To stream album
Nine Inch Nails is back. Listened to the album 3x today (train mishap gave me time on first day of school) and while "came back haunted" didnt grab me when i came out, I'm digging it the album.
Given Bram is blogging again, I'm inspired (and still working on Best of 2012).
First, one line on each previous albums:
1989 Pretty Hate Machine: angry industrial music for the masses. Must own.
1992 Broken. Angrier music for guitars. Must own.
1994 The downward spiral. still angry but a little sad. works as single piece of art. must own.
1999 The fragile. Sadder, still angry but more pathetic, druggy and more pompous. A few good songs but avoid. 2005 with teeth. return to form, sober but still angry. fans say "sell out" but I really liked it.
2007 Year Zero. Angry about politics. interesting concept album but didnt really get it until seeing it live. 2008 Ghosts goldberg variations (bach)for the industrial set. mellower but interesting like jazz.
2008 The Slip. exhausted. quality but clearly needed a break.
2013 Hesitation Marks
My thoughts:
- A pure nine inch nails album which we haven't seen since with teeth. Industrial beats? check. Personal? check. Intense? check. The producer and Trent said they tried to make the anti-NIN album by going "down" on the chorus rather than "up" and flooding guitars. True, but still sounds like NIN. However the songs seem more varied than most NIN albums.
- Beats are the most interesting since Downward Spiral. I have to reminding myself that its a drum machine. Same producer (not rick rubin, the other guy)that did Kanye's latest album which is even angrier and more industrial.
- Each song holds up on its own, but put together still sounds like NIN. There are plenty of NIN touches so feels like NIN, but they seem more organic and it doesn't feel formulaic or forced.
- Like the Johnny Marr album, this sounds very New Wave to me. I hear a little Joy Division, a little Howard Jones, a dance track, but with beats and guitar.
- This. Is. Not. EDM.
- Trent says he stopped editing himself and is willing to make pop song or use more melody. This is true but I don't think the songs or album suffer for it. The diversity of the feel of the songs makes it easier to listen to and absorb. My guess is the soundtrack work has helped him put this together as a whole. Even "came back haunted" works for me in this context.
- Trent says "that there is plenty of stuff that still makes him angry." But he isn't just angry anymore. He's happily married, with two kids and worried about what his sons will think about "Closer" or his drug years. I think this maturity makes this album better, or at least makes the content more relatable to me. Sure, he's got issues but the sober and honest presentation makes me get it (not to say that I didn't love the angry poser when I was 25). We've sorta of grown up together, or at least grown in the right direction.
- Given his exposure to Jane's Addiction, you think he would know "I would for you" is one of their songs. His is actually better.
- Bottom line. This is not the emotional unstoppable forst of the first few albums and I'm not even sure that its right to compare anything to that pouring out of anger and emotional. What this is a taking that musical approach and applying it to a more mature state of mind. And while Ghosts and Year Zero feel uneven and experimental (the two are related after all), this feels more thought out, more smoothly executed and mature. Maybe not "edgy" but honest.
- Besides, with Trent at 48, all us 40-somthing guys need to stick together.
