When I decided to write reviews for all of Pearl Jam’s records, I approached it from the perspective that they were perhaps an act that I had misjudged. I had always sort of hated them and thought that it might be interesting to see if that hatred was justified. It turns out, I was wrong for hating them but I wasn’t wrong for not being crazy about them. Basically the wimpiest outcome I could imagine.
Last week I ran a poll to decide who to reevaluate next. There were numerous suggestions that were not included on the poll that may have actually been more entertaining, but from the poll options, Nine Inch Nails have won the day.
The idea of taking an extended look at the work of Spooky Ol’ Terry Razor is not unappealing to me, and therein lies my dilemma. I was very interested in Nine Inch Nails as a teenager. I think that the only band logo that was more often scrawled on my high school notebooks than the iconic NIN logo may be the Nirvana smiley face. I am curious as to whether or not I will have as much to say in regard to the music as I did about Pearl Jam, who I was coming to from a position of expecting the worst. Where’s the fun in writing about something that you can only think of nice things to say about?
Then again, as of about 1998, I completely ignored this band’s output. If I reevaluate the early catalogue with nostalgic fondness, will I discover that Trank Roswell and the gang totally went to shit in the years following The Downward Spiral? Will I receive more confirmation that I was a dummy as a teenager and that the old records don’t actually hold up? Who knows!
I’ll start next week with a review of 1989’s Pretty Hate Machine.
A New Point of View
For this series, I will also take a closer look at Trent Reznor’s fashion choices from the era of each Nine Inch Nails album.
So you’ve got that to look forward to.
Click here to read a review of PRETTY HATE MACHINE.
A Side Act
The runner up from last week’s poll was the option that called for me to take a look at the solo work of Phil Collins. This is far more fertile ground for the kind of intensely negative commentary that you’ve all come to expect from me, so I’m going to do another series reevaluating Phil Collins on the side every couple of weeks.
You’re welcome.
The Fraudsters' Almanac 
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