Regarding Reviews

As you can tell from my reviews, there is a tendency to write positive, almost glowing reviews most of the time. Most if not all the albums I've reviewed have gotten pretty high scores, the average being an 8.6 (or a 9 if you want to round up). Except for Lucha Libre, that got a 3 because it fucking sucks.

As such, I'd like to write reviews about stuff that I don't have some sort of attachment to (read: an album/book/etc I haven't listened/read/etc because I wanted to but because some second or third party suggested it)

So if you're reading this, give me something new to review so we can get some variety instead of just giving 8.6s and 9s to stuff I'm already pretty familiar with.

Doubt is

Doubt is the fire that tempers a man's armor. It is that gauntlet that tests a man's character and separates the strong from the weak and extracts the best or worst from a person.

There is a lot of doubt surrounding me lately. I want to chalk it up to circumstances I am able to fully control because then I'd be taking responsibility and holding myself accountable for my actions rather than running and hiding like a little bitch.

I want to chalk it up to things I know I can control but in all honesty, I don't know why there is so much doubt. There is doubt cutting at me and I don't know why it is like this. I recognize that things are out of control but I don't know why or what they are exactly.

I have theories and ideas but nothing concrete. Nothing conclusive, nothing solid, nothing set in stone, nothing that I can be certain of and be able to take care of as a result. And this pisses me off.

I have simple expectations and that's what they are: simple expectations. They are nothing more than what is required and nothing out of the ordinary, nor are they asking the world or the moon or the world and the moon of someone.

But there will always be opposition to anything. This one of the things I will never understand. Is it laziness? Is it a wanton disrespect for things you are supposed to do? Is it because people are generally fucking stupid and vile creatures? I should hope the last one isn't the case.

All I can really do is grin and bear it because at the end of the day, I have no power and cannot control these things.

Yet.

Review: Hesitation Marks

Hesitation Marks
Nine Inch Nails
2013

Nine Inch Nails is back.

This is a phrase that has been repeated often since Trent Reznor announced the return of Nine Inch Nails to the touring circuit earlier in the year. Generally speaking, with a tour comes a new album and this is where my review starts.

2013 presents the end of that self-imposed touring exile that Trent declared a few years ago. In retrospect, it wasn't that pretty long gap from touring we expected but it was still painful in some ways. Everyone bitched and moaned about the (temporary) end of touring but ultimately accepted it. And we were all mollified as Trent gave us the scores to The Social Network and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. And some people really dig How to Destroy Angels. I personally can't get into them but that's because my brain is still wired in a way that connects "Trent Reznor" to "Nine Inch Nails." Anything else just doesn't truly register unless the mix is intriguing but that's another story for another time.

2013 also represents a standard gap in the Nine Inch Nails discography because 5 years is the average wait time between albums. So the wait is really nothing new. As is the content on Hesitation Marks.

Now, when I say this I don't mean he just copied and pasted everything so it sounds exactly like the older albums. What I mean is that it's a return to form that perfectly calls back early NIN while still being fresh (though admittedly this is due to the fact that we've all been craving more NIN material for years now and the hunger for it became more savage when it was announced that a new album would be released).

Hesitation Marks covers a nice range of what we've come to expect from NIN despite covering old ground thematically. Again, this isn't really a bad thing because it's always good to be understood and Trent always does a great job putting into words what your savage snarls and cries cannot communicate clearly. And despite repetitions in themes- Trent has always done this but he's always done it in a way that continues to be fresh and keeps it from being stale. It isn't just slight tweaks here and there to get by on technicalities, it's always doing something different to the envelope and surprising you with the result.

Musically, Hesitation Marks could fit almost anywhere. It could easily sound like a follow-up or even predecessor to most albums in terms of structure and tone, among other things. Hesitation Marks harkens back to previous albums with: the seething, snarling, danceable nature of Pretty Hate Machine; the cohesive, articulate, and concentrated fury of that old friend who understands you (The Downward Spiral); the unleashing of the intrinsic animality achieved by stripping structures down to more base elements (With Teeth), the tasteful balance of catchiness and bleakness (The Slip); and haunting atmospheric presentation (Ghosts I-IV).

Hesitation Marks represents a great blend of what makes Nine Inch Nails a unique musical entity.

I realize how much I'm hyping up the album but after repeated listens, this is exactly what it is to me. Now, you could dismiss my claims as me just being excited about the concert for which I already purchased my tickets to, or the fact that I've been anticipating new Nine Inch Nails material (and tour) for a while, and you could be right but if that were the case, this review would have ended with that last bit above.

And as you can gather, this is not the case and there is more to say.

While Hesitation Marks does indeed do a good job of tastefully treading older ground, it doesn't do so without flaws. Shades of The Fragile are still found in that some songs do feel like they run longer than they should and as such falter in the creation of a haunting atmospheric experience. They feel like they're just repeating themselves at points, or that they should have ended maybe a minute ago. This creates a degree of tediousness. It also carries traces of Year Zero. Now, I liked that album but the detachment from "standard NIN" is what makes it something of an odd duck with me. As such, there is something about Hesitation Marks that carries that at times makes the album feels detached and less personal. This could probably have something to do with the tracks that often feel like they should have ended sooner and unfortunately teeter on that line that divides running time into "juuuust riiiight" and "shoulda trimmed it down."

When all is said and done, Hesitation Marks is a damn fine album and without a doubt declares

Nine Inch Nails is back.

9/10