In a story that could only come from the music business Nine Inch Nails’ debut industrial masterpiece “Pretty Hate Machine” which All Music Guide awards its highest rating of five stars will be available for reissue.
1989’s “Pretty Hate Machine” has a long and winding history involving the usual music business shenanigans and corporate failures. The NIN debut release which includes long standing sledgehammer-pounding songs such as Head Like a Hole, Terrible Lie, and Something I Can Never Have has tragically been out of print, translated UNAVAILABLE, since 1997. There was a brief time in which Rykodisc reissued it in 2005 but that was short lived.
You are reading this right, if you catch a version of one of the songs from “Pretty Hate Machine” (like on the below video clip via Youtube) and want to go out and get a copy or download a copy for that matter you have been out of luck for the last 13 years. All this does is encourage illegal copying and downloading.
“Pretty Hate Machine” was originally released on the TVT Records label. TVT got caught up in numerous legal problems and eventually this fantastic piece of art fell under the control of The Prudential Securities Credit Corporation. Whaaaaaat? The suits at Prudential Securities have sat on the masters for this and many other albums due to this little problem of TVT being indebted to them for over $23.5 million dollars.
Tracks:
1. Head Like a Hole
2. Terrible Lie
3. Down in It
4. Sanctified
5. Something I Can Never Have
6. Kinda I Want To
7. Sin
8. That’s What I Get
9. The Only Time
10. Ringfinger
Finally it appears that “Pretty Hate Machine” has been freed from its rusty cage. Billboard.biz is reporting that Los Angeles based Bicycle Music has acquired the master recordings. While no date has been set for a release this is great news for anyone anticipating a reissue. Back in 2005 Nine Inch Nails creator Trent Reznor wanted the reissue to be a deluxe package ( including a 5.1 surround sound mix! ), but Rykodisc was unwilling to go that far with it. If the folks at Bicycle are smart enough to scoop up “Pretty Hate Machine” we bet they will come out with guns blazing. Expect a terrific reissue.
To pump you up for this reissue check out the music video for Head Like a Hole. You ARE going to get what you deserve!
In Steve Huey’s review on All Music Guide he writes the following:
“It was a new soundtrack for adolescent angst — noisily aggressive and coldly detached, tied together by a dominant personality. Reznor’s tortured confusion and self-obsession gave industrial music a human voice, a point of connection. His lyrics were filled with betrayal, whether by lovers, society, or God; it was essentially the sound of childhood illusions shattering, and Reznor was not taking it lying down. Plus, the absolute dichotomies in his world — there was either purity and perfection, or depravity and worthlessness — made for smashing melodrama. Perhaps the greatest achievement of Pretty Hate Machine was that it brought emotional extravagance to a genre whose main theme had nearly always been dehumanization.”
There should be some law that regardless of financial reasons corporations should not be allowed to keep works of art like “Pretty Hate Machine” from the public. It will never happen but it sure would be nice.
