Eric leaves NIN or "the breakdown of nyrexall"

[Jammyshill]

For the handful that might care, having picked up the vinyl of Hesitation Marks today (can't remember the last time I bought the physical copy of a new record on the release date; probably 'Backspacer' from Pearl Jam. Took me four years to get over that disappointment), the production and sound quality is how you'd expect. Makes a lot of things (especially drums) come to life in a different way. Cool packaging etc, and it even comes with a free beer coaster mat.

Oh, it's a CD.

[cursed male]

NME Review: Nine Inch Nails - Hesitation Marks

Industrial titan Trent Reznor ditches the blasts of rage for a cleaner, smoother, more direct sound.

8/10

When he broke out at the dawn of the ’90s with a selection of songs about suicide, slavery and fist-fucking, it probably wasn’t immediately obvious that Trent Reznor was future elder-statesman material. The passing years, though, have revealed a certain artfulness hardwired into Reznor’s brutal and brutalised industrial rock. He can certainly write a song – ‘Hurt’ was one of his, of course – while Nine Inch Nails’ 1994 masterpiece ‘The Downward Spiral’ demonstrated his gift for abbatoir atmospherics.

‘Hesitation Marks’ breaks a five-year Nine Inch Nails fast that’s seen Reznor instead engaged in other pursuits: scoring films (The Social Network, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo) and recording as How To Destroy Angels with his wife, Mariqueen Maandig. And while ‘Hesitation Marks’ clearly has one eye on the past – check the sleeve, by ‘The Downward Spiral’ artist Russell Mills – this is the sound of a cleaner, smoother Nine Inch Nails, one that delights in complexities of rhythm more than caustic blasts of rage.

Pleasingly, though, Reznor does beats with muscle to match his impressive biceps. Lead single ‘Came Back Haunted’ is familiar fare, an aggro one-man call-and-response that could have slid onto 2005’s ‘With Teeth’. But it’s elsewhere that the record finds its feet. ‘Copy Of A’ is a furious acid pulse that pastes on rhythmic layers to the brink of overload; squint, though, and you might mistake it for LCD Soundsystem in leather trousers and black nail varnish. ‘Running’ is a minimal techno shuffle that could fit nicely into a Ricardo Villalobos set, even with Reznor’s eerie, hollowed-out croon. ‘Disappointed’ conjures up gusts of murky-black guitar interference, but there’s no interrupting its rigid electro pulse. It’s worth noting that, while ‘Hesitation Marks’ features contributions from guitar heroes Lindsey Buckingham of Fleetwood Mac and Adrian Belew of King Crimson, there are no showy cameos, no grandstand soloing: it’s all done anonymously, just another grinding cog in the NIN machine.

Nine Inch Nails have a long-held reputation as shouty angst for killer nerds. But ‘Hesitation Marks’ suggests that if Reznor’s deep-dive plunges into the grim subconscious were performed with the aim of catharsis, it’s finally working. Take ‘Everything’, perhaps the first Nine Inch Nails song you could almost describe as, well, cheerful. “I survived everything/I have tried everything”, sings Reznor, over whooshing, anthemic guitars. There are even – no, really – vocal harmonies. It’s the mark of a Nine Inch Nails far more concerned with being straightforward and direct, peeling away the gusty ambience and cutting right to the heart of the matter.

http://www.nme.com/reviews/nine-inch-nails/14731

[nausearockpig]

1) I mustn't "get" NIN cos I listened to the stream of the new record and to me most of it is as boring as shit. The songs sound like they're half there or missing guitars. Just boring, but I'm glad others like it. Enjoy!

2) Something much more important than my opinion is that there are some 2013 NIN recordings popping up on dime at the moment.

[NYRexall]

I am watching the lights come up over Tokyo, drinking merlot and halfway through my second listen.

It's alright. Not bad. A little too electronic and some of his vocals are predictably ham-fisted. I think it will grow on me. VMOE is pretty great, Find My Way is nice and Satellite fucking knocks. In Two sounds like old school Nails.

I'm fine with it.

