Six Songs That Should Be On Nine Inch Nails' Greatest-Hits Album

By Corey Deiterman Fri., Dec. 21 2012 at 12:00 PM

Photo by Mark C. Austin

Recently Trent Reznor announced the reactivation of Nine Inch Nails as an active studio project, along with a greatest-hits record scheduled to be released in 2014 with two new tracks.

Of course, as a major NIN nerd, this is exciting news. NIN hasn't released one single compilation CD in Reznor's long career, so now we can only speculate on what might make it on there. We should probably expect "Head Like a Hole" and "Closer." Probably "Starfuckers" too. But the fun part will be the tracks you'd never expect.

If Reznor's track record holds true, this is probably going to have at least a few deep cuts included to give a more expansive overview of NIN's career. Here I thought I'd give him a few suggestions on what those should be.

6. "That's What I Get"
One of the standout tracks on Pretty Hate Machine, "That's What I Get" is a prime example of NIN's early style. I'm not saying to include it at the expense of the hits, except for maybe "Down In It." I mean, what NIN comp would be complete without "Sin" or "Terrible Lie"? But "That's What I Get" represents the early years in all their glory and '80s cheese.

5. "The Line Begins to Blur"
Since all the hits on With Teeth got packed on the the first half, it's easy to overlook the record's excellent second half. One of the best moments there is the crushingly heavy "The Line Begins to Blur," which represents the overall sound of the album a hell of a lot better than "Only."

4. "Even Deeper"
You could make a case to include just about any track from The Fragile on an NIN compilation, but I think "Even Deeper" is not only the perfect deep cut from the record to make it, but could pass for a decent title for the compilation too. Not to mention its production help from Dr. Dre ties in well with Reznor's recent work with Beats By Dre.

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Nine Inch Nails

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Smedley

Burn and the cover of Dead Souls... And March of the Pigs

FifthDream

@tweakermusic @nineinchnails PHM, Broken, TDS, The Fragile, With Teeth, Year Zero... Oh, you said songs. Sorry, too many to pick.

Julian Bajsel

I can't wait until his wife breaks his little heart, sending him into an emotional downward spiral. Maybe we'll get a new NIN album and tour out of it. Merry Christmas.

isiahsanders11

@Julian Bajsel New album coming after this, maybe a tour as well

Corey Deiterman

It was a toss-up between "That's What I Get" and "Ringfinger" for me on that one actually. Either one would be great. I know a lot of people don't like "Deep," but that's a personal favorite. Another one I'd love to see on there that I didn't include here s "Where is Everybody?" from The Fragile.

Eric McPhail

I can get behind this mostly. "Deep" is not a great song, but that's just me myself and I talking. I'd replace "That's What I Get" with "Ringerfinger" and personal preference, but yeah I'd love to see more deep cuts and less singles on his "Greatest Hits" compilation.