JZ1276

What's your favorite Nine Inch Nails album ?

RagingBull80

I love them all. Trent is one of my favorite people and NIN one of my favorite bands.

Picking one though, I'd have to go with The Downward Spiral.

chino77

the downward spiral. everything after that i cant stand.

LivingINClip

The Fragile (Left Side)
Broken
Downward Spiral
Pretty Hate Machine
With Teeth
Year Zero

That's the general way I enjoy 'em.

DJLinus

The Downward Spiral

I wish Broken was a full album rather than an EP. It'd probably give TDS a run for its money, IMO.

ultimaton

The Fragile, though I love them all. NIN is my favorite "band".

Geofferson

I've always preferred The Fragile

cdollaz

The first one is the only one I care to hear.

Hollowgen

broken is more of an EP, but it's probably my favorite then tied by downward spiral & the fragile.

TripWire

definitely The Fragile for me, the production and ambitiousness of it blew me away.

Hiro11

Broken was his high point, IMO. Downward Spiral is close behind. The main problem with most of his albums is that he needs an editor. About half the tracks on each album are terrific, the remainder is close to filler. If he stuck to 30 minute albums/EPs like Broken, he'd be consistently terrific. The perils of working alone and having a huge ego.

kakihara1

QFT!! Well said man. Broken is nearly perfect just because of it's length and every song on it is killer, especially Wish.

chris_sc77

The Fragile. No question about it.

bunkaroo

Another vote for The Fragile.

Seems unfair since it had two CD's worth of awesome tunes instead of one though.

I about wet myself the first time I saw that 300 trailer with "Just Like You Imagined" - one of my all-time favorite NIN tracks.

Hixx

The Fragile, really? There's some good cuts on there, but as an album it's pretty weak, with tons of filler.

Downward Spiral is a cohesive piece of music with maybe one or two weak songs, with great use of recurring themes and outstanding production.

I do agree with the Broken comments though, it's such a huge leap from Pretty Hate Machine, but it's really too short for me to consider it his peak.

islandclaws

Pretty Hate Machine. I've been rocking that album since '93 and it's always been one of my favorites. Dark, moody and aggressive.

Rocketdog2000

My thoughts exactly. I was surprised to see it beating out Pretty Hate Machine on the poll. The first album may sound a bit dated now, but it's still, more often than not, the one I will pick to listen to over all the others.

Hollowgen

for me, it was seeing NIN play most of the fragile songs live on that tour... i felt the album was pretty ambitious and very cohesive.

brokenhanger

I've often wished that too, but at the same time if Broken was any longer I don't think it would be nearly as effective. Either it wouldn't be able to keep up the intensity and would sag, or it would be too much for too long and not leave you wanting more.

I voted The Downward Spiral - I've a very soft spot in my heart for it, though in truth Pretty Hate Machine and Broken are equally as amazing. The Fragile totally lost me - it it WAY too long and much of what he's trying to do is beyond his grasp so it comes across very poorly - though I do think that With Teeth was a fantastic rebound and I quite enjoy it still today. Year Zero was fucking awful, however, and I could care less about hearing Ghosts. I did download 'Discipline', though I've yet to listen to it. I'll get around to it at some point I suppose.

emanon

How much longer could broken be? Doesn't it have like 99 tracks?

DJLinus

Ha ha. True. My copy is from the first pressing, though, and the bonus tracks came on a mini-CD. I had totally forgotten about those two songs; for some reason, I didn't rip them and put them on my iPod (where I listen to 99% of my music these days). Thanks for the reminder!

emanon

Mine came with the mini-CD, too...just my poor attempt at humor!

pinata242

Broken/Fixed (Love that 9-minute Wish)
PHM
TDS
...

The Fragile couldn't live up to the anticipation for me. Similar to Mellon Collie & The Infinite Sadness, it just was crushed under my expectations. I've tried revisiting both in the past and they just don't do it for me like the Trent's first 3 and Billy's first 2.

I've listened to every Halo and my love for it stops at 12 - Closure. I find that fitting too, now for the DVD/BR release

auto

Another vote for The Fragile. No filler there to my ears.

Hixx

Yup, in fact no double album that has been released in the CD era has been entirely successful. In my opinion, it's simply not possible for an artist to put out 140 minutes of music that actually works as an album. Most of them have a bunch of self indulgent excess that would have been best left to B-sides.

I think the Fragile, just like Mellon Collie or Use Your Illusion would have made a killer single disc, in fact I made "best of" compilations of all three that I enjoy much more than the official releases.