I agree, great thoughts from everyone here. I wish there was more discussion from more people about the album here on the forums. Anyway, on topic...
I guess I go back to Trent’s initial comments on the album, where he said that Hesitation Marks was going to be about “taking Nine Inch Nails to a new place.” In what sense was the album intended to do that?
I don’t have any education in music. I can’t play any instrument, nor have I ever written any music or lyrics. Essentially I’m just offering my layman’s opinion based on what I hear from the album through my untrained ears.
Overall I can agree that there are musical elements throughout the album that invoke the NIN back catalogue. Some examples of this are much more overt than others. But this is almost always the case with NIN albums. Trent’s musical sound with NIN has always been distinct. Even though he changes the musical direction often between albums (Pretty Hate Machine was Electronic/Synthpop, Broken & The Downward Spiral were industrial, The Fragile was all over the map, With Teeth was a rock album, Year Zero fused industrial and electronic), it has always been pretty easy to identify most of the songs on these albums as NIN songs within a few seconds because of the distinctiveness of the already established NIN sound which goes all the way back to Pretty Hate Machine.
Ultimately Hesitation Marks is no different. Musically there are times where it takes NIN into new territory so that it sounds foreign, and there are other times when that familiar distinctive NIN sound breaks through. It could very well be the case that Hesitation Marks was intended to be a career synopsis, while at the same time paving the way for something new.
I guess I go back to Trent’s initial comments on the album, where he said that Hesitation Marks was going to be about “taking Nine Inch Nails to a new place.” In what sense was the album intended to do that?
I don’t have any education in music. I can’t play any instrument, nor have I ever written any music or lyrics. Essentially I’m just offering my layman’s opinion based on what I hear from the album through my untrained ears.
Overall I can agree that there are musical elements throughout the album that invoke the NIN back catalogue. Some examples of this are much more overt than others. But this is almost always the case with NIN albums. Trent’s musical sound with NIN has always been distinct. Even though he changes the musical direction often between albums (Pretty Hate Machine was Electronic/Synthpop, Broken & The Downward Spiral were industrial, The Fragile was all over the map, With Teeth was a rock album, Year Zero fused industrial and electronic), it has always been pretty easy to identify most of the songs on these albums as NIN songs within a few seconds because of the distinctiveness of the already established NIN sound which goes all the way back to Pretty Hate Machine.
Ultimately Hesitation Marks is no different. Musically there are times where it takes NIN into new territory so that it sounds foreign, and there are other times when that familiar distinctive NIN sound breaks through. It could very well be the case that Hesitation Marks was intended to be a career synopsis, while at the same time paving the way for something new.