Rock, Metal

Nine Inch Nails - Hesitation Marks (2013)

2013-09-17T15:33:17Z

Nine Inch Nails - Hesitation Marks (2013)


01 – The Eater of Dreams
02 – Copy of A
03 – Came Back Haunted
04 – Find My Way
05 – All Time Low
06 – Disappointed
07 – Everything
08 – Satellite
09 – Various Methods of Escape
10 – Running
11 – I Would For You
12 – In Two
13 – While I’m Still Here
14 – Black Noise
15 – Find My Way (Oneohtrix Point Never Remix)
16 – All Time Low (Todd Rundgren Remix)
17 – While I’m Still Here (Breyer P-Orridge ‘Howler’ Remix)
18 – Trent Reznor In Conversation With…

Musicians:
    Trent Reznor – vocal and instrumental performance, production
+
    Pino Palladino – bass (2, 5, 9, 13)
    Lindsey Buckingham – guitars (2, 12, 13); backing vocals, synthesizers (7)
    Adrian Belew – guitars (4, 5, 9, 12); backing vocals (11)
    Eugene Goreshter – synthesizers (6, 11, 12); strings (6); violin (11); bass (12)
    Alessandro Cortini – synthesizers (1, 3)
    Ilan Rubin – live drums (11); toms (2, 3)
    Joshua Eustis – backing vocals (11)

Given how long it used to take Trent Reznor to produce a new Nine Inch Nails album (at least up until With Teeth), perhaps NIN's five years out of the spotlight can be treated less like a breakup and more like a hiatus (hell, that's what the Org's patriarch, Aubin Paul, called it back in 2009). And really, that breakup was more a step away from live performances anyway; Reznor stated at the time of NIN's farewell shows that he would still use the name. He just needed to knock out an Oscar and start a band with his wife first.

Reznor seems to be making a winking a reference to NIN's short retirement with his new album, Hesitation Marks. Here's a record filled with lyrics about coming back and repeating cycles. All of this has happened before; all of this will happen again.

Except now we have examples of what Reznor can do separated from his brand name. Do you like NIN's more haunting experimental fare, like Ghosts? Check out the soundtracks Reznor released under his own name. How about the droning NIN deep cuts? Give a gander to How to Destroy Angels. Outside of name recognition, why does Reznor need NIN?

Evidently, it's so he can write hits. Hesitation Marks contains some of the catchiest Reznor compositions since, well, the last NIN album, The Slip. "Copy of A" and "Came Back Haunted" are dual cannons of dance-gasms and big ol' choruses. "Disappointed" has drums that sound like got-damn hand claps. Some folks jokingly called "Everything" NIN's attempt at pop-punk when it streamed last month, and they were actually kind of right. And I gotta give props to "All Time Low," a grooving Berlin Bowie banger with an off-kilter guitar hook. Hesitation Marks is not a heavy record, but it sure is a danceable one.

Within NIN's context, the two records Hesitation Marks most resembles are Pretty Hate Machine (tons of dance tracks despite all that darkness) and With Teeth (it's a comeback record too). This proves to be the record's drawback as well. Like With Teeth, Hesitation Marks is frontloaded with the more crowd pleasing material. While nothing here is necessarily disappointing, a tight 45-minute cut would have really upped the pop factor. As is, the album has an ebb/flow quality that wears out after a while. Reznor has pursued new styles since NIN's hiatus. A return to the moniker means a return to his safety zone.

Still, it's good to have NIN back. The band's summer shows prove Reznor can still rule crowds, and this record boasts enough hits to add to that canon. It doesn't have the sprawling dystopian sci-fi concepts of Year Zero or the challenging distribution method of The Slip. Rather, Hesitation Marks is a solid, if typical sampling of NIN's sound presented through traditional means. It's pretty good. ---Jelone, punknews.org

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Nine Inch Nails – The Slip Live Rehearsals (2008)

2009-10-12T14:08:08Z

Nine Inch Nails – The Slip Live Rehearsals (2008)


1. 999,999
2. 1,000,000
3. Letting You
4. Discipline
5. Echoplex
6. Head Down
7. March of the Pigs
8. The Hand That Feeds
9. The Frail - The Wretched
10. Love Is Not Enough
11. The Collector

- Trent Reznor - composer, performer & co-producer

With:
- Robin Finck - guitar
- Josh Freese - drums
- Alessandro Cortini - ?
- Atticus Ross - programming & co-producer