[cursed male]

Nine Inch Nails - Woodstock '94 (Full Concert Remastered)

[Tyler Durden]

I am loving Hesitation Marks. I honestly feel sorry for the people who don't like it or don't get it. Especially loving "In Two" and "While I'm Still Here" right now.

[CaseyContrarian]

Musically, it's solid; even interesting in parts. Lots of precision polyrhythms, but subtle. Easy to see how the soundtrack work he does with Atticus influences this. Lyrically, it's atrocious. And yeah, I know it's not his strong suit, but there's absolutely no effort and nothing meaningful here. The A-B rhyme schemes are so awful, and the vocal melodies are repetitive and half-assed. It's like he did all the composition and programming, then sang some dumb shit as an afterthought. Disappointing.

It wasn't that long ago that he was at least trying. Year Zero showed some effort and commitment to exploring new concepts. I'd have preferred an instrumental Hesitation Marks. In fact, I hope that comes out at some point.

[LJF]

I am watching the lights come up over Tokyo, drinking merlot and halfway through my second listen.

It's alright. Not bad. A little too electronic and some of his vocals are predictably ham-fisted. I think it will grow on me. VMOE is pretty great, Find My Way is nice and Satellite fucking knocks. In Two sounds like old school Nails.

I'm fine with it.

just started listening to it. I like Find My Way a lot. The beats sound like the soundtrack from the movie Pi.

[Tyler Durden]

From 1:15 to 1:25 on "In Two" is the shit.

[NYRexall]

That bridge in All Time Low (Get down on the floor, shut the goddamn door...) is pretty regal. I wish he'd have used it several times during the song instead of just that one instance. It's one of my favorite moments on the album.

[Tyler Durden]

Yeah, "All Time Low" is amazing. I love the "tinkly" keys in the two minutes...reminds me of Kraftwerk's "Europe Endless".

[Matz]

From 1:15 to 1:25 on "In Two" is the shit.

yeah, it could be my favorite moment on the album. And Find my way is my favorite track right now

[NYRexall]

My least favorite moment on the album is 0:01 – 3:19 of Everything.

[Tyler Durden]

A pretty good summation from another board...

He's playing with ambience, rhythm production and samples more than ever before on a vocal album. Headphones and full concentration are essential. It's like Ghosts, as far as I know it, but with little flourishes and influences from PHM, Year Zero and The Fragile. It never gets fully angry, it holds itself back, as if Trent is clenching his teeth rather than biting. There's also a fair bit of downbeat depressing stuff with no intention to get angry. In that sense, 'Hesitation Marks' seems like the perfect title. It's a slow-burner.

[sinep]

Yeah, "All Time Low" is amazing. I love the "tinkly" keys in the two minutes...reminds me of Kraftwerk's "Europe Endless".

wtf... i just listened to this song.

ya the music is great but the lyrics are atrocious.

Goohhhhh
I've heard all I need to knoohhhhhh
Your voice in fucking echo stereohhhhhhh
This particular scenarioohhhhhh
Looks like another all time lohhhhhhhhh

entirely ruins the song for me.

[Tyler Durden]

Yeah, "All Time Low" is amazing. I love the "tinkly" keys in the two minutes...reminds me of Kraftwerk's "Europe Endless".

wtf... i just listened to this song.

ya the music is great but the lyrics are atrocious.

Goohhhhh
I've heard all I need to knoohhhhhh
Your voice in fucking echo stereohhhhhhh
This particular scenarioohhhhhh
Looks like another all time lohhhhhhhhh

entirely ruins the song for me.

Back in the day, I'm sure there were people who complained about the vocals in the verses to "Heresy"; now it's considered a classic.

[Hokahey]

Yeah, "All Time Low" is amazing. I love the "tinkly" keys in the two minutes...reminds me of Kraftwerk's "Europe Endless".

wtf... i just listened to this song.

ya the music is great but the lyrics are atrocious.

Goohhhhh
I've heard all I need to knoohhhhhh
Your voice in fucking echo stereohhhhhhh
This particular scenarioohhhhhh
Looks like another all time lohhhhhhhhh

entirely ruins the song for me.

