Search - Nine Inch Nails :: Head Like a Hole

A lot of repetition.

Michael Stack | North Chelmsford, MA USA | 02/09/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"The "Head Like a Hole" US single is a rather extensive piece, with five mixes of "Head Like a Hole", two of "Terrible Lie", and three of "Down In It". The material on here is interesting, but due to its rather repetitive nature, it isn't likely this is a CD you'll be reaching for frequently.



The five "Head Like a Hole" mixes, all by Trent Reznor and Flood, are largely similar excepting an instrumental restructuring which we'll get to in a moment. The slate mix is pretty straight from the original, largely changed in that the guitar on the chorus is opened up a bit, the clay mix is the similar to the original as well, but with an extra hi-hat rhythm added to it. Somewhat more interesting (although less successful) is the copper mix, with some extra beats, a few weird edits, a synthy percussion solo and a vocal-over-drum-loop of the "bow down before the one you serve" chant. Unfortunately, its somewhat overlong nature gets in the way of its ability to sustain interest. The soil mix features an extended intro and a nearly guitar-less (club friendly?) mix of the song (they do show up briefly after about four and a half minutes...), I find it to personally be the least interesting on the record as it takes the entirity of the bite away from the piece.



Oddly enough, the lack of guitars works better on the instrumental edit, titled "You Know Who You Are". Essentially a somewhat extended variant of the track (without guitars), this works pretty well, although like most dance mixes, it drags substanitally.



The "Terrible Lie" mixes (also by Reznor/Flood) I find somewhat less interesting-- the sympathetic mix is nearly identical to the album mix, excepting a brief reprise at the end of some earlier lyrics and is largely superfluous. The empathetic mix works quite a bit better, with an emphasis on the whispered chorus vocals, and a restructuring that really lets the song shine. Still, I find it inferior to the album mix and a bit overlong.



Two of the "Down In It" mixes, by Adrian Sherwood and Keith LeBlanc, are quite an improvement (they're also available on the "Down In It" single). The shred mix is like the old 12" extended mixes-- its essentially the album mix with several minutes of additional beats and sampled vocals from earlier in the piece. The singe mix is a sort of dance mix with the vocal largely removed and relegated to a sample. The demo is interesting certainly, with the vocal-over-drum-loop concept taken a bit further, but the sound quality feels a bit degraded and its not as hook laden and engaging as the album take.



Complaints-- with only three songs featured, the material tends to drag, and with the single being ten tracks and 55+ minutes, you feel it. They also left off the opal mix of "Head Like a Hole"-- you need the UK variant of the single for that.



Overall, this is actually an ok, single, but it drags on listen. If you can't get enough "Pretty Hate Machine", then check this one out."

Let's hear it for Nine Inch Nails!

Johnny Heering | Bethel, CT United States | 05/20/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This CD single features remixes of songs from the first Nine Inch Nails album. It is the longest CD single I ever heard of, being 56 minutes long. The songs are good, but the mixes aren't really all that different from each other. There is an unlisted 11th track, which is a woman saying "Let's hear it for Nine Inch Nails! Whoo! It's good!""

Buy PRETTY HATE MACHINE instead

Matthew J.P. | Somewhere, OR. U.S.A. | 03/05/2006

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Listening to Nine Inch Nail's HEAD LIKE A HOLE E.P. is a little like watching a remake of a favorite classic movie: There's something vaguely beautiful about it, but in the end, it ends up diminishing the original by a considerable amount. The HLH E.P. does exactly that. Yeah, sure, it sounds okay, and a few of the remixes are fairly descent, but overall it sounds like money in the record company's bank to me. This is only for hard-core fans of PRETTY HATE MACHINE who can stomach about an hour worth of redundancy and casual fans of the songs "Terrible Lie," "Head Like A Hole," and "Down It," because those are the only tracks on this album that are remixed. If those are the only PHM tracks you enjoy, then this could be a dream come true for you. For the rest: pick up PHM immediately (you should be ashamed of yourself for not having it yet; it's been out almost 17 years!).

NOTE: For some unexplainable reason, PRETTY HATE MACHINE is absurdly expensive some places and redicuously cheap at others. Don't pay over $15 bucks for P.H.M.

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