Nine Inch Nails ‘Hesitation Marks’ Album Review. Trent Reznor lightens up, just a bit. And that’s okay.

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Trent Reznor put Nine Inch Nails on ice back in 2009, saying: I’ve been thinking for some time now it’s time to make NIN disappear for a while.

In the meantime he became an Oscar winning film composer and formed How To Destroy Angels with his wife Mariqueen Maandig.

But he’s resurfaced with a new tour, and a new album, Hesitation Marks. The internet buzz and fan demand has been intense, but can the album meet those high expectations?

What’s most refreshing is that Reznor is no longer trying to outdo The Downward Spiral. How could he? Few albums are as labyrinthine in sound and melody, abrasion and beauty. It remains the gold standard of industrial rock.

Ever since, he’s tried to match it’s epic scope with mixed results; The Fragile was 2 discs of major ambitiousness, but missed Spiral’s sonic cohesion. Later works With Teeth, Year Zero and The Slip had moments of uneven brilliance.

But Hesitation Marks does reference Spiral. It even shares same font and artist for its album cover.

 

But Reznor is in a much healthier place than his 90’s persona. He’s a happily married, doting dad, no longer the self-destructive nihilist. Marks lyrics shows he’s managing self-doubt with evolved purpose.

It also has the most stripped down arrangements in NIN’s catalogue. Consider it a more nuanced Pretty Hate Machine.

Singles Copy Of A and Came Back Haunted open the album, and are indicative of its overall tone; slinkier, shinier, and more concerned with mood than oblivion.

Find My Way is a skittering atmospheric piano ballad, recalling Massive Attacks Teardrop. Reznor offers a meditative prayer:  Although my path has gone astray/I’m just trying to find my way…I have made a great a mistake/I pray the lord my soul to take. It ends in an oceanic tide of distorted bliss.

All Time Low is Down In It  all grown up, with funky tweaked guitar and Reznor doing his inimitable rap-singing hybrid.

Its lyrics reference the endless cycle of addiction, which Reznor battled until 2004: This particular scenario…looks like another all time low…why did you go and let them in/this is where the fun begins/you’ve barely even pierced the skin.

The track ends with hypnotic buoyant synths, capturing the mood of narcotic numbed out bliss.

Disappointed’s relentless beat and squalling guitars anchor Reznor as his inner demons mocks his new-found outlook: Look at you superman/with all the world to save/you’d think right now you’d figure out/that’s nothings gonna change.

Happiness is Reznor’s most blissed out moment ever. Its sprightly guitars reference The Cure’s Just Like Heaven. It’s a paean to family life; I am home, I believe/I am home, I am free. Many NIN fans may pine for the dark side, but I admire the abrupt change in sound and vision.

His Prince influence rears its head in the funky Satellite. It fuses 80’s hip-hop percussion with eerie delayed guitar. Perhaps the catchiest tune on the album.

Various Methods Of Escape  recalls his soundtrack work on The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo with oscillating eerie bell tones coalescing with his distorted, disembodied vocals. It’s another reminder that Hesitation Marks is a work of restraint. He’s avoiding the whisper to a scream moments of earlier work and aiming for a new approach.

The album does reach a heavier industrial clang with In Two. Violent percussion and frenzied falsetto frame Reznor’s struggle with changing himself for the better: Splitting into something else…Yes yes of course its gonna hurt. The chorus hammers it home further: Its getting harder and harder to tell the two of you apart.

While I’m Still Here references middle-age navel gazing at mortality; Reznor is calling out to his wife and children in a tender and touching ode to enjoying life while you can: A little more everyday/falls apart and slips away/ I don’t mind/I’m ok, nothing ever stays the same/stay with me hold me near–while I’m still here.

This isn’t Hurt. This is Healed.

Hesitation Marks is a testament to surviving one’s personal demons and being the better for it. And it sounds goddamn great. Welcome back.

Hesitation Marks will be released Sept 3rd via Columbia Records. You can pre-order it from iTunes and Amazon via the links below.

 

And you can stream it for free until its release date by clicking here.