Product Details

* Audio CD (November 22, 2005)
* Label: Rykodisc
* ASIN: B000BWHE6K
* Average Customer Review: based on 16 reviews. (Write a review.)
* Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,084 in Music (See Top Sellers in Music)
Yesterday: #999 in Music

Track Listings
1. Head Like A Hole
2. Terrible Lie
3. Down In It
4. Sanctified
5. Something I Can Never Have
6. Kinda I Want To
7. Sin
8. That's What I Get
9. The Only Time
10. Ringfinger
Editorial Reviews
Product Description
Rykodisc is proud to make PRETTY HATE MACHINE, the 1989 breakthrough debut from Nine Inch Nails, available again domestically for the first time in several years. From the opening shot of "Head Like A Hole" to the radio and club staples "Terrible Lie" and "Down In It," PRETTY HATE MACHINE set the stage for NIN to become one of the wolrd's biggest acts and is also responsible for bringing Industrial music out of the underground to a huge new audience. It is rightly considered one of the most important, groundbreaking albums of its era.
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12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
Pretty "Hate", December 21, 2005
Reviewer: E. A Solinas "ea_solinas" (MD USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 10 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)
Woe. Pain. Anger. Rejection. And some very catchy industrial beats.

Trent Reznor has become legendary for the sound he perfected in "Pretty Hate Machine," his exceptional debut album. Wrapped in catchy industrial beats and sizzling basslines, he exposes all the rage and pain from being betrayed. Like a bad breakup, it's raw and rough and painful, but there's a strange catharsis once it's over.

It opens on a high note with the ear-blowing "Head Like A Hole," which alternates between dark techno and explosive hard-rock. "Bow down before the one you serve/you're gonna get what you deserve... Head like a hole, black as your soul/I'd rather DIE than give you control!" Reznor snarls. And he sounds like he means it, too.

That mix of rage and bitterness permeate the songs that follow. Not every song is a rockin' ragefest: "Something I Can Never Have" is a sweeping, haunted ballad with Reznor lamenting that "I'm starting to scare myself." It's one of the most powerful songs on a hard-hitting record, and shows Reznor's anguished vocals at their best.

But the majority are harder, angrier songs with Reznor's rough industrial-pop, raw singing and sparse electronic beats. The second half does drag a bit, but is pulled back up by the explosive "Sin" ("You give me the reason/you give me control/I gave you my purity/and my purity you stole!") and hauntingly out-there "Ringfinger."

"Pretty Hate Machine" could, in a sense, be seen as a concept album -- a mapping of the painful emotions in a breakup. Okay, painful breakups are not a big deal in the musical world -- every cheesy popstar does them. The difference is, Trent Reznor does them with passion, genuine anger, and explosive music that mirrors the betrayed feelings.

Reznor gets much flack for his angsty songwriting and accompanying vocal style. But it has to be admitted that even when the songwriting is sub-par -- the rather whiny, it's-God's-fault "Terrible Lie" -- Reznor's rough vocals bring them to life in all their painful glory.

This is also Nine Inch Nails' most minimalist album -- no soundscapes, just the guitars and electronics. The instrumentation matches the theme of inverted love -- Reznor throws in some poppy industrial beats, which manage to be darkly catchy and gritty at the same time. Underlying all of this is some smoldering, twisted guitar and drum machines.

Explosive rage, betrayal, confusion and pain lie at the heart of "Pretty Hate Machine," an unforgettable debut that Reznor has yet to equal in pure emotion.

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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
Groundbreaking., December 6, 2005
Reviewer: Michael Stack (Chelmsford, MA USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)
Hailed as the album that brought pop sensibilities into industrial music, "Pretty Hate Machine" is a real breakthrough in its genre. Nine Inch Nails (aka Trent Reznor) constructed an album of pain and anguish, of a mood of loss and anger, or mourning. The arrangements are sparse, far moreso than Reznor's later work, and its a much more pop record than any of his other material, and its got its own unique charm to it.

The album succeeds best when Reznor keeps the backgrounds simple enough to really allow his voice to carry the work-- blessed with the ability to really invest passion into his singer, he excels at the morbid ballad "Something I Can Never Have", prodded gently by the mournful piano line and the fantastic "Sin"-- full of anger and rage over a straightahead beat, Reznor really cuts right into it and the results are nothing short of stunning. The infectious rhythms and the great delivery together with an irresistable chorus hook sink the song right in your head. Add to that a couple really great angry tunes to open the record up (the anthemic "Head Like a Hole" and "Terrible Lie"), a great wacky piece with a funky bass line that threatens ballad form even as it rejects it ("Sanctified"), and a couple pieces with confessional lyrics and great delivery ("Kinda I Want To", "The Only Time") and you've got a great record. In fact, the only thing on here that doesn't really work for me is closer "Ringfinger"-- it always seemed a bit lifeless.

One thing Reznor excels at is a sense of unity in his works-- "Pretty Hate Machine" is successful not just as a collection of songs, but as an album with a unified feel. It does drag a bit on the second half (although "Sin" is there to shake it up), but overall its a fantastic debut. Recommended.

A note for longtime fans-- this reissue is unchanged sonically from the previous release. Apparently, the goal was to get it on the market, not do some sort of deluxe edition. Hopefully one day we'll see that.