I bought this album when it came out because it contained the newest Nine Inch Nails song “The Perfect Drug” at the time. This was the first song post-Downward Spiral and after I had become a fan, so when I heard it on MuchMusic for the first time it lit a fire in my head. After the video was over, I immediately emailed The Wedge to see if they would take a request. While I watched that channel a lot, I made sure to stay glued to it as much as possible in the hope I could see the video and hear the song again. Thankfully it entered a pretty good rotation.
To this day it’s still one of my favourite Nine Inch Nails song, even though in hindsight Trent Reznor himself is not a fan of it as it was written during a musical transitional period for him and strictly for a soundtrack. All the same, I find it still fresh to this day. Different than most of his other work as NIN, but never straying too far from it.
As for the movie? I’ve only seen 10 mins of it. I believe when I rented it from Jumbo Video on VHS my viewing was interrupted, but that’s another story. I’d also never heard of David Lynch and missed the Twin Peaks movement entirely. I didn’t end up seeing any of his films until my early 20’s, starting with Dune.
Revisiting this album lately has been great. When I was younger I used to skip a lot of the score and stick to the NIN, Manson, Bowie and Pumpkins tracks. Apparently I still listened to the rest of it a fair bit as it was all still intimately familiar. I believe I’m a bigger fan of the score now.
Highlights:
- Nine Inch Nails – The Perfect Drug
- Smashing Pumpkins – Eye
- Marilyn Manson – I Put a Spell on You
- David Bowie – I’m Deranged