I think that’s the first I’ve heard The Downward Spiral described as too commercial.
You don’t think Pretty Hate Machine is filled with anger and confusion?
I think if you were to look within, you’d find you were the right age to be receptive to the earlier albums, and by ‘94 you’d grown out of the level of angst.
In '94 my angst was still accelerating. You're right that PHM contained expressions of anger and confusion. It just felt more whole than TDS.
RE commercial success [0]:
> Nine Inch Nails' second studio album, The Downward Spiral, entered the Billboard 200 at number two,[57] and is the band's highest seller in the US, over four million copies, among five million worldwide.[58]
The best way I ever heard this sentiment phrased was "the most radio friendly single on the album had the refrain 'I want to fuck you like an animal'".
You also can't separate the song from the music video.
It is a really catchy song, really cool video that got a ton of MTV air time, really interesting electronic music and he found a way to say “fuck you like an animal”.
I was never a big NIN fan but I remember instantly loving that music video the first time I seen it on MTV.
I think it just depends how into industrial music a person is/was.
Reznor's genius to me was in taking industrial music and making it catchy, radio friendly and basically pop.
Completely commercial compared to anything I can think of in industrial music from the time on back. Completely filled with confusion and anger though compared to say Whitney Houston from the time.
You don’t think Pretty Hate Machine is filled with anger and confusion?
I think if you were to look within, you’d find you were the right age to be receptive to the earlier albums, and by ‘94 you’d grown out of the level of angst.