Music / Pretty Hate Machine

Original album cover (CD version).
^{Click here to see the remaster cover.} 

You make this all go away
You make this all go away
I'm down to just one thing
And I'm starting to scare myself
You make this all go away
You make this all go away
I just want something
I just want something I can never have

— "Something I Can Never Have"

Pretty Hate Machine is the debut album by Nine Inch Nails, released on October 20, 1989 by TVT Records.

Production was mainly handled by frontman Trent Reznor alongside a small number of producer collaborators. Reznor also did most of the recording and played most of the instruments on the album himself, using unoccupied time at a studio where he worked as an engineer. Techniques he utilized included sampling drum sounds from his record collection and juxtaposing quantized drums with unrefined vocal takes.

Unlike Reznor's later material, Pretty Hate Machine has prominent Synth-Pop and Alternative Dance influences with more traditional song structures than other industrial artists at the time; according to Reznor, the sound was closely influenced by the Depeche Mode album Black Celebration, released three years prior. The album spawned three singles: "Down In It", "Sin", and Breakthrough Hit "Head Like A Hole". It became one of the best-selling independently-released albums, being certified triple-platinum by the RIAA.

To promote the album, Reznor put together a live band with guitarist Richard Patrick (who would later start Filter), drummer Chris Vrenna, and a revolving door of keyboardists. Following a brief promotional tour in 1989, NIN served as an opening act for The Jesus and Mary Chain and Peter Murphy in early 1990 before embarking on a headlining tour later that year. The intensity of the live performances and worsening tensions with executives at TVT Records inspired Reznor to go in a heavier, angrier direction with his next release, 1992's Broken EP.

Pretty Hate Machine went out of print through TVT, but was reissued by Rykodisc in 2005 with slightly altered packaging. Reznor was reportedly interested in giving the album a deluxe edition with a surround-sound remaster and new remixes, similar to what had been done for the 10th anniversary of the next NIN album, The Downward Spiral, the year prior. Rykodisc was initially on board, but wanted Reznor to foot the production costs. As a result, these plans stalled until the recording rights to the album were bought by the Bicycle Music Company in 2010, with an official remaster being released seven months later that year. The remaster included new cover art by NIN's then-current art director Rob Sheridan that "reinterpreted" the album's original cover art (designed by Gary Talpas, who was briefly the live band’s keyboardist), as well as the bonus track "Get Down, Make Love", a Queen cover originally from the single of "Sin".

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Tracklist:

1. "Head Like a Hole" (4:59)
2. "Terrible Lie" (4:39)
3. "Down in It" (3:45)
4. "Sanctified" (5:48)
5. "Something I Can Never Have" (5:56)
6. "Kinda I Want To" (4:36)
7. "Sin" (4:04)
8. "That's What I Get" (4:32)
9. "The Only Time" (4:50)
10. "Ringfinger" (5:41)

2010 reissue bonus track

1. "Get Down, Make Love"^note originally by Queen (4:19)

Musicians:

• Trent Reznor: Vocals, almost all instruments, programming
• Richard Patrick: Drone guitar at the end of "Sanctified"
• Mark "Flood" Ellis: Additional synth programming on "Terrible Lie" and "Kinda I Want To"

Bow down before the tropes you serve:

