Nine Inch Nails - Purest Feeling+

This is the last NIN post for a while, simply because, like Prince or any other topic that has a lot of posts, I don't want overkill. That said, if you haven't heard this before, you should definitely check it out now.

Before signing an awful contract with TVT Records, Trent Reznor, while doing janitorial work at the Right Track Studios in Cleveland, was using spare studio time to record demos for Nine Inch Nails. Adrian Sherwood was so impressed by the demo he heard that he couldn't say no to working with Trent, noting that it sounded like an almost finished album. That demo, most likely, was the bootleg album that circulates under the name, Purest Feeling.

Purest Feeling is pretty incredible stuff to listen to as it's amazingly complete sounding despite clearly being different, earlier recordings. That said, while tracks like Down In It, Sanctified, That's What I Get and The Only Time are rather close to their finished versions, Kinda I Want To is a synth-pop ode to misery, Ringfinger contains an alternate chorus with extra lyrics, and there are two completely unreleased songs, another synth-pop misery inducer named Maybe Just Once and Purest Feeling, the song itself, which is somewhat Police-esque with Trent providing sax squawks and a brass back-up. The unreleased songs aren't bad, but they certainly don't fit with the harder edge to come on Pretty Hate Machine.

On top of the Purest Feeling demo album, there are five other demos in circulation that are included here. Additional demos of Sanctified, Ringfinger (labeled Twist), Kinda I Want To and two versions of Down In It are circulating, although they aren't too different from the versions on Purest Feeling. The main difference is that they're lacking the grout that kept the Purest Feeling versions linked to each other, though Twist contains yet more lyrics left off the Pretty Hate Machine version, and the Big Whole Mix of Down In It is completely different from any other demo version circulating with a more subdued vocal.

It's worth noting that as interesting as these demos are, apparently there is another demo floating around, as a tape, apparently in the possession Martin Atkins, was recently sold on eBay for a thousand dollars with versions of Terrible Lie and Sin, both of which have previously not circulated. That demo, of which two samples can be listened to here, sounds a lot more completed than the Purest Feeling ones, which makes for an interesting difference. Regardless of which demos were passed around though, Purest Feeling and the rest of the demos are a fascinating look at NIN before they were the juggernaut they are now.


Nine Inch Nails - Purest Feeling+

01 Intro
02 Sanctified
03 Maybe Just Once
04 The Only Time
05 Kinda I Want To
06 That's What I Get
07 Purest Feeling
08 Ringfinger
09 Down In It

10 Down In It (Demo)
11 Sanctified (Demo)
12 Kinda I Want To (Demo)
13 Twist (Demo)
14 Down In It (Big Whole Mix)