Nine Inch Nails
Hesitation Marks
It's finally here - Trent Reznor, the grand old man of industrial rock, has released a new album as Nine Inch Nails. I've been looking forward to this - my acquaintance with NIN basically consists of the classic singles, plus some of the more recent ambient stuff, but what I've heard so far, I've liked. So I was interested to see what the new, drug-free, happy Reznor would produce.
Things start off with a decent, atmospheric introduction, which leads into opening track Copy of A. It's musically solid - a great, driving beat, and an infectious synth hook - but lyrically a bit too whiny for my taste. That's a problem throughout the album, actually - though Came Back Haunted has a brilliant melody, it's undercut by the kind of lyrics self-pitying teenagers scribble in exercise books. Find My Way is Reznor's failed attempt at writing another Hurt - it's fantastically produced, but then so is everything he does. That doesn't excuse poor lyric-writing. Conversely, I Would For You has decent lyrics, but musically is somewhat lacking.
Sonically, though, this album is very good - All Time Low is downright funky, Disappointed's electronic blippery bubbles along nicely, and there are hooks aplenty. Then again, there are exceptions to that rule - Everything sounds like a (very) slightly ballsier version of countless pissweak indie bands and Sattellite sounds like Justin Timberlake. Overall, this is a decent record, but it lets itself down by slipping all too often into emo territory. I would reccommend it to those who can look past the self-indulgent lyrics, but I'm not one of them.
Rating: 6/10
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