1. The Fragile
2. The Downward Spiral
3. Hesitation Marks
4. Pretty Hate Machine
5. Broken
6. Year Zero
7. With Teeth
8. The Slip
9. Ghosts I-IV
1. The Fragile
2. The Downward Spiral
3. Hesitation Marks
4. Pretty Hate Machine
5. Broken
6. Year Zero
7. With Teeth
8. The Slip
9. Ghosts I-IV
1) The Fragile (fucking awesome)
2) The Downward Spiral (5 million people can't be wrong)
3) Broken (raw and angry)
4) With Teeth (When will he play Sunspots live)
5) Pretty Hate Machine (it started it all)
6) The Slip (not sure why you guys hate it so much I love Discipline, Corona Radiata)
7) Ghosts (I actually listen to this a lot)
8) Hesitation Marks (I have a love/hate thing going on with this record)
9) Year Zero ( In This Twilight, Vessel are my favs)
1. The Downward Spiral
2. The Fragile
3. Broken
4. Pretty Hate Machine
5. With Teeth
6. Year Zero
7. Hesitation Marks
8. The Slip
I'm gonna go with...
1. The Fragile
2. The Downward Spiral
3. Hesitation Marks / With Teeth / Pretty Hate Machine (really just depends on the day)
4. Broken (I love it but I'm just not in that headspace anymore)
5. The Slip
6. Ghosts
7. Year Zero
1. With Teeth
2. Broken
3. The Fragile
4. Year Zero
5. The Downward Spiral
6. The Slip
7. Pretty Hate Machine
8. Hesitation Marks
9-98 (silence)
99. Ghosts
1 the downward spiral
2 the fragile
3 hesitation marks
4 year zero
5 pretty hate machine
6 with teeth
7 the slip
8 ghosts
1.The Downward Spiral
2.The Fragile
3.With Teeth
4.Pretty Hate Machine
5.Broken
6.Hesitation Marks
7.Year Zero
8.The Slip
9.Ghosts
Nothing will top The Downward Spiral for me.. NEVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I hate to rank Ghosts so low, since it's always been something I wished Nine Inch Nails would do. I just see it as this really big missed opportunity, full of fragmented ideas instead of the full fledged NIN instrumental experience you'd expect having been exposed to all of them leading up to it. Oh well. It's still cooler than a lot of things..
I really agree on Ghosts! The funny thing is there are a few tracks on there that very nearly hit that height -- Ghosts 3, Ghosts 28 come to mind -- and if they had taken their time with these and a few others, as opposed to cranking out so many, I think we could've really had *the* instrumental album we were craving.
I agree with Ghosts 28.. That track is beautiful! That kind of goes to show what I'm talking about though, they had the potential to make something truly great, and in some spots DID. More often than not though, it just seems like they were more intent on just making noises and stuff than trying to put together a compelling album.
That said, I still like it for what it is.. Just wish it could have been more.
I already gave my rank list on this thread, but it was before the release of HM.
1. The Downward Spiral
2. Pretty Hate Machine
3. Broken
4. Year Zero (tie)
4. The Fragile (tie)
6. Hesitation Marks
7. The Slip
8. With Teeth
9. Ghosts I-IV
1. TDS
2. The Fragile
3. Broken
4. PHM
5. Year Zero
6. The Slip
7. With Teeth
8. HM
9. Ghosts
Revised for HM:
1. Year Zero
2. The Downward Spiral
3. With Teeth
4. Hesitation Marks
5. The Fragile
6. Pretty Hate Machine
7. The Slip
8. Broken
9. Ghosts I-IV
I've also felt the same way in some ways ever since I've first heard of Nine Inch Nails. I still believe that Trent Reznor could make another album like The Downward Spiral if he really wanted to though, but it's also very hard, or even impossible for me to imagine The Downward Spiral itself becoming completely topped. Then again, you'd also have fans that say that Pretty Hate Machine, or The Fragile is the best. I also noticed that I kept putting The Downward Spiral at number 1 more and more though, and I usually end up putting The Fragile at number 2.
Those two albums are constantly at battle for which one I'm listening to more at the moment, but The Downward Spiral just means so much more to me. If I were to lose all of my copies of it, and be banned from ever hearing it again, it'd still be my favorite album.. Not only my favorite nine inch nails album, my all time favorite album!!
Its nice to give this some thought - here's what I came up (the definitive NIN ranking, of course) [cough, cough] :
1. The Downward Spiral
2. Pretty Hate Machine
3. Broken
4. The Fragile
5. Year Zero
6. Hesitation Marks
7. Ghosts
8. WIth Teeth
9. The Slip
I just thought that I'd try to rank Nine Inch Nails albums from With Teeth and up.
1. Year Zero
2. Hesitation Marks
3. With Teeth
4. The Slip
5. Ghosts I-IV
Just like alot of films, i have a tier-based system for ranking my favorite NIN albums...
Tier 1 : The Downward Spiral
Tier 2 : Year Zero
Tier 3 : Pretty Hate Machine, The Fragile, Hesitation Marks
Tier 4 : With Teeth
I havent put any thought into "ranking" the instrumental works and remix EPs, seeing as the occupy a different place, from a musical prospective, than the LPs. I left both the Slip and Broken off the list as IMO they arent long enough to be considered LPs.
