2 out of 5

Label: TVT

Producer: Adrian Sherwood, Keith LeBlanc

It’s not that the song is bad.  Not at all.  This was an amazing debut track, showing a restraint in lyrical content that avoided the overt aggression or poetics of mid-era NiN and weaving a pretty effective smattering of lines about emotional perspective (or however you want to interpret things).  And yeah, its got an 80s dance vibe to it, the industrial nature of it coming across in Trent’s moody singing and the general marching beat, but already we see the songsmith at work, weaving in a couple fresh elements to elevate the track beyond just a rhythm and a chorus, though certainly Adrian Sherwood’s and Keith LeBlanc’s production help this, somehow keeping both  the electronic edge and yet maintaining an organic sound.

So: it’s not the song.  But perhaps we can touch on that in the album review.  Instead I’m giving this a two for the worthwhileness of the rest of the material on this, which is slim.  We get the album version of the song (the ‘Skin’ mix), then the ‘Shred’ mix, which basically just adds some extra drumfills toward track’s end and maybe loops some vocals, and then the ‘Singe’ mix, which ups the danceability a trace… but the track was already in that realm, so it’s not a massive change.  I get that these aren’t full on remixes, and that this was a ‘teaser’ single (according to wiki), so fine, it’s really just meant to isolate the main track.  And since that’s available on Pretty Hate Machine, the minimal differences between the other versions make this a for-collectors-only need.  I think it’s interesting to get familiar enough with the recording that the changes made from mix to mix become more apparent, but there’s nothing about one over the other that makes it an ‘absolute’ version.