Not sure it's where I'd start within the NIN discography, but The Fragile turned 20 yesterday and Stereogum did a wonderful write-up on an album that was misunderstood at the time but is now widely considered a masterpiece (and that played a huge role in defining my high school years and shaping my taste in music). Pitchfork even re-reviewed it a couple years ago.
Couldn't find an appropriate thread to drop it in:
To understand just how out-of-place Nine Inch Nails were in 1999, you only have to look at that year’s MTV Video Music Awards. The 1998 VMAs, like so many of the years before it, were dominated by music that strove for seriousness — rap, alt-rock, Madonna when she was making electronica and...
www.stereogum.com
And to keep the thread on topic- where would you tell somebody to start if they were trying to get into NIN? Pretty Hate Machine? The Downward Spiral? Year Zero (which is more accessible according to modern sounds)?