oh Ghosts over Broken and PHM? ok buddy. must be young or got into NIN late.
oh Ghosts over Broken and PHM? ok buddy. must be young or got into NIN late.
I put Broken at the bottom and Ghosts second - some of us really do prefer the more ambient side of NIN to rargh rargh rargh pigs
OK this is hard
The Fragile
Year Zero
Downward Spiral
With Teeth
Pretty Hate Machine
The Slip
Broken
Ghosts
1.The Fragile
2.The Downward Spiral
3.Year Zero
4.Pretty Hate Machine
5.Broken
6.With Teeth
7.The Slip
8.Ghosts
i know you guys will hate me for this. guess i'm just more into his ambient stuff.
The Fragile
Year Zero
TDS
Ghosts/Still
WT
Broken
The Slip
PHM
I have been avoiding this thread for a while now. Guess it's time now.. For the record, I got into NIN when TDS was released so i have no choice but to put this album on top.
1- The Downward Spiral
2- The Fragile
3- Pretty Hate Machine
4- Year Zero
5- Broken
6- Ghosts/Still
7- With Teeth
8- The Slip
Last edited by Deepvoid; 06-04-2013 at 11:03 AM.
I've been avoiding doing an album ranking for NIN for ages, but I finally decided to do it. If you wanna check it out on my blog, I go into detail about why I dig each release, have some pictures of my collection, all sorts of etc. etc. It's kind of a long read if you don't really give a shit about NIN.
You can see that here: http://gutterbubbles.blogspot.com/20...m-ranking.html
For those of you that don't really give a damn, here's the abridged version
1. The Fragile
2. The Downward Spiral
3. With Teeth
4. Broken
5. Year Zero
6. Pretty Hate Machine
7. The Slip
8. Ghosts I-IV
Hope you enjoy the read!
1. The Fragile
2. Broken
3. The Downward Spiral
4. Pretty Hate Machine
5. Year Zero
6. With Teeth
7. The Slip
(Ghosts excluded.)
My list would go...
1. The Fragile
2. With Teeth
3. The Downward Spiral
4. Still
5. Ghosts I-IV
6. Broken
7. Pretty Hate Machine
8. The Slip
9. Year Zero
I count Still in there because of how much I love the music and flow of that album. It set the stage even more so for the ambient instrumental soundtrack work Trent would go on to create.
My reasoning for YZ being at the bottom is actually how kind of almost cheap the record sounds. It feels like an album created on Garageband and while there are some really cool and interesting moments going on there musically in a couple tracks, the album feels repetitive musically at times. Not even in the way The Fragile just repeats musical motifs and themes, the drum loops have too similar of a sound style to them. I think some of the lyrics are at some of their goofiest too...
"I PUSH DA BUTTON"
"COME ON SING ALONG, ERRREYBODY NOW"
...I listened to it again today, I like the record alright but it's my least favorite by far.
I actually feel kind of sad the Slip is at many people's very bottom list, though I can understand why. I really really liked that record because of how "sketch" like (as Trent described it) it feels. It does feel like someone just going into a studio and writing something rather quickly but coming out of the studio with some pretty good material. It's got so many different album feels in there that it almost gives an impression of the band saying "let's write a new album that sounds like a greatest hits compilation"....I'm probably not describing that the best way possible.
Last edited by thefragile_jake; 03-02-2013 at 05:30 PM.
The Fragile
Pretty Hate Machine
The Downward Spiral
Broken
Year Zero
With Teeth
The Slip
Ghosts
Last edited by LaneSax; 03-10-2013 at 08:42 AM.
I'm totally new here, but as long as some of you are including Trent Reznor's OST work... I'm going to give you my comprehensive Top Trent list:
1. Year Zero
2. The Fragile
3. Pretty Hate Machine
4. The Downward Spiral
5. Welcome Oblivion
6. Still
7. Niggy Tardust
8. Quake
9. The Slip
10. Ghosts I-IV
11. The Social Network
12. The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
13. With Teeth
14. Broken
I think that's everything *not* including remix albums, covers, one off songs and EP's.
Personally, that above list changes dramatically fairly constantly for me. There isn't one album up there that I don't love for different reasons, so take the ranking with a grain of salt. I've greatly enjoyed listening to Trent grow and mature as a musician. In my mind, his best years are likely ahead of him. Something I can't say for most artists as they age.
