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The art work of this first album is created
under the concept of "some kind of turbine that looks
like rib bones." Trent Reznor likes to consider human
beings as machines in his songs. I think the turbine on this
album cover means heart, and maybe the ribs represent Adam
and Eve in the Garden of Eden.
If so, "Pretty Hate Machine" means "Human,"
which can also refer to "Female" since Trent is
a male. Or, If I liken the CD cover to the Garden of Eden,
the "machine" may represent the original sin of
human beings. He may have designed the CD cover to convey
a message about "the humans he dislikes a bit" or
"the love that even accepts the original sin." If
you pay close attention to the cover, it is designed with
bright blue and pink colors. These colors could represent
males and females, couldn't they?
Inside of the cover, there is a picture of Trent sitting uncomfortably
on a chair. In the picture, he seems depressed, unsatisfied,
and lonely. (The basic color of the picture is dark blue.
This makes me think that he is a little unhappy.)
The themes of this album are about the depressions and hardships
of love and passion. "Sin" is a perfect example
of these themes. Those difficulties are also beautifully and
masochistically expressed in the song "Ringfinger."
"Sanctified" reveals that he was deeply in love
with a woman when he worked on this album. He wrote "I
will give you everything if you desire so." However,
it seems as if his relationship with the woman was not going
well at the time because all the lines in the songs show his
dilemma of not being able to express his feelings to her.
His loneliness may have caused him to design that inner-cover
picture for this album. >>
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The melodies
of the songs on this album sound a lot like pop music. This
is probably because the album was released at the end of 1980s.
However, the album is very much like a comprehensive compilation
of Trent's music in the 1980s. You can understand this idea
if you remember that the reason Trent entered the world of music
in the first place is because he was impressed by the sound
of the synthesizer. I grew up listening to the same kind of
music that Trent might have listened to. Therefore, I can easily
enjoy listening to this album. I can recognize a lot of musical
influence from the other songs of that age. Moreover, I really
understand why he wanted to spend his life making music with
the synthesizer. The synthesizer was a very important part of
the music in the 80s. I still love the sound of it. This is
probably because I listened to synthesizer music a lot during
my teenage years and it is now a fond vestige of my past.
We can still hear many of the songs from this album in live
concerts of Nine Inch Nails. For example, "Head Like a
Hole," "Terrible Lie," "Something I Can
Never Have," "Sin," and "That's What I Get."
Trent also says that he loves people who still listen to "Head
Like A Hole." This album is definitely the root of Nine
Inch Nails' music.
Although it is labeled a "poppy" album by many people,
this album can not be overlooked when analyzing Nine Inch Nails.
The album not only has many great sounds, but it also represents
Trent Reznor's determination to stand strong on his own two
legs. It is not a perfect album, but whenever we look back upon
it, it will remind us of Trent Reznor's identity and confidence. |
