- Record Label: Sony Music Entertainment
- Release Date: Sep 3, 2013
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Sep 3, 2013Hesitation Marks makes it quite clear that Trent Reznor is no longer an angry young man but rather a restless, inventive artist who is at peace with himself, and the result is a record that provides real, lasting nourishment.
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Aug 28, 2013Hesitation Marks, the new album from Nine Inch Nails, is both business as usual and remarkably prescient.
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Sep 3, 2013There is nothing hesitant about this collection of songs which manage to be fraught with heated emotions while simultaneously composed of chilly, fidgety grooves.
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Sep 6, 2013Family life and a well-earned break have given this one-time Gothfather new tricks that pure despair could never provide.
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Classic Rock MagazineOct 23, 2013The techno-noir sonic palette here is as eclectic as ever. [Oct 2013, p.90]
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Sep 17, 2013It’s an earnest and worthy effort to prove that this band can matter without the PMRC stickering its album cover.
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Aug 29, 2013The most complete archiving of everywhere Nine Inch Nails has been, but more than that a jaw-dropping preview of everywhere it can go.
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Sep 11, 2013There’s a master at work, no doubt about it, but he’s already living in the future writing complex symphonies, letting the rest of us know that everything’s going to be ok.
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Aug 28, 2013Both Hesitation Marks' lead single, "Came Back Haunted," and the propulsive, New Order-nodding "Everything" rank among Reznor's finest. His one vice is an obsessive attention to detail, which has served him well in the past but here suffocates the more delicate melodies of "In Two" and "All Time Low."
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Aug 30, 2013It's the danger that comes from walking that fine line [the nexus of sonic experimentation and pop hooks] that makes the album such a welcome return.
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Sep 3, 2013Hesitation Marks follows the musical lineage that began with The Fragile, but it surpasses recent NIN albums thanks to a deeply personal thematic core and a willingness to push the songwriting into territory that is often dancier and poppier than listeners have come to expect from the band.
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Sep 3, 2013Sure, the societal spying and corruption Reznor forecast in The Slip has played out, but Hesitation Marks is a triumphal I-told-you-so, still whispering for rebellion.
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Kerrang!Oct 18, 2013It was a given that Hesitation Marks would provide Nine Inch Nails with a future. But what's so impressive here is that it's given then a future every bit as promising as their illustrious past. [31 Aug 2013, p.52]
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Sep 3, 2013Lyrically and vocally, he is hardly nuanced. His humorless, monochromatic tone tempers Hesitation Marks with many shades of dry bummer, the well-worn path winding through a field of flowers.
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Sep 3, 2013An album of bona fide radio hits in an ideal world, a fine example of mainstream rock at its most tasteful, music that’s going to be popular and sell a lot but that’s not afraid to subtly defy expectations of what its makers are.
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Sep 3, 2013This is the sound of a cleaner, smoother Nine Inch Nails, one that delights in complexities of rhythm more than caustic blasts of rage.
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Sep 10, 2013While not his best album, Hesitation Marks shows that he has no intention to fall back on old formulas.
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Sep 5, 2013Tense, electronic, impeccably crafted and, yes, a little bit too long (classic 90s alt-rock), it’s a satisfying twist on the band’s legacy that doesn’t abandon its signature sound.
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Sep 3, 2013No other Nine Inch Nails record has been so mindful of dance and electronic trends from outside its own bubble, or the resurgence of many of these sounds recently. It’s a nice surprise from a radio-rock band returning to the majors without a guilty conscience for wanting to sell his art for $10.
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Sep 3, 2013For every circuit-overloading workout like “Copy of A” and “Disappointed”, there are a number of tracks where Reznor reverts to the teeth-gnashing angst of old without the pig-marching blitzkriegs to back it up, applying undue pressure on the the songs’ brittle structures.
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Sep 13, 2013As a whole, Hesitation Marks is an engaging and embracing listen, and it can certainly be said that, almost 25 years into a recording career, Reznor is still surprising listeners.
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Sep 3, 2013Hesitation Marks proves greatness remains within Trent Reznor’s grasp.
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Sep 9, 2013Hesitation Marks is a solid, if typical sampling of NIN's sound presented through traditional means.
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Q MagazineJan 27, 2014Five years away hasn't damaged their ability to wow and Hesitation Marks puts Trent Reznor's soundtrack albums into context; here, he sounds at his very best and right where he belongs. [Oct 2013, p.108]
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Sep 3, 2013Reznor's first NIN album in five years, it is one of his best, combining the textural exploration on the 1999 double CD The Fragile, and the tighter fury of his 1994 master blast, The Downward Spiral.
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Sep 3, 2013In almost every way, this is the least outré effort NIN has proffered since Pretty Hate Machine. It's focused but inquisitive, as opposed to declarative.
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Aug 30, 2013This is the most important artistic statement from NIN leader Trent Reznor since the late '90s.
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Sep 9, 2013The record lacks the depth found in Nine Inch Nail’s previous records and the engrossing brilliance of their more experimental leanings. All that aside, Hesitation Marks stands as incredibly solid, perhaps more so than any record put out by the band in over a decade.
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Sep 3, 2013It’s obvious on the rest of the album that the fear of living isn’t holding Reznor back anymore. This outlook has given a huge boost to NIN’s creativity, and helped the group re-emerge as a relevant, vital, and still weird band.
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Aug 29, 2013Any fans missing the brutal force of Head Like a Hole are pointed towards Copy of A and Came Back Haunted, two of the strongest tunes of his career.
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Aug 29, 2013Sure, it’s chorus-driven and a touch too slick, lacking the density and the ambition and the sheer bloody nihilism of NIN’s 90’s heyday, but Reznor’s not that guy anymore--that guy died with the heroin overdose. But there are more than enough moments here to suggest a maker not--whatever the protestations of one of its tracks--yet at peace.
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Aug 29, 2013It's a roiling, often tense, but just a little more calm and contemplative NIN, seemingly content to emerge and exist rather than to sweep all before it or punctuate a point.
Awards & Rankings
User score distribution:
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Positive: 146 out of 161
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Mixed: 12 out of 161
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Negative: 3 out of 161
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Sep 27, 2013
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Sep 3, 2013
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Sep 3, 2013