Last edited by thepresence0; 03-03-2013 at 03:07 AM.
The Fragile
The Downward Spiral
Year Zero
Broken
With Teeth
Pretty Hate Machine
Ghosts I-IV
Yeah, pretty much. I hate putting things low on the list, but in the context of everything else on it, it gets much easier.
God Tier:
The Fragile
Year Zero
The Downward Spiral
The not-quite God Tier (aka everything else):
Ghosts I-IV
The Slip
With Teeth
Broken
Pretty Hate Machine
...Ranking Pretty Hate Machine dead last makes me feel sick. I love that album so much. Trent is probably one of the most consistent artists in popular music, if you ask me.
Though I couldn't possibly disagree with your opinion on Year Zero more, I think you totally hit the nail on the head when talking about The Slip. I like that record a lot, and have been listening to it quite frequently as of late. For the way it was released, as well as the fact that it's relatively short, it's a pretty solid little album, and I really enjoy it. Your greatest hits analogy makes a lot of sense- you can pick out individual fragments of it that each represent different eras of the band. The early part of the album seems to capture the aggression of Broken and the edgier parts of Pretty Hate Machine, while "Discipline" and "Echoplex" feel like they belong on With Teeth. "Head Down" reminds me of Year Zero in a lot of ways, while "Lights in the Sky" is "Hurt"-like. The more ambient, instrumental way the album ends sounds like Ghosts and the Fragile big time, too. It's like a huge mixed bag that encompasses every sound NIN has had, but somehow, it manages to all feel incredibly cohesive. Trent's ability to make an album flow perfectly and seamlessly is something I struggle to find in pretty much any other artist. It's definitely a gift he has.
I have incredible difficulty explaining this to people sometimes, but I completely agree. There seriously isn't a NIN album (or even a collaboration) that I haven't loved. Trent gives it 100% everytime and seems *extremely* aware of how an album ought to flow. While Year Zero is the only "concept" record he's done, I feel like every (for lack of a better word) 'product' he produces has a beginning, middle, and end. They feel like stories, even when the story being told is just an abstract set of emotions.
I'd go as far as to say that while TDS and TF are with no question lyrical concept albums, YZ leans more towards the "gimmicky" concept album, much like Green Day's overly rated American Idiot.
I suppose there are varying degrees of concept album.
The Downward Spiral is a thematically continuous album, but it isn't telling a highly specific, intricate storyline.
Year Zero on the other hand, could be a TV show (ha!) with how intricate its story is. Also, I don't think 'gimmick' is a word I'd ascribe to Year Zero. It seemed to come straight from Trent's soul, just as much as anything else he's done.
#1 The Downward Spiral - yes, generic answer, I know. But it does deserve it's praise.
#2 Year Zero - A lot of people don't seem to like this, but I felt it was really innovative, and not just in terms of the ARG. It has this whole "glitch rock" feel that I've never heard from any other artist or album. And the concept was really well executed.
=2 Pretty Hate Machine
#4 With Teeth
=4 Broken - Feels kind of like a less refined, more basic version of TDS two years before it was actually released.
#6 The Fragile - Yes, I went there. Mainly because the second half of the right disc (barring Complication) is a pretty dull and anto-climatic end to te album.
#7 The Slip
I didn't rank Ghosts as I don't really feel it's comparable to the other albums.
The albums from 1989 to 1999 are constantly switching sometimes, but this is how I'd generally rank them.
1. The Downward Spiral
2. The Fragile
3. Broken
4. Pretty Hate Machine
5. With Teeth
6. Year Zero
7. The Slip
8. Ghosts I-IV
Last edited by Halo Infinity; 03-09-2013 at 10:02 PM.
1. Broken/Fixed
2. TF
3. YZ
4.PHM
5. TDS
6. Still
7. Awitha Teetha
8. The Slip
9. Ghosts
You know, unlike many of you, i REALLY love the slip and year zero, but there are so many other great albums. Ghosts on the other hand (AKA NIN trying to be Aphex Twin/BOC) i REALLY dont like. I got broken and fixed at 12 years old, so that's probably the reason for the number 1 spot.
Ghosts ranks bottom for me, and it's not because of the atmospheric instrumentals vs angry rock sides of the NIN coin, it's that I just don't think it's good enough. There isn't a focused direction behind it.
