Hesitation Marks:
Rating: 5 Stars (Gold) * * * * *
This was the album I was waiting for ever since I really started getting into music and collecting albums back in 2008. NIN has been possibly my favorite artist for a long time, and has also been infamous for releasing albums between large periods of time, but with rewarding results. So this album had a ton of pressure on it in my mind. I am glad to say, I'm very happy with it.
With Ghosts I-IV, The Slip, and How to Destroy Angels, Trent Reznor seemed to be accepting his role as an independent minimal artist. With this album however, he returned to a major label and released a full length LP. No disrespect to How to Destroy Angels or those other two albums, I did enjoy those but I wouldn't have wanted NIN to stay like that forever. At the same time, Hesitation Marks doesn't sound like a desperate return to an earlier period, it is entirely original sounding and melds a type of minimalism with NIN's classic dense layering.
The album opens with the track The Eater of Dreams, an instrumental prologue containing little more than a dark ambient pulse and distorted lyrics. At the climax it leads directely into Copy of A, a slightly minimal but fast paced song to kick things off. In it Reznor laments being a copy of a copy of a copy, a product of outside forces. The synth that kicks in during the chorus adds a dramatic feel that also reminds me slightly of something that might be found in a Radiohead song. Lindsay Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac makes his first appearance in this song, playing guitar during the connecting segment between the chorus and the second verse.
Next up is Came Back Haunted, the album's lead single. The song is very bouncy as Reznor tells of needing to hide something but being unable to help himself. He experienced something dark and came back haunted to tell the tale. The guitar work both in the second verses and the bridge are very NIN-y and declared to me a return to NIN form back when the song first came out. This song also has a great music video directed by David Lynch to go with it.
Things slow down for a bit with the next song, Find My Way. A very atmospheric and solemn song that accompanies a prayer to God. In it, Reznor laments that he has gone astray and is determined to find his way. A bed of underlying vocals creeps in during the second half and gives the song an almost angelic feel.
Things kick back up with All Time Low. One of my favorites, it has a funky guitar and percussion, carrying a theme of indulging in the dark side of life, being another all time low. The second half switches gears and sounds uplifting with a rising and falling synth as the vocals chant "stretch across the sky". The change seems to either signify a rise out of the all time low and into the sky, or as the lyric "how did we get so high?" suggests, possibly replicating the feeling of being intoxicated and feeling a high.
The next track Disappointed begins with a minimal gallopy beat as layers creep in and out throughout the song. Reznor seems to either be attacking people who are disappointed in him, or is giving a sardonic portrayal of someone who has disappointed many and is mocking them. An unidentifiable stringed instrument plays in the outro in the same melody as the vocals.
Everything is possibly the most controversial song to hit the NIN fanbase. The song sounds uncharacteristically happy and upbeat for something composed by Trent Reznor. With a punk rock sound, Reznor sings "I survived everything". A falling guitar riff reminiscent of The Cure is present in the second verse as he sings "wave goodbye, wish me well". The outro begins to sound far away as Reznor continues "I am home, I am free, I believe". It's hard to tell if this song is meant to be a genuine declaration of triumph or a sort of false redemption.
Satellite is another favorite of mine on the album. A very poppy and dancable track that also sounds uncharacteristic of Nine Inch Nails. As many have pointed out, the song's theme of being spied on by satellites is almost eerie seeing how it came out around the time of the NSA spying controversy. The song is extremely catchy and the second chorus vocal harmonies remind me of a 90s era dance track. In the latter portion, the song grows more sinister, repeating "I know you're up there somewhere". The poppiness of this track and the previous track could perhaps be explained by the fact that they were the first two songs written and were originally planned for an NIN best-of pack that Reznor owed to Interscope. Nonetheless, it is a fantastic song.
Starting with Various Methods of Escape, the album becomes more centered and focused on Trent Reznor as a person in the present. Minimal in the versus and heavy in the chorus, the lyrics reflect on the difficulty of freeing oneself from life's difficult vices. The bridge gets quiet in a style similar to Mr Self Destruct as he repeats "I think I could lose myself in here". It then builds back up and leads into the next track.
The next track, Running, starts with a fast paced but subdued sounding gallop. The protagonist is running from something in their life but is quickly running out of places to hide. The synth plugin from Copy of A rejoins during the chorus. Much of the song rides the line "I'm running out of places I can hide from this". The song is a good standalone track while also serving as a sort of connector between Various Methods of Escape and I Would For You.
I Would For You is an intense track, with a chaotic thumping bass in the verses, and a heavy guitar with shouting in the choruses. The synth from Running and Copy of A rejoins this song during the second verse. I am interested who the "you" is that Reznor is willing to become someone else for. His wife and kids? Even God perhaps? The songs strips down to a piano riff for the outro, leading directly into In Two.
In Two is one of the most violent sounding songs on the album. Very chaotic beats accompany chopped up lyrics of a conversation between two different personalities. One urges the protagonist to shed his skin and save himself. The other urges him to become his disease. Distorted vocals then chant about nature being violent and how that was someone else. Lindsay Buckingham's guitarwork jumps in with a falsetto voice saying "it's getting harder to tell the two of you apart". The bridge once again gets silent and repeats "I just don't know anymore". It builds once more to a climax filled with rapidly changing synths and quickly spills into the final full song.
At the end of the album is the final song split across two tracks. The bulk of the song is While I'm Still Here. This song is mellow but dead serious, as Reznor seems to reflect on his life and confronts the idea that he will die someday, contrasting the earlier chants of "we will never die" in All Time Low. More wonderful guitarwork by Buckingham and a smooth outro saxophone add to the ambiance of the song. The final track is an instrumental outro to the song called Black Noise. The loop from the previous song continues but something sounds different. The baseline has become much more sinister as a wall of horrifying sound creeps in and devours everything. Building to a loud climax, it suddenly cuts out, ending the song and album abruptly.
That is Hesitation Marks, a satisfying Nine Inch Nails album following years of build up. Well done Mr Reznor!
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