Pretty Hate Machine

Pretty Hate Machine
Studio album by Nine Inch Nails
Released	October 20, 1989
Recorded	Right Track, Cleveland; Blackwing & Roundhouse, London; Unique, New York City; Synchro Sound, Boston
Genre	Industrial rock, synthpop
Length	48:50
Label	TVT
Producer	Trent Reznor, Flood, Adrian Sherwood, Keith LeBlanc, John Fryer
Professional reviews
Allmusic [1] The Boston Globe (favorable)[2] Chicago Tribune [3] CMJ (favorable)[4] Los Angeles Times (favorable)[5] New York Times (favorable)[6] Pitchfork Media (5.6/10)[7] Q [8] Rolling Stone [9] Washington Post (favorable)[10]
Nine Inch Nails chronology
Pretty Hate Machine (1989) Broken (1992)

Pretty Hate Machine is the debut album of American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails, released in 1989 by TVT Records. The album was out of print from around 1997 to 2005 due to the much publicized falling out between Nine Inch Nails's sole member, Trent Reznor, and the original publishing label of the album, TVT Records. Rykodisc remastered the album and re-released it around the world in 2005, effectively putting the album back into print. Pretty Hate Machine is compiled of tracks from the Purest Feeling demo, as well as tracks recorded after the Purest Feeling recording. The album spawned three singles, the most successful being "Head Like a Hole", which has become a staple in Nine Inch Nails live performances.

History

Working nights at Right Track Studio as a handyman and janitor,^[1] Trent Reznor used studio "down time" to record and develop his own music. Playing most of the keyboards, drum machines, guitars, and samplers himself, he recorded a demo. The sequencing was done on a Macintosh Plus.^[11]

Teaming up with manager John A. Malm, Jr., they sent the demo to various record labels. Reznor received serious offers from many of them, but eventually signed a deal with TVT Records who, until then, were known mainly for releasing novelty and television jingle records. An early effort called The Industrial Nation was rejected by TVT.^[12] This led Reznor to take tracks from the denied earlier works and form Pretty Hate Machine, which was recorded in various studios around the world with Reznor collaborating with some of his most idolized producers: Flood, Keith LeBlanc, Adrian Sherwood, and John Fryer. Much like his recorded demo, Trent Reznor refused to record the album with a conventional band, recording Pretty Hate Machine mostly by himself.

Released on October 20, 1989, the album was a critical and commercial success, receiving radio airplay for the singles "Down in It", "Head Like a Hole" and "Sin". "Terrible Lie" and "Something I Can Never Have" also received moderate airplay along with the three lead singles.^{[citation needed]} Pretty Hate Machine also gained popularity through word-of-mouth and developed an underground following. Reznor quickly hired a band for touring with The Jesus and Mary Chain, including guitarist and future Filter frontman Richard Patrick. Nine Inch Nails' live set during the time was known for louder, more aggressive versions of the studio songs, and also for destroying their instruments at the end. Reznor preferred using the heel of his boots to strip the keys from expensive keyboards, most notably the Yamaha DX7.^{[citation needed]}

Since the album was released, a recording known as Purest Feeling surfaced. This bootleg album contains the original demo recordings of most of the tracks found on Pretty Hate Machine, as well as a couple that were not used ("Purest Feeling", "Maybe Just Once" and instrumental intro to "Sanctified" called "Slate").^{[citation needed]}

Pretty Hate Machine went out of print through TVT Records, but was reissued by Rykodisc Records on November 22, 2005 with slight changes in the packaging. Reznor had expressed an interest in creating a "deluxe edition" with surround sound remastering and new/rare remixes, similar to the re-release of The Downward Spiral. Rykodisc liked the idea, but not enough to pay Reznor to do so.^[13]

Track listing

All songs written and composed by Trent Reznor. 

Packaging and liner notes

Some of the lyrics printed in the booklet are not heard in the songs.

The bands listed in the liner notes (Prince, Jane's Addiction and Public Enemy, amongst others) were sampled on the album. Parts of Prince's "Alphabet St." and Jane's Addiction's "Had a Dad" are prominently heard in "Ringfinger", while other samples were either edited or distorted to be unrecognizable, such as the intro to "Kinda I Want To".

Argentinian pressings of this album have Trent Reznor's name misprinted as Trent Rezbor and John Fryer's name misprinted as John Fruyer.^{[citation needed]}

Chart history

Album

Singles

Personnel

• Trent Reznor – vocals, arranger, programming, producer, engineer, digital editing, mixing
• Doug d'Angelis – engineer
• Tony Dawsey – mastering
• Flood – programming, producer, engineer
• John Fryer – producer, engineer, mixing
• Kennan Keating – engineer
• Keith LeBlanc – producer, engineer, remixing, mixing
• Richard Patrick – guitar (droning guitar sound at the end of "Sanctified")
• Ken Quartarone – engineer
• Adrian Sherwood – producer, engineer, mixing
• Jeffrey Silverthorne – photography
• Gary Talpas – cover design
• Chris Vrenna – programming, digital editing

Notes

References

• Nathan Brackett, Christian Hoard (2004). The New Rolling Stone Album Guide: Completely Revised and Updated 4th Edition. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 0-74320-169-8. 

External links

• Pretty Hate Machine at Discogs
• Album Review at Entertainmentopia
• Album Review at Kevchino
• Halo 2 at NINCollector.com
• Pretty Hate Machine Fanlisting