About an hour after buying this record I finally got the fact that it was a 9" record; somehow it'd taken an hour to realise that, of course, the band were named after nails 9 inches long - I'd never really thought about the words other than in the context of being a cool band name. Anyway, I was pretty pleased when I realised - I'd bought it mostly because I thought it was cool that it was a different size, but it was even better when I realised the significance. I'm not usually so slow on the uptake.
I’d spent 2000 and 2001 getting all the Nine Inch Nails albums, having been thoroughly impressed (and beaten and bruised) by The Downward Spiral. In 2002 I found this record in a second hand shop in Boscombe and quickly added it to the pile of second hand cds I was buying. At £5, I remember thinking it was expensive, and that all the cds I bought that day were a similar price, but for full albums.
The single itself is a highlight from The Downward Spiral - those piano interludes make the song - they're so unexpected (on first listen) and seem so out of place, but I love it for them. The remix adds something - certainly in that it's more than twice as long, but lacks the energy and juxtaposition of that energy against the piano, so is definitely a lesser version. A Violent Fluid is little more than a bit of filler, but the remix of Reptile (entitled Underneath the Skin) is quite interesting - it starts off quite underwhelmingly, but actually builds to something I quite enjoy, which is a rare thing to be said about a remix.
Format: 9", numbered (#411)
Tracks: 4
Cost: £5 second hand
Bought: Boscombe
When: 29/10/02
Colour: Black
Etching: none
mp3s: no
