Where should I start with Nine Inch Nails?

Watched The Social Network and Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and loved both soundtracks to death. Are there any albums that Trent as done similar to these soundtracks?

the most similar to those are ghosts I-IV (the social network even re-uses some tracks iirc)

the best are broken, fixed, the downward spiral and this

mmmm coil remix

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaJZjXnJU4E

start by flushing ur toilet

as Kaini has already said, The Social Network already re-used tracks from Ghosts I-IV so your best bet would be starting there.

Also you'd likely find his collaboration with his wife, How To Destroy Angels to your liking too since melodically and sonically they're kind of in the same ball park.

As for the earlier albums like The Downward Spiral, and such...well they're great, but not really in the same ball park as his later works (I find his later stuff to be...lacking).

Pretty Hate Machine or Year Zero if you want synthy dance music

Broken or Downward Spiral if you want Industrialish

The Fragile or (especially) Ghosts if you want cinematic instrumental stuff

With Teeth or The Slip if you want NIN doing pop rock

Quake Soundtrack if you want dark ambient instrumentals

fucking love fucking love fucking love the Quake soundtrack.

best thing he ever did.

yeah. the quake soundtrack is super.

For me, Broken, Downward Spiral and Further Down the Spiral are the best but they aren't like TSN soundtrack. Like you I was really impressed with TSN and bought the cd the day after I watched the film, very good album indeed.

I heard a few of his instrumental albums under the NIN moniker and as I remember they weren't too memorable.

  On 3/25/2012 at 10:54 PM, beerwolf said:

I heard a few of his instrumental albums under the NIN moniker and as I remember they weren't too memorable.

I think it was The Slip? Dunno can't remember.

  On 3/25/2012 at 10:57 PM, beerwolf said:

I think it was The Slip? Dunno can't remember.

Yeah, to be fair, The Slip was among the worst he's done. And also wasn't too instrumental.

Yeah I think what happened with The Slip is he got sloppy after the "record all of Ghosts in a couple of months" experiment was successful & rushed it.

Also most of the main albums have remix albums & those basically sound like an alternative universe where NIN is a techno act.

Broken is his best.

  On 3/25/2012 at 11:54 PM, jefferoo said:

Broken is his best.

Broken has this gorgeously sinister undertone to it all. It is a fucking good'un

I was 12 or 13 when it came out. I heard it for the first time in a record store and immediately bought it. When I got home and figured out that it was basically 1 guy, it totally blew my mind.

That album definitely changed my life.

  On 3/25/2012 at 11:54 PM, jefferoo said:

Broken is his best.

Have you seen the videos they made for the whole EP? All of them were banned pretty much everywhere (except for Gave Up, I think). Richard Patrick, his right-hand guy at the time, went on to start Filter a short while after.

I was a teen when I first heard Downward Spiral; it's become a bit of a cliche for angsty teens, but it completely changed my outlook on music. It was a huge leap from PHM and Broken, the production was very tight and it was fierce throughout. The only soundtrack moment in it would be A Warm Place, though.

Crystal Japan

yeah, i agree broken (and fixed, some of the best remixes i know are on that) are his best

  On 3/26/2012 at 12:17 AM, kokeboka said:

  On 3/25/2012 at 11:54 PM, jefferoo said:

Broken is his best.

 

Have you seen the videos they made for the whole EP? All of them were banned pretty much everywhere (except for Gave Up, I think).

 

Wish definitely made its rounds on MTV.

and the video for Happiness In Slavery.

That was definitely banned.

Funny. Wasn't banned over here in the UK.

fragile was my first and therefore my favorite ( though i'd heard plenty nin before that ) love that album.

  On 3/26/2012 at 12:33 AM, oscillik said:

Funny. Wasn't banned over here in the UK.

it was eventually i think, after the MTV europe bosses realised what the fuck it was that they were airing.

i sometimes wonder if trent was actually into BDSM or was just using it as an interesting lyrical thing. i mean the song is basically a big ol fuck you to interscopeTVT.

  On 3/26/2012 at 12:40 AM, kaini said:

  On 3/26/2012 at 12:33 AM, oscillik said:

Funny. Wasn't banned over here in the UK.

 

it was eventually i think, after the MTV europe bosses realised what the fuck it was that they were airing.

It got shown a few times on the standard MTV channel, but was mostly aired on MTV2 during that short-lived period of time when MTV2 was fucking awesome (generally between 1997-2000)