Nine Inch Nails: Broken (LP+7") [NOTHING/INTERSCOPE]

Why you'll love it

This definitive edition, prepared by Trent Reznor and art director John Crawford, is remastered on a one-sided 180g 12-inch with a spiral-etched B side and a bonus 7-inch single. Broken reached No. 7 on the Billboard 200, and "Wish" and "Happiness In Slavery" each won the Grammy for Best Metal Performance.

This edition

• Bonus 7" single
• 180g vinyl
• Remastered
• Etched B side
• Definitive edition
• Download card included
• Pressed in the EU

About the album

After the synth-pop shimmer of Pretty Hate Machine, Trent Reznor wanted something much heavier, and he got it. He and co-producer Flood made Broken on the move, across six studios, from Hell in New Orleans and Royal Recorders in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin, to South Beach in Miami and the Village Recorder and A&M in Los Angeles. Interscope put it out on September 22, 1992 as the band's major-label debut.

Reznor built the wall of guitars by playing through an old Zoom pedal straight into Digidesign's TurboSynth on a Macintosh, which explains a lot about how unnatural and huge it sounds. "Pinion" is a brief, ominous overture, "Wish" detonates, "Last" and "Gave Up" grind away, and "Happiness In Slavery" is as punishing as anything he ever recorded. The 7-inch carries "Physical," an Adam and the Ants cover, and "Suck," first done with Pigface. The record pointed straight at The Downward Spiral two years later.

Listen closely to the break in "Physical" and you'll hear Reznor's dog Maise, slowed to half speed. She's credited in the liner notes with barks and roars, which is more than most session players get.

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Tracklist

Listen

On Nothing / Interscope, a reissue of the 1992 EP.