Nine Inch Nails: Hesitation Marks (2013)

NIN: Hesitation Marks (2013)

The return of NIN after a five year hiatus was something that I anticipated greatly, but when it came it came with disappointment. [1]

Reznor was (happily?) married, rich, and had been free of record label interference for a number of years prior to its release — allowing for, one supposes, a pleasing level of creative freedom — all of which meant he'd less to get upset or angry about.

A nice place to be, for sure, but it eliminated many of the things that had traditionally been a source of inspiration and/or a motivational factor in the artist's music.

Consequently, lyrically it skims still waters while trying to remain as close to the deeper NIN formula as possible.

The music attempts a similar kind of compromise. Amid the complex layering there's moments reminiscent of Pretty Hate Machine, some The Fragile, some With Teeth, and even some of his soundtrack work in the second half. Structurally the album tries hard to make each of those eras into one cohesive whole, but it comes out sounding bland and fatigued. It's telling and slightly ironic that the album's highlight (Everything) is the one that's the happiest sounding of all.

I rarely go a month or two without listening to something from NIN's back catalogue, but Hesitation Marks isn't an album that I include in the selection. I'm rarely that bored.

[1] Or four years if you count the NIN | JA Tour Sampler EP that came out in 2009, but the two NIN tracks on it were leftovers from 2005's With Teeth album, so technically old tracks.