Everyone has that one album that absolutely blew their mind and revealed to them a whole new musical world. For Nine Inch Nails mastermind Trent Reznor, that album was Remain in Light by Talking Heads. Reznor said in a post on Vinyl Writers that Remain in Light opened his mind as he was growing up in a rural town, and praised the album for incorporating so many different styles.
"A strange, synthetic, polyrhytmical piece of art with African influences which confused me in every way," he said. "With good albums it is the case that at the beginning you don’t know what you are actually dealing with. But you are fascinated by it, and with about six listens it slowly reveals itself to you. With the 10th listen you are completely thrilled, but even when you listen for the 30th time you still discover something new.
"Remain In Light taught me that. The record enlightened and changed me. It showed me what music can do, how song structures can look like, or how drum parts can interact with other parts. Since I started making music myself, this wonderful album has been something I can always consult. The great thing is that the record can still be approached from so many different directions without losing its puzzles."
If you somehow missed out on listening to Remain in Light, you should absolutely do so right now.
Nine Inch Nails was recently inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
