Quote:
Originally Posted by van
I get to see NIN Saturday night. Who wants to touch me?
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Well? How was it?
I picked up Hesitation Marks last night after Nick reminded me it was out yesterday. It's the best NIN album in a while I think. The middle few songs are a bit weak, but it starts really strong and ends pretty well. I think it's about as good as Pretty Hate Machine is, but still nothing has matched The Downward Spiral or The Fragile.
The album is very much a Pretty Hate Machine for the 21st Century... kinda synthy, poppy, and stripped down when compared to most NIN stuff. Nick commented to me that it somehow sounds "friendlier" or "happier" than other stuff. I think it's a result of more up-tempo beats and a general reduction in screaming.
But seriously, there's a lot more vocal melody than normal, and EDM inspired beat tracks. I'm not sure I like the extra singing in particular, but after all the movie scores Trent's done lately, I get wanting to sing on his own albums again.
The iTunes version of the album I got has an interesting self-interview on the end where Trent plays some demos of the songs on the album and talks about the process of making them into the versions you hear on the final record. It's kinda interesting... can't say I've ever seen other artists willing to play their unfinished stuff, and it's even odder that it's Trent considering his notoriety for being a perfectionist that never wanted to release stuff that isn't "done". But he does talk a lot about how the point of this album was to change up the way he makes records from his previous works.
Either way, if you're a NIN fan, you'll probably like this okay... but we're still waiting for the next epic.