It was a given that Hesitation Marks would provide Nine Inch Nails with a future. But what's so impressive here is that it's given then a future every bit as promising as their illustrious past.
Through his own twisted K-hole, #ARTPOP icon Reznor is once again one of the most vital artists working today, coming back haunted, breaking the habitual.
It’s obvious on the rest of the album that the fear of living isn’t holding Reznor back anymore. This outlook has given a huge boost to NIN’s creativity, and helped the group re-emerge as a relevant, vital, and still weird band.
Reznor’s first NIN album in five years, it is one of his best, combining the textural exploration on the 1999 double CD The Fragile, and the tighter fury of his 1994 master blast, The Downward Spiral.
Five years away hasn't damaged their ability to wow and Hesitation Marks puts Trent Reznor's soundtrack albums into context; here, he sounds at his very best and right where he belongs.
Hesitation Marks, the new album from Nine Inch Nails, is both business as usual and remarkably prescient.
It's the danger that comes from walking that fine line that makes the album such a welcome return.
Whatever Reznor promised this isn’t an evolution for the band but a very confident, very polished assertion of what they do well – heck, what they do better than anyone else.
'Hesitation Marks' is Reznor's Frankenstein. The most complete archiving of everywhere Nine Inch Nails has been, but more than that a jaw-dropping preview of everywhere it can go.
What it is ... is an album of bona fide radio hits in an ideal world, a fine example of mainstream rock at its most tasteful, music that’s going to be popular and sell a lot but that’s not afraid to subtly defy expectations of what its makers are.
Hesitation Marks follows the musical lineage that began with The Fragile, but it surpasses recent NIN albums thanks to a deeply personal thematic core and a willingness to push the songwriting into territory that is often dancier and poppier than listeners have come to expect from the band.
As a whole, Hesitation Marks is an engaging and embracing listen, and it can certainly be said that, almost 25 years into a recording career, Reznor is still surprising listeners.
It’s the mark of a Nine Inch Nails far more concerned with being straightforward and direct, peeling away the gusty ambience and cutting right to the heart of the matter.
While not his best album, Hesitation Marks shows that he has no intention to fall back on old formulas.
No other Nine Inch Nails record has been so mindful of dance and electronic trends from outside its own bubble, or the resurgence of many of these sounds recently.
Even at its weakest, which means at times tedious and, like every Nine Inch Nails album before it, too long, Hesitation Marks finds Reznor bracingly reinvigorated.
Hesitation Marks makes it quite clear that Trent Reznor is no longer an angry young man but rather a restless, inventive artist who is at peace with himself, and the result is a record that provides real, lasting nourishment.
Its sound is skeletal and spare, as if picking up right where The Slip’s more subdued second act left off, with Reznor's usual adrenalized aggression replaced with jagged digital tics and queasy atmospheres.
On Hesitation Marks, Nine Inch Nails hints at new directions, but hesitates to take a leap.
All intriguing and unique, but as the concluding third settles into shapeless moodiness, Hesitation Marks could've done with some pruning.
After the incredibly textured and forward-thinking The Slip in '08, Nine Inch Nails returns with a bit of a throwback on Hesitation Marks.
The musician is famously exacting when it comes to sound and, predictably, the album is impeccably produced. What's shocking, though, is that at moments it sounds – whisper it – delicate.
By playing both to nostalgic sensibilities and trying to literally occupy the same territory he once did, Hesitation Marks is only welcome in that it puts Nine Inch Nails on tour.
Nine Inch Nails meow where they once used to roar and Hesitation Marks is a tired and subdued beast indeed.
When I listened to "Hesitation Marks" back in 2018, I praised it for being a cool throwback with plenty of what makes Nine Inch Nails so great. It's been two years now and I think that this is their weakest LP to date Not to say that it's bad, however, because it definitely has pros. The mostly electro-industrial direction is a nice throwback to the days of "Pretty Hate Machine" and it contains a few of Trent's best tracks to date. There's also "Everything" which ... read more
This album is a strange one. On one hand, it doesn't take much risks in providing energetic and thought provoking tracks, but on the other hand it's one of the more experimental and unique Nine Inch Nails albums to come out in a long time. No matter how you shake it, this album still has some fun and unique ideas at play, both sonically and lyrically.
Favorite jams: Various Methods of Escape, In Two, I Would For You
Lest Favorite: The Eater Of Dreams
2 decades after Nine Inch Nails started, they are still releasing dirty and moody songs that still leave a lasting impression. At this point in their discography part of me does feel like its getting old but part of me also feels appreciative that they are always a reliable band to make a good album even if they aren't making as ambitious records as they once were in the earlier part of their discography. This is one of the more electronic records they've made too, and it doesn't feel too dated ... read more
Yeah people kinda don't like this one a lot. I get it. It's definitely something different. It's a strange fusion of the haunting, ambient, slow sound of Ghosts I-IV and the noisy, paranoid, raw force of The Slip. It's a decidedly new direction for NIN as a Studio Album. While The Slip did a little bit of experimenting with these low-key, ambient soundscapes, it felt like a backloaded fumble that fucked up the whole album's pacing on there. Hesitation Marks is intimately married to this style ... read more
I like the more electronic approach. The intro is a bit weird, but it lines up quite good with "Copy of A". I don't get, why "Everything" has one of the worst scores on the track list.
-
Mir gefällt die elektronische Herangehensweise. Das Intro ist etwas komisch, doch passt es gut zum ersten richitgen Lied. Keine Ahnung weshalb "Everything" so einen 'schlechten' Score hat.
-
Tracks ranked:
1. Copy of A
2. Everything
3. Come Back Haunted
4. I Would For You
5. ... read more
2 decades after Nine Inch Nails started, they are still releasing dirty and moody songs that still leave a lasting impression. At this point in their discography part of me does feel like its getting old but part of me also feels appreciative that they are always a reliable band to make a good album even if they aren't making as ambitious records as they once were in the earlier part of their discography. This is one of the more electronic records they've made too, and it doesn't feel too dated ... read more
1 | The Eater of Dreams 0:52 | 73 |
2 | Copy of A 5:22 | 89 |
3 | Came Back Haunted 5:17 | 89 |
4 | Find My Way 5:15 | 80 |
5 | All Time Low 6:17 | 82 |
6 | Disappointed 5:44 | 74 |
7 | Everything 3:19 | 77 |
8 | Satellite 5:02 | 81 |
9 | Various Methods of Escape 5:01 | 86 |
10 | Running 4:07 | 71 |
11 | I Would For You 4:32 | 78 |
12 | In Two 5:31 | 83 |
13 | While I'm Still Here 4:02 | 77 |
14 | Black Noise 1:29 | 75 |
#4 | / | CraveOnline |
#7 | / | Alternative Press |
#15 | / | Spin |
#19 | / | Rolling Stone |
#25 | / | Drowned in Sound |
#25 | / | Stereogum |
#37 | / | FasterLouder |
#58 | / | musicOMH |
#79 | / | eMusic |
#102 | / | Under the Radar |