Pretty Hate Machine: История альбома Nine Inch Nails

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Pretty Hate Machine is the debut studio album by the American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails, released by TVT Records on October 20, 1989. Production of the record was handled by NIN frontman
Trent Reznor and English producer Flood, among other contributors. The album features a heavily synth driven electronic sound blended with industrial and rock elements. Much like the band's later work, the album's lyrics contain themes of angst, betrayal, and lovesickness. The record was promoted with the singles "Down in It", "Head Like a Hole", and "Sin", as well as the accompanying tour. A remastered edition was released in 2010. Although the record was successful, reaching No. 75 in the US and receiving highly favorable reviews from critics, Reznor (the band's only official member until 2016) feuded with TVT over promotion of the album, which led him to eventually sign with Interscope Records. Pretty Hate Machine was later certified triple platinum by RIAA, becoming one of the first independently released albums to do so, and was included on several lists of the best releases of the 1980s. In 2020, Rolling Stone ranked Pretty Hate Machine at number 453 on its "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" list.

While working nights as a handyman and engineer at the Right Track Studio in Cleveland, Ohio, 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. Reznor mainly used an E mu Emax, Prophet VS, Oberheim Xpander, and Minimoog as synthesizers. With the help of manager John Malm Jr., he sent the demo to various record labels. Reznor received contract offers from many of the labels, but eventually signed with TVT Records, who were known mainly for releasing novelty and television jingle records. Pretty Hate Machine was recorded in various studios with Reznor collaborating with some of his most idolized producers: Flood, Keith LeBlanc, Adrian Sherwood, and John Fryer. Much like his recorded demo, Reznor refused to record the album with a conventional band, recording Pretty Hate Machine mostly by himself. "A lot of it sounds immature to me now," he stated in 1991 of the recordings that were then two years old. "At first it totally sucked. I became completely withdrawn. I couldn't function in society very well. And the LP became a product of that. It's quite small scale, introverted, claustrophobic – that's the feel I went for." Reznor discussed the recording and touring of Pretty Hate Machine in the April 1990 issue of Keyboard. He used an E mu Emax because it produced a high end buzzing noise when transposing down sounds.

"I wasn't proud of a lot of the things I was saying," Reznor recalled, "but I said to myself, 'Well, no one's going to hear this stuff anyway.' The record is honest and that's where its power came from." Unlike the industrial music of Nine Inch Nails' contemporaries, Pretty Hate Machine displays catchy riffs and verse chorus song structures rather than repetitive electronic beats. PopMatters AJ Ramirez regarded the album as "a synthesizer dominated industrial dance record that on occasion slipped under the alternative rock banner." Reznor has humorously described Pretty Hate Machine as "the all purpose alternative album," remarking that "if you want to stage dive to it, you can, but if you're a big Depeche Mode fan, you can get what you need out of it as well." In a commentary on the album, Tom Hull said that Reznor's "notion of industrial is closer to New Order new wave, but with a harder metallic gleam and more dystopian attitude."

Prince, Jane's Addiction, and Public Enemy are listed in the liner notes as artists whose music was sampled on the album. Segments of Prince's "Alphabet St." and Jane's Addiction's "Had a Dad" can be heard in "Ringfinger". Other samples were edited or distorted so as to be unrecognizable, such as the introduction to "Kinda I Want To". "Something I Can Never Have" features unused backing tracks created by John Fryer for This Mortal Coil. For the 2010 reissue, visual artist Rob Sheridan was assigned to update the cover art by Reznor to tone down the heavy late Eighties neon aesthetic. Unfortunately, Sheridan was unable to locate the original artwork as it was deemed lost forever. To remedy this, he had to reverse engineer the cover art by scanning the existing cover art and digitally painted the image in very high resolution.

In 1990, Reznor quickly formed a band, hiring guitarist and future Filter frontman Richard Patrick, and began the Pretty Hate Machine Tour Series, in which they toured North America as an opening act for alternative rock artists such as Peter Murphy and The Jesus and Mary Chain.

Pretty Hate Machine received widespread acclaim from music critics, who praised the production and Reznor's vocals. In a contemporary review for Rolling Stone, Michael Azerrad called Pretty Hate Machine "industrial strength noise over a pop framework" and "harrowing but catchy music"; Reznor proclaimed this combination "a sincere statement" of "what was in [his] head at the time". Robert Hilburn found Reznor's "dark obsession" compelling in the Los Angeles Times, while Qs Martin Aston said Reznor "scans the spectrum of modern dance" with a "panoramic vision" that is "both admirably adventurous and yet accessible." Mark Jenkins of The Washington Post found the music "competent but undistinctive stuff" and believed the "angry denunciations" of songs such as "Terrible Lie" are overshadowed by the "nursery rhyme" chants of "Down in It". Tom Popson wrote in the Chicago Tribune that "the playing and production get points for introducing some variety to the industrial style, but the moments of soap on a rope singing tend to cancel them out." In 2020, Pretty Hate Machine was included at number 453 on Rolling Stones "500 Greatest Albums of All Time" list.

Released on October 20, 1989, Pretty Hate Machine was a commercial success and entered the Billboard 200 in February 1990. Although it peaked at number 75 on the Billboard 200, the album gained popularity through word of mouth and developed an underground following. Pretty Hate Machine was certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) on March 3, 1992, two years after the album's initial release, for shipping 500,000 units in the USA. On March 29, 2010, the recording rights to Pretty Hate Machine were acquired by the Bicycle Music Company and on October 22, 2010, Reznor announced that a remastered edition would be released the following month. The remaster included new cover art by Rob Sheridan and the bonus track "Get Down, Make Love", a Queen cover originally from the "Sin" single. The 2010 reissue was mastered by Tom Baker at the Precision Mastering in Hollywood, California. Before the album's rerelease, a fan website was launched featuring touring information for Pretty Hate Machine, the videos for "Head Like a Hole" and "Down in It" (with remastered sound), the uncut video for "Sin" (a remix for the video was used) and two early live segments, one with interviews. The album and its respective singles were included in a Record Store Day Black Friday exclusive box set, Halo I–IV in 2015.