• all lowercase letters: Used on the album cover. Inverted for the 2010 remaster, which uses all caps.
• Alternate Album Cover: The album cover features a photograph of fan blades by Gary Talpas, stretched out and processed to look like a ribcage. On the original release, the image featured neon blue and pink color grading, which was done to match design trends that were commonplace in the late '80s. The album art is also vertically-oriented and printed sideways on the CD cover but right-side up on the vinyl, cassette, and CD longbox. For the 2010 reissue, Rob Sheridan manually repainted it with digital software due to the master artwork being lost, featuring a more subdued blur effect and a grayish-teal palette, additionally modifying the angle of the photo.
• Break Up Song: "That's What I Get" is about being on the receiving end of a breakup in which the girlfriend is more interested in another boy.
• Careful with That Axe: At the end of "Down in It," the delivery of the lyrics gradually intensifies into yelling, culminating in Trent letting out a long, drawn-out scream.
• Cover Version: "Get Down, Make Love" was originally recorded by Queen on their 1977 album News of the World. NIN's version first appeared as a B-side to the single for "Sin" and later appeared as a bonus track on the 2010 reissue.
• Credits Gag:
  • Trent's then-manager, John Malm, Jr., is credited in original pressings as "Kicking ass way beyond the call of duty". This line was (unsurprisingly) removed in the 2005 Rykodisc CD reissue after their legal dispute the previous year.
  • Speaking of disputes, the 2010 remaster acknowledges the Executive Meddling from TVT Records and its founder Steve Gottlieb in a special "fuck you" section.
• Early-Installment Weirdness: Though NIN is considered a Trope Codifier for Industrial Metal, this album is more of an industrialized Synth-Pop album closely influenced by Depeche Mode's Black Celebration. The results are closer to some of Reznor's pre-NIN bands, with minimal guitar and no real metal elements.
• Fading into the Next Song:
  • There is a synth sound that crossfades "Head Like a Hole" and "Terrible Lie".
  • The droning guitar at the end of "Sanctified" bleeds into the beginning of "Something I Can Never Have". The segue is broken up on the LP edition of the 2010 reissue to make room for "Get Down, Make Love".
  • The end of "Kinda I Want To" echoes into the first second of "Sin".
  • "The Only Time" segues into "Ringfinger"
• Fingore: "Ringfinger" implores the subject to cut off the titular body part as an offering to the narrator.
• Greed: "Head Like a Hole" makes the worship of money out to be a religion by referring to money as "God Money", or in some lyrics in live performances, "the god of money".
• "I Am" Song: "Sanctified":
  I am justified
  I am purified
  I am sanctified
  Inside you
• I Am the Band: Invoked in the liner notes: "Nine Inch Nails is Trent Reznor." Indeed, Reznor would go on to become the band's only official member (albeit supplemented by hired musicians on-stage) until Atticus Ross joined in 2016.
• Intercourse with You: "The Only Time". Lampshaded in the tour-documentary part of Closure when Trent introduced the song as "a song about fucking".
• Mesodiplosis: In "Head Like A Hole", it's used to join up the topic of "You":

  "Bow down before the one you serve. You're going to get what you deserve."

• Nay-Theist: Trent Reznor is particularly upset at God in "Terrible Lie".
• Precision F-Strike:
  • The climax of "Something I Can Never Have" has NIN's first released swear. As a song that deals with depression and suicide, the breaking point is apparent at the end of the last verse.
    "Just a fading fucking reminder of who I used to be."
  • Technically the second swear on the album, but Trent makes damn sure he is heard on "The Only Time".
    "Lay my hands on heaven and the sun and the moon and the stars, while the devil wants to fuck me in the back of his car."
• Record Producer: The album went through a revolving door of producers, with Trent being credited as a co-producer for all but two of them (including "Get Down, Make Love", which was produced by Al "Hypo Luxa" Jourgensen of Ministry).
• Religion Rant Song: "Terrible Lie" consists of Trent lashing out at God, disillusioned with how much misery He seems to allow in the world.
• Sampling:
  • "Ringfinger" has samples of "Alphabet St." by Prince and "Had a Dad" by Jane's Addiction.
  • "Sanctified" samples a Gregorian chant over a low-volume monologue from Midnight Express, though the latter sample was omitted from the 2010 remaster.
• Sex Is Evil, and I Am Horny: The devil sleeps in Trent's bed ("Kinda I Want To") and has a car that he wants to fuck Trent in the back of ("The Only Time").
• Title-Only Chorus: "Terrible Lie" and "That's What I Get". "Kinda I Want To" has a two-line pre-chorus that leads up to this.
  "I know it's not the right thing, and I know it's not the good thing, but kinda I want to. Kinda I want to."
• Vocal Evolution: Trent's voice is higher and more nasal at times. It's even more apparent in the demo versions.

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