It's not really what I'd call ambient - it's rarely soothing, it's occasionally loud and challenging, it often doesn't flow well, and it's not something you can have thrumming away quietly in the background. It's generally quite insistent, prominent music. Dragon Tattoo and Quake are mostly much closer to what I'd define as ambient.
And on the other side of the coin, it's not an album full of Leaving Hopes, Warm Places, La Mers or Tetsuo themes either (which is what I'd really hoped for when the album was announced, the latter's non-existence notwithstanding). A handful of tracks might stand out as interludes on a more typical album, but here they're swamped in a sea of less exceptional material. And I don't think any of them are in the same league as the top drawer NIN instrumentals in any case.
One final failing is that there's no narrative to it, or underlying thematic depth - something which elevates The Social Network OST from another instrumental Trentticus release to being up there with the core NIN albums, for me at least. Might have helped if I'd bought the Deluxe to watch the accompanying slideshow.
So, for me, it doesn't work as ambient music, it doesn't work as primary music, and it doesn't work on levels that most of Trent's other albums excel at. The only time I ever listen to Ghosts is while playing computer games, where its dynamic and variable nature is welcome.
...Surprised I didn't need frog DNA to bridge the time gap to Sheepdean's post, and I've posted in the interim. But it's finally sunny outside, so 'tis the season to bash on Ghosts I guess.
1. Year Zero
2. The Downward Spiral
3. With Teeth
4. The Fragile
5. Pretty Hate Machine
6. The Slip
7. Broken
8. Ghosts I-IV
1. Year Zero
2. The Fragile
3. The Downward Spiral
4.With Teeth
5. Pretty Hate Machine
6. Ghosts
7. The Slip
8. Broken
Broken
With Teeth
The Downward Spiral
The Slip
The Fragile
Pretty Hate Machine
Year Zero
Ghosts
With Teeth is pretty underrated for me. All the songs are accessible, not much filler in my opinion, one of the best comeback albums of all time. Broken though is my shit, fond memories of skating to the album when I was in middle school, and even though it was released before Downward Spiral, I think it holds up much better.
1. The Fragile- pretty easy number one choice. It's like the definitive NIN album, all of the interesting sounds Trent has dabbled in throughout his entire career seem to make an appearance. Pretty impressive beast of a record.
2. With Teeth- underrated masterpiece IMO. So many great tracks, All the Love, TLBTB, BYIT, RWIB. Never understood the hate for this one.
3. The Downward Spiral- deserves its recognition and hype.
4. Pretty Hate Machine- a good pop record.
5. Year Zero- some beats are a tad too similar and samey, but some great tracks here nonetheless.
6. The Slip- I actually really liked The Slip, it just feels a tad unfinished. 1,000,000, Head Down and Lights in The Sky are all essential NIN though.
7. Broken- I do love the heaviness of it, but the brevity of it makes it hard to compare with full-length releases. Plus, I was never the hugest fan of HIS, the outro is overlong.
8. Ghosts I-IV- honestly not a bad album, but certainly his most underwhelming. It probably would have been better if some of the fat had been trimmed from it, but it's a nice album to return to if you're in the mood for it.
what the hell.
(i love all of these so it's really just different degrees of love)
the fragile
the downward spiral
pretty hate machine
ghosts i-iv
broken / with teeth
the slip
(but i honestly barely like this one)
year zero
I've heard'em all so much that it's kinda like selecting between my kids. But I don't have kids, so this is way harder!!!
1. The Fragile - it just sounds freaking fantastic, never heard anything ( not even from NIN ) that sounded this powerful. Masterpiece from the first time I heard it up until this very moment.
2.The Downward Spiral - absolute classic, one of the very few albums that I cannot listen if it's not from start to finish.
3.Broken - this is what metal should be like. When I heard it for the first time I realized how most metal I knew was silly.
4.With Teeth - really, really great songs scattered all through the record. And best vocal performance from Trent ever.
5.Pretty Hate Machine - my very first contact with NIN. Some stuff in it just don't make it to me anymore ( even when it was re-released ), but it brings awesome memories.
6.The Slip - not that fond of the instrumental stuff and the whole album lacks some sequencing for me.
7.Year Zero - those big beats are tiresome most of the times. But can't ignore a record that contains something as beautiful as "In This Twilight".
8.Still - love how the songs are reimagined.
10.Ghosts I-IV - as commented in The Slip line, I'm not that fond of instrumentals. I tried but could never heard from start to finish, like all the other albums.