miles High? Imagine Happiness in Slavery having a portion of Screaming Slave at the end.

No, wait, that would suck.

[MrSlfDstruct]

I thought it was cool that Slipknot mixed in live versions of songs in their greatest hits release to make it something a little different than a straight up collection of songs every fan already has. Maybe something like that (maybe even Now I'm Nothing/Terrible Lie), even though there is already a lot of live material available.

In some ways the internet kind of sucks . Much fewer surprises available these days.

[botley]

The way the music industry's been treating reissue/catalogue releases lately, you can bet there'll be several different formats. One-disc standard digipak, deluxe gatefold with bonus CD, deluxe box set with DVD, heavyweight vinyl... hopefully one of these is actually worth buying.

[AgentofChaos]

Now I'm Nothing and Homme Year Zero track are the two "new" songs I think that need to be on there. Even if Now I'm Nothing was recorded during the NINJA era, or even now, that's totally cool with me as long as it's producted to mash up with TL.

Now I'm Nothing
Terrible Lie
Ruiner
The Day The World Went Away
The Fragile
Piggy
March of the Pigs
Wish
Closer
The Hand That Feeds
Something I Can Never Have
The Perfect Drug
YZ Homme
Happiness in Slavery
We're in this Together
Hurt
Head Like a Hole

[sheepdean]

It'd be nice if Theme for Tetsuo and Zoo Station were on there actually, because for a casual listener those are impossible to get.

And I think that's what's important to remember, this album is not for us, not for a single person on this board. It's for people who kinda like that fuck you like an animal song, or want to hear who did Hurt originally. It's a gateway to the band, and so putting on songs that aren't either singles or quickly accessible just won't be fruitful.

Unless it's some huge, 4 disc compilation because Trent can't choose which ones to put on.

[jmtd]

I'm pretty confident TR will put out a quality product, no matter the disdain/circumstances for its release. If he didn't care he'd have pumped it out already. So that's good.

I don't think random tracks like Zoo station and Tetsuo belong on a "greatest hits", personally.

[jessamineny]

I have a feeling that TR doesn't despise Interscope anywhere near as much as some of you think he does.

And I suspect that he has way more respect for his fans (longtime, casual or future) than all of this "what-two-old-songs-can-secretly-qualify-as-two-new-songs" speculation would entail.

I also think he and the record label would absolutely like to sell one of those greatest hits albums to every single one of us on this board. Why wouldn't you try to at least entice a built-in customer base?

I think two new songs... means two new songs.

[tracksfade]

we're probably not going to expect too much from this release other than useless redundancy, perhaps why trent's dreading putting this release out. with that i hope it's concise and to the point, less filler.

[now i'm nothing] ??
head like a hole
survivalism
down in it
wish
the hand that feeds
discipline
march of the pigs
closer
every day is exactly the same
sin
only
the perfect drug
we're in this together
hurt

i also wonder if trent would consider putting out a second disk showing off his personal remixes? i mean, what's a proper nin release without some form of construction/deconstruction?

closer to god
art of self destruction, part one
head like a hole (opal)
the day the world went away (quiet)
right where it belongs v2
the perfect drug (nin remix)
slipping away
all the pigs, all lined up
happiness in slavery (fixed version)
[the new flesh (tfa.com version)] ??

as for the new tracks, something to round off the past 20+ years for the fans, a studio release of 'now i'm nothing', and maybe even the remix of 'the new flesh' from tfa.com?? one can hope...

[sheepdean]

I wonder if Interscope will press for a deluxe version?