TDS is an obvious milestone, and anybody who knows me knows my thoughts on the album.
Year Zero, the recording process, with doing it on the road and not having access to the full studio, really forced a creative side out of Trent I never thought possible. That and Vessel kicks fuckin' ass and the need to start playing in again live. Maybe right before Happiness in Slavery?!? I dont think i could handle the intensity!!! I about lost it when I saw it played on the LITS tour!
As for the Tier 3, well, to me these, while they are all compleatly solid albums that greatly define the "NIN" sound, thats the problem. I dont think any of them take enough chances. And yes I know PHM was the first album, but if you go back and listen to Purest Feeling, I think it was a bad move to strip out the "funk" elements from the music for a more "industrial" sound. But hey, things come full circle, and as far as HM goes, im glad some of that "funk" has surfaced again. But alas, not enough "streaching outside your comfort zone" Trent (Everything (the song, FU if u think it sucks!), the sax work and Pino's funk-da-fide bass was a good start) And as much as I love the Fragile as a 2 disc work, it could have been, and should have been condensed into a single, 80 minute disc. Its like there is almost too much going on, the album is pulling itself in too many directions at once. Although I cant imagine life without The Wretched and The Big Come Down, I think things should have been more fleshed-out before recording took place. (i also realize that Trent realizes that NIN fans can be pricks and arent as open minded as he thinks and he cant go writing albums that alienate his fan-base)
And I know alot of you love WT, but im just going to come out and say it, its a boring album (except for The Line Begins to Blur)
These are just my opinions, and just because I put WT and The Fragile towards the bottom, doesnt mean i think they suck. In fact, i like them better than 95% of the music in my collection (and its a big one.)
Last edited by SM Rollinger; 01-03-2014 at 07:05 PM. Reason: more thoughts, elaborations
I just thought I'd give this another attempt as my opinion seemed to have changed a bit. I also thought that I'd like to separate Pretty Hate Machine to The Fragile from With Teeth to Hesitation Marks. It made ranking a little bit easier for me that way, and it also a bit more fun.
Pretty Hate Machine to The Fragile
1. The Fragile
2. The Downward Spiral
3. Pretty Hate Machine
4. Broken
With Teeth to Hesitation Marks
1. With Teeth
2. Hesitation Marks
3. Year Zero
4. Ghosts I-IV
5. The Slip
Last edited by Halo Infinity; 07-28-2014 at 01:32 PM.
First three positions are solid, after that the it gets kinda blurry
1. The Fragile
2. The Downward Spiral
3. Hesitation Marks
4. Broken
5. With Teeth
6. Pretty Hate Machine
7. Year Zero
8. The Slip
Omitted Ghosts because I consider it to be something like Still rather than normal album.
Also I'm surprised myself by how much I actually like With Teeth as I really hated it upon release, opposite to Year Zero which practically I haven't listened for a long time.
1.broken/fixed
2. the fragile
3. year zero
4. TDS
5. PHM
6. HM
7.WT
8. The Slip
9. Ghosts
subject to change daily
People who don't include Ghosts make me not want to include Broken
That's like comparing apples to angry, screaming oranges though.
Currently...
1. Year Zero
2. Downward Spiral
3. Hesitation Marks (stares provocatively @Space Suicide )
4. With Teeth
5. Fragile(Welcome Oblivion)6. Broken
(Social Network)(HTDA EP)7. Ghosts(Quake)8. Pretty Hate Machine(Dragon Tattoo)9. Slip
I thought that I'd have another attempt at this list just to see if anything has changed.
1. The Fragile
2. The Downward Spiral
3. Pretty Hate Machine
4. Broken
5. With Teeth
6. Hesitation Marks (I've been actually listening to Hesitation Marks more than Year Zero as of late, but Year Zero is still very close.)
7. Year Zero
8. Ghosts I-IV/And All That Could Have Been (Still)
9. The Slip
It turns out that I actually still have a hard time ranking this list with And All That Could Have Been (Still). I feel like I should just put it right next to Ghosts I-IV.
My order of preference is almost identical, except that I'd switch PHM with Broken, and it is Year Zero > Hesitation Marks > With Teeth for me. And I've been guilty of not listening to Ghosts nearly as much as they deserve, so there's a big question mark in where I should put them on my little list.
Edit: also, I love AATCHB very much but I mentally put it in another "list" that has Fixed, Further Down The Spiral and Things Falling Apart in it - not major releases of new music, but rather albums containing mostly versions and interpretations of previously released music, if that makes sense.
Last edited by Edo; 12-25-2014 at 10:54 AM. Reason: afterthought
1)PHM
2)The Fragile
3)TDS
4)Broken
5)WT
6)HM
7)YZ
8)Ghosts
9)The Slip
1. The Fragile
2. Pretty Hate Machine
3. Broken
4. Year Zero
5. With Teeth
6. Hesitation Marks (can't help it - 30 something, married me loves this album)
7. The Slip
8. The Downward Spiral
9. Ghosts I-IV/And All That Could Have Been (Still)