Great thing about nin is that every album has a very different sound, while maintaining similar, but evolving themes.
Pretty Hate Machine is kind of like heavy synthpop and the album is about being heartbroken.
Broken is heavy industrial/metal, and is about anger manifesting itself in self abuse and hatred.
The Downward Spiral is like industrial music with really complex soundscapes, and is the story of a person who kills himself, but there is redemption at the end.
The Fragile goes much more into complex soundscapes, and is my favorite album. It's about being at the bottom and trying to find your way out.
With Teeth is much more poppy, like the first album, but with some really unique sounds. It's about finding your place in the world.
From everything he's said, the next album will be very political, which I'm not crazy about, but you can see the natural progression. He's taken so long between albums, and makes such personal music, that you can kind of follow his life through his music. He got clean after the fragile, and is more confident and positive now, and with teeth is a reflection of that.
One thing about being a nin fan: never get your hopes up, and never take anything he says seriously. He talks, a lot. The album is supposed to come out next year, and now that he's clean I'm more confident, but it's foolish to get your hopes up with his track record. And as far as the content of the album, he always says what an album will be like, and the final result is like a 180.
He is a musical genious, his complex compositions and the fact that he does nearly everything himself is impressive. But lyrics are not his strong point. It's all about the music and atmosphere.
nin live is a must, no one puts on shows like them. Just check out the teaser trailer for the new dvd from the past tour:
http://www.nin.com/current/index.html (check 9/23 post)
You can completely skip the remix albums, they are worhtless with a handful of decent remixes out of all the albums. Originals are so much better. But if you like nin you must check out "still" which is kind of like an acoustic/piano driven ep with some new versions of old songs as well as a few new ones. One of my favorite albums.
of either Pretty Hate Machine or The Downward Spiral would be much appreciated.
. I was close to seeing them this year but didn't end up going. Oh, andvil I just found out that DragonForce toured Sydney in May and I didn't even know they existed back then.
