Nine Inch Nails: Pretty Hate Machine (CD)

Although Nine Inch Nails mastermind Trent Reznor became the poster boy for industrial rock in the early 1990s, his '89 debut, Pretty Hate Machine, actually has a stronger foothold in '80s synth-pop. The guitar-heavy opener, 'Head Like A Hole,' is the most aggressive track on the album and proved to be the signature song for Reznor's initial breakthrough, but much of the disc sounds like Depeche Mode in a particularly bad mood.

All of the tracks on Pretty Hate Machine are based on synthesizer lines and programmed beats, with other elements - such as the distinctive bass on 'Sanctified' and sampled explosions on 'That's What I Get' - filling out the sound. Despite Reznor's morose lyrics, a number of ... Hate Machine's finest moments are energetic dance tunes, particularly 'Down In It' and the surging 'Sin.'

Oddly enough, Reznor's fiercer - and seemingly less accessible - subsequent work (the Broken EP and The Downward Spiral) led directly to his mainstream success, but Pretty Hate Machine reveals NIN's aesthetic origins.

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