Review: Nine Inch Nails – Hesitation Marks

Nine Inch Nails

Hesitation Marks

Polydor Records

Street: 08.30

Nine Inch Nails = (Skinny Puppy + Puscifer) x Ministry

The first few times listening through Hesitation Marks, all I could focus on were the poppy, electronic-ish elements that must have rubbed off on Trent Reznor from spending so much time in How to Destroy Angels. It just didn’t feel like a NIN album. Perhaps it’s the lack of a “Head Like A Hole” or a “March of the Pigs” on Hesitation Marks—the shortage of anger leaves me wanting. But the more I listened to it, and the more I focused on Reznor’s lyrics, the more Hesitation Marks appeared to mature and develop. “Find My Way”—my personal favorite from the album—and “All Time Low” are hauntingly personal, and greatly reflective of Reznor’s search for self-approval. “Copy Of A” and “Disappointed” are beautifully complex, and instill a desire to see them performed live—which you won’t get unless you go out of state, because the Tension 2013 tour ain’t coming to Utah. As a decades-long NIN fan, it’s certainly not the album I wanted to hear from Reznor, but perhaps it’s the album I needed to hear. –John Ford