Back in the day, I'm sure there were people who complained about the vocals in the verses to "Heresy"; now it's considered a classic.

Nope. Dont think anyone complained about fucking Heresy...of all songs. Sheesh.

[Tyler Durden]

Hoka, you have a huge bias to NINs' 90s material. NIN was considered a "pop" band by a large contingent of people who listened to industrial rock in the late 80s/early 90s. With Broken, Trent clearly went out of his way to try to prove himself to those people (by arguably overcompensating). And when TDS was released, tracks like "Heresy" and "Closer" were "controversial" because of Trent's blending of genres or styles. Are you even old enough to remember any of this? I am...I met Trent in 1994.

[sinep]

...I met Trent in 1994.

you're right. the lyrics to "all time low" don't suck. i hadn't realized you met trent.

[Tyler Durden]

...I met Trent in 1994.

you're right. the lyrics to "all time low" don't suck. i hadn't realized you met trent.

You just realized now that Trent Reznor writes bad lyrics? Have you ever heard Pretty Hate Machine? Broken? Any NIN album, for that matter?

[sinep]

...I met Trent in 1994.

you're right. the lyrics to "all time low" don't suck. i hadn't realized you met trent.

You just realized now that Trent Reznor writes bad lyrics? Have you ever heard Pretty Hate Machine? Broken? Any NIN album, for that matter?

i guess i'm not really arguing the lyrics suck. i wouldn't really say i'm a fan of the lyrics in the earlier stuff either.

it's more that the "phrasing" sucks.

rhyming the last syllable of the line and adding the long "ohhhhhhhh" to it makes the song unlistenable.

other than that, the music is fantastic. wish he didn't have to ruin it with the eight grade rhyming and lyrics.

[NYRexall]

I was reading this issue of Rolling Stone from August 1994 last evening:



That horrid cover photo aside, it's a pretty great issue. I forgot how in-depth this magazine once was. There are interviews with Greg Dulli , John Mellencamp and Warren G, news clips on Jeff Buckley and E from Eels before they were famous, and a live review of Soundgarden at the onset of their Superunknown world tour.

The featured movie review in the issue is for Natural Born Killers, which is still one of the greatest films I've ever seen. Purple by Stone Temple Pilots was number 4 on Billboard's Top 100.

But the most fascinating article in the issue is one that highlights the rise of digital bootlegging on the internet at the time. This is in August of 1994. Pretty spooky foreshadowing of what was on the distant horizon.

"With portable Digital Audio Tape, CD-quality recordings are possible, although a song can take a half-hour or more to download because of data transfer limitations. "But that's changing," Dorothy Sherman, a Warner Bros. Marketing executive, notes. "In less than five years we're going to see a vast increase in the speed of networking and a virtual explosion in the availability of bootleg sound files."

Oh Ms. Sherman, you probably had no idea just how very right you were..

[Kajicat]

Yeah, "All Time Low" is amazing. I love the "tinkly" keys in the two minutes...reminds me of Kraftwerk's "Europe Endless".

Or the recurring Final Fantasy Crystal Theme.

[LJF]

Hoka, you have a huge bias to NINs' 90s material. NIN was considered a "pop" band by a large contingent of people who listened to industrial rock in the late 80s/early 90s. With Broken, Trent clearly went out of his way to try to prove himself to those people (by arguably overcompensating). And when TDS was released, tracks like "Heresy" and "Closer" were "controversial" because of Trent's blending of genres or styles. Are you even old enough to remember any of this? I am...I met Trent in 1994.

so are you the starfucker he sings about?

[Tyler Durden]

Hoka, you have a huge bias to NINs' 90s material. NIN was considered a "pop" band by a large contingent of people who listened to industrial rock in the late 80s/early 90s. With Broken, Trent clearly went out of his way to try to prove himself to those people (by arguably overcompensating). And when TDS was released, tracks like "Heresy" and "Closer" were "controversial" because of Trent's blending of genres or styles. Are you even old enough to remember any of this? I am...I met Trent in 1994.

so are you the starfucker he sings about?

Is Larry one of your head writers?