Photo by Matt Williams
Nine Inch Nails’ discography is massive, thanks to its wildly prolific creator and moody goth icon, Trent Reznor. There are several big handfuls of mega hits within the collection, including The Downward Spiral’s “Closer” and Pretty Hate Machine’s “Down In It”—you know, the tracks everyone knows every word to and Trent Reznor not so secretly hates performing live. But, dig deeper and you’ll find even bigger handfuls of hidden gems and obscurities, some of which can only be heard through releases from select countries.
With that being said, here are ten of our favorite Nine Inch Nails deep cuts:
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1.“Sunspots” (With Teeth)
“Sunspots” sounds like a dark bedroom song with the lyrics “fuck in the fire and we’ll spread all the ashes around,” but Trent Reznor often refers to drugs with female analogies (“She turns me on / she makes me real” is probably about substances making him feel complete, considering With Teeth revolves around his addictions.) What begins with a simple bassline and drumbeat builds into a full-fledged orchestration by the third verse, and it doesn’t stop there—2:28 to 2:45 transitions into the ultimate drop at the 2:46 mark.
2.“Heresy (Blind)” (Closer to God)
The Downward Spiral Closer to God3.“Adrift And At Peace” (Still)
And All That Could Have Been is a double album from Nine Inch Nails, with disc one as a live album and disc two as a studio album called Still. “Adrift And At Peace” is a gorgeous instrumental from Still that concludes The Fragile’s equally lovely instrumental “La Mer;” if you’ve ever wondered why the two tracks sound alike, that’s why. No matter how angry Reznor gets, his solo piano excursions are rivetingly soothing and serene.
4.“The Good Soldier” (Year Zero)
You really can’t go wrong with a song that has “and the bass goes bomb!” in the first verse. But deep down, Year Zero is a concept album about political criticism fused with a future dystopian world, and “The Good Soldier” dives into the hardships faced by the military. It’s one of Nine Inch Nails’ more powerful works, directly attacking war and its lingering effects on soldiers. Plus, the fuzzy guitar is awfully catchy.
5.“Ruiner (Version)” (Further Down The Spiral, V2)
It feels kind of unfair that the “Ruiner (Version)” remix was only included on the Japan, Australia, and UK [version two] release of Further Down The Spiral, but luckily for everyone else, YouTube exists. This Charlie Clouser edition of “Ruiner” is a complete departure from the original, going down a purely electronica and acidic path. While Nine Inch Nails has always toyed with an electronic sound, this is one of the band’s deepest forays into the dance side of industrial.
6.“The Wretched” (The Fragile)
The Fragile was greeted with mixed reviews by fans and critics, but it’s still littered with jewels like “The Wretched.” Reznor’s voice is paired with a radio interference sample, resulting in almost ethereal-sounding vocals that are relatively simple in substance.(the words “now you know / this is what it feels like” make up the entire chorus). Tied in with heavily distorted atmospheric synth and guitar, this track is pure noise.
7.“Big Man with a Gun” (The Downward Spiral)
Yes, “Closer” is probably the sexiest song of all time, and yes, “March Of The Pigs” is the ultimate fuck you, but delve deeper into The Downward Spiral and you’ll discover “Big Man with a Gun,” the album’s most provocative track. Fast to the point of madness and delirium, the record’s ninth number marks a changing point, the tip of a deliberate buildup in insanity before a slow release throughout the remaining tracks.
8.“Gave Up” (Broken)
“Gave Up” is one of Nine Inch Nails’ grungiest efforts, backed by fast drums and Reznor’s rapidly building filtered vocals before erupting into complete and total mayhem. If you’re going to air drum or air guitar to any Nine Inch Nails track, please jump off of your couch with a pretend (or real) Fender in your hands while “Gave Up” blasts in the background. To be fair, all of Broken is totally grungy and heavy, but “Gave Up” is the cherry on top.
9.“Get Down, Make Love” (Pretty Hate Machine 2010 Remaster / Sin)
“Get Down, Make Love” is originally a Queen song that Nine Inch Nails covered for both the Sin single and the 2010 Pretty Hate Machine remaster. While the cover doesn’t stray far from the original, it’s more of a mindbender, as samples from 1962’s psychological thriller “The Cabinet of Caligari,” a Japanese porno, and Queen’s “We Will Rock You” (which closes out the track) are all a part of the mix.
10.04 Ghosts I (Ghosts I-IV)
Ghosts I-IV is a fully instrumental album with 36 tracks, all following the structure of “01 Ghosts I,” “02 Ghosts I,” and so forth. We happen to really dig the fourth one. Maybe it’s the way the simple guitar plucks are instantly obscured by absurdly heavy distorted bass, which is in turn punctured by shrieking electric guitar, but something about this number is very attractive. It’s a beautiful mess, really.
Ashley is probably talking about Nine Inch Nails on Twitter.