Hard to believe that at one point Trent Reznor was seen as the quintessential perfectionist, squirreled away in a decaying Victorian house, sweating over each individual track he created, spending upwards of six years between albums. He's shattered that image in the new millennium, especially after his 2007 divorce from Interscope, a parting of the ways that left him free to release albums when and how he chose. Reznor immediately embraced that opportunity, releasing the instrumental double-album Ghosts I-IV without announcement in March 2008, then quickly following it two months later with The Slip, a full-fledged vocal album. Such rapid succession served notice that Reznor intended to take full advantage of his freedom, and its availability as a free lossless download prior to its physical release couldn't help but be seen as a veiled stab at Radiohead's variable pricing for In Rainbows, a move Trent called a "marketing gimmick," a charge that can't quite be leveled against Nine Inch Nails as Reznor encouraged fans to post The Slip elsewhere, to give it away to friends, to remix their tracks if they wished. Unlike Ghosts, which seemed designed with remixing and sampling in mind, The Slip doesn't cry out for recontextualization in order to make sense: it's riveting on its own terms.

Mercilessly tight and efficient where Year Zero was majestic and sprawling, The Slip is the most user-friendly Nine Inch Nails album ever. At only ten tracks, there is no fat on its bones. It does not offer a slow build, it leaps into action with the lacerating "1,000,000," maintaining a blistering intensity for half the record before eventually winding its way to softer moments for the album's conclusion. There is no learning curve to The Slip, it does not require effort to decode a narrative, it does not slowly unfold its own internal logic, it comes on with a tightly controlled force that's present even in the quietest moments, as they pulsate with coiled tension. The Slip is so easy to digest because Trent Reznor is in consolidation mode, relying on his strengths instead of punishingly pushing himself forward. Such obsession with progress weighed down The Fragile and With Teeth, turning them into intricate puzzle boxes for devotees, but Reznor began to break free with the quite magnificent Year Zero, whose dense narrative likely alienated many fans. Here on The Slip, he retains the sense of urgency that flowed through Year Zero, but as it's a lean album, it's easier to appreciate his mastery of darkness and light or his ability to construct throbbing melodic hooks out of noise. Here, he's no longer a stylized, self-conscious innovator, he's a working musician enraptured by making music, and he's so invigorated by creation it's hard not to get sucked in as well. ---Stephen Thomas Erlewine, AllMusic Review

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Nine Inch Nails – Year Zero (2007)

2009-10-12T14:10:18Z

Nine Inch Nails – Year Zero (2007)


1. "HYPERPOWER!"   1:42 
2. "The Beginning of the End"   2:47 
3. "Survivalism"   4:23 
4. "The Good Soldier"   3:23 
5. "Vessel"   4:52 
6. "Me, I'm Not"   4:51 
7. "Capital G"   3:50 
8. "My Violent Heart"   4:13 
9. "The Warning"   3:38 
10. "God Given"   3:50 
11. "Meet Your Master"   4:08 
12. "The Greater Good"   4:52 
13. "The Great Destroyer"   3:17 
14. "Another Version of the Truth"   4:09 
15. "In This Twilight"   3:33 
16. "Zero-Sum"   6:14

Trent Reznor - Art Direction, Audio Production, Composer, Performer, Producer
Matt Demeritt - Sax (Tenor)
Josh Freese - Drums
Geoffrey Gallegos - Sax (Baritone)
Jeff Gallegos - Brass Arrangement, Wind Arrangements 
Saul Williams - Vocals (Background)

On Year Zero, Trent Reznor’s apocalyptic dream world becomes a cacophonous blazing reality. Like the repressed peoples forced into a life of fear in his envisioned near-future autocratic state, we are made subordinate to its insistent beats and arresting rhythms - the music is the master and we must take heed.

Reznor’s music defies simple categorization and this impressive offering doesn’t so much cross borders as to go on clandestine raids through the realms of electronica, industrial edged rock and even hip hop. Diverse sounds are layered into a musical collage that continues to evolve with listening time and creates an aural depiction of a planet ravaged by war, ecological destruction and social disintegration.

The fact that this is set in the future might seem incongruous, for some as these themes are alarmingly close to home and, many would argue, arrived long ago. It's amid this chaos of buzz bombs and heavy artillery that Reznor displays his rare ability to create melodic gems that take root in the subconscious and shine some light in the void. '‘Zero Sum'’ is a fine example and provides an introspective bookend to the opening battle marches of ‘'Hyperpower'’ and ‘'Survivalism’'. Impeccably produced and forming part of a wider campaign that has utilized the leaking of album tracks to the public and hidden codes and messages to be found by fans, Year Zero, is at once fresh, frightening and fulfilling. --- Tim Cunningham, bbc.co.uk

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