When it comes to making albums, Trent Reznor has a specific vision for each one. Hell, he took 5 years to get The Fragile just the way he wanted it. Each album is it's own entity. There's a path, a journey to each album experience. Because of this, there are very few throwaways in the Reznor's arsenal...but they do exist.
Here are the 11 Best Non-Album Nine Inch Nails Songs:
1. Perfect Drug (Lost Highway sdtk) - Probably one of the most complex radio songs of all time. From an orchestra of guitars to an actual orchestra. Maybe it was Reznor doing his Prince thing...but somehow, he got it just right.
2. Dead Souls (The Crow sdtk.) - One of the rare covers that holds water with the original. And let me tell, it's practically impossible to cover Joy Division and do them justice. Yet, Reznor does it like it's no big thing.
3. All That Could Have Been (All That Could Have Been) - Sure it's on an official NIN album but it's the only original song among remixes and live tracks. It deserves its own recognition. A fantastic song that has the emotional wrought of Hurt but also the enormous angst of Closer. A NIN masterpiece.
4. Metal (original version) - The version on Things Falling Apart is the remix. This extremely rare version is much more alive and kicking. Could have been an easy fit on the Downward Spiral.
5. Burn (Natural Born Killers soundtrack) - An electric-charged anthem that evolves in absolute mayhem.
6. Home (With Teeth Import Track) - The closest thing that NIN will ever get to a mid-tempo rock song. It's soft enough to play for your mom but the kids who hang out at 7-11 will mope to it, too.
7. Deep (Tomb Raider soundtrack) - A very strange up and down track. Sometimes I love this song...sometimes I hate it. Impossible to find since the soundtrack became out-of-print about two weeks after it's release.
8. Get Down Make Love (Pretty Hate Machine B-Side) - A nice cover of the Queen song. Nothing special. Pretty close remake. But a solid addition to the NIN catalogue.
9. 10 Miles High (The Fragile B-Side) - Rumored to be the original opening track for the album. It has the momentum....
10. Memoribilia (Downward Spiral B-Side) - more of a instrumental remix of an instrumental song. But Trent throws in some typical growls to keep this interesting.
11. Black Bomb (Jerry in the Bag) - Okay, it's not really a NIN song. But since Trent Reznor is pretty much NIN and he co-wrote and sings on this track...it might as well be a lost track. You make the call. Besides...it was either this or The New Flesh...
Thank you! It's taken until now to find the studio version of Home. Still has some other non-album songs on it too, but they're all quiet instrumentals.
ReplyDeleteNon-entity is another great unreleased song from the With Teeth era. I don't think there's a studio version, but there are some good quality mp3's floating around.
Nice post!
ReplyDeleteIt might also be worth mentioning that 'Metal' is a Gary Numan cover, and 'Memorabilia' is a Soft Cell cover...
nifty post, but i'd like to add that "and all that could have been" wasn't on an album that was all live tracks and remixes. the live stuff was on the live disc of halo17 if you bought the limited deluxe version, the second disc 'still' was more like, a stripped down unplugged deal which adds even more emotion into 4 songs that have previously released.
ReplyDeleteas for the only original song, far from it, "adrift and at peace", "gone, still", "the persistence of loss" and "leaving hope" are original as well. "and all that could have been" was the only original track to have lyrics.
There is a nine inch nails song that I have been itching to know what it is. Unfortunately the only person who knows what this song is is dead. The song starts out with a woman breathing heavily and a man interogating.. someone :P but the word "yes" is said quite a bit. Please help! >.>
ReplyDeleteStephanie, I believe you're thinking of the song "Get Down Make Love" which is a Queen cover.
ReplyDeletejust to add to the arry of other comments about tracks you missed or didn't add other information about.. theres also a track that reznor does with pigface.. oddly called "suck".. and of course the supernaut cover he did with 10,000 homo dj's... but whatever. this is a neat collection. your blogs pretty cool. i'm a big b-side collecting geek as well.
ReplyDeleteGet Down Make Love is a "pretty close remake"? I firmly disagree. Almost nothing like the original.
ReplyDelete