halo twenty eight. hesitation marks. 09.03.2013

[HurtinMinorKey]

I have a feeling this new album is going to be a weird parallel to David Bowie in the 90s, i reckon it will be good but not great.

I really hope that is better than meh. I like CBH a lot, so i kinda have my hopes up. I did think that it was odd that TR tooted his own horn by saying it was "frankly fucking great". It sounds a bit self conscious, and I don't remember him saying shit like that before.

Anyhow, for the time being i'm going to stay wildly optimistic.

[The Reason Being]

I remember him calling Year Zero "fucking cool" before we got to hear it. And in my opinion Year Zero sounds fucking cool.

[HurtinMinorKey]

I remember him calling Year Zero "fucking cool" before we got to hear it. And in my opinion Year Zero sounds fucking cool.

I agree. cool and underrated.

[pigpen]

He also said that The Fragile was better than alot of stuff released around it's time.
I can't remember the exact phrasing, but he said something to that effect during part of the
backstage interview portion of the Fragility 1.0 video.

[witte]

.....
Getting old does not mean you have to start getting boring though.....

Thank you, I'm feeling much better now.

[pukkelpop]

Rock Zone (Spanish radio) tweeted me back, with a comment about the album (which they presume to have)
"it sounds good, and catchy, although not agressive at all."
`for what it's worth. but i think i could guess this too.

[dlb]

CBH is actually rather aggressive so they are implying the rest is more quiet? Hmm, something I can not really believe...

[fillow]

The Fragile isn't very aggressive either (save a few songs)

[slopesandsam]

For each previous NIN album, the art and the music always seemed like a perfect match. The cover perfectly capturing the flavour of the music inside.

I suspect this is actually because I was hearing the music and seeing the art for the first time together, so my brain was forming associations naturally.

This time around, the art for HM really doesn't seem to fit with CBH. I've come around on CBH, and quite like it, after initially feeling like it felt like an offcut from WT. But it still doesn't sit well with the artwork. I suspect this is because the art is so very reminiscent of TDS that I automatically associate it with a TDS sound.

[Leo_OAK]

For each previous NIN album, the art and the music always seemed like a perfect match. The cover perfectly capturing the flavour of the music inside.

I suspect this is actually because I was hearing the music and seeing the art for the first time together, so my brain was forming associations naturally.

This time around, the art for HM really doesn't seem to fit with CBH. I've come around on CBH, and quite like it, after initially feeling like it felt like an offcut from WT. But it still doesn't sit well with the artwork. I suspect this is because the art is so very reminiscent of TDS that I automatically associate it with a TDS sound.

IMO the specific artwork for the CBH single totally matches the song and its video

[HurtinMinorKey]

Rock Zone (Spanish radio) tweeted me back, with a comment about the album (which they presume to have)
"it sounds good, and catchy, although not agressive at all."
`for what it's worth. but i think i could guess this too.

I thought they'd be keeping it under lock and key to prevent a leak, especially this early. No doubt people have heard it, but i bet the number of people with a copy are pretty small.

[seasonsinthesky]

so between Spanish radio and that one Mexican website apparently hearing HM, i guess we can surmise that Columbia decided to really hone in on those NIN markets. obviously.

or people lie about this kind of thing to get some attention

[Amaro]

Even if they do have the album, there are so many ways to describe a piece or collection of music... I think CBH happens to be perfect example of mixed descriptions for "what" it is. And rightfully so, in my opinion. I actually recall acknowledging that about it roughly from the start.

The album supposedly not being aggressive, but catchy...the possibilities for what all of that means could go on and on.

[perceptionnexus]

I was in down south this past weekend and heard the entire album on the ol' Mexican Radio. It sounds like Broken made a burrito out of Option 30, covered it in Year Zero-ish guac and ate it with a side of the Fragile tortilla chips and washed that shit down with a TDS margarita. It then had diarhrrea and wiped its ass with The Perfect Drug after snorting a line of PHM off a mirror in the bathroom. And that's exactly how the album sounds.

In all reality though, the vibe I'm getting from the song titles and album art is an album that's going to be his most personal lyrically since TF, and I'm begrudgingly thinking the majority of it musically will be on the more mellow side, like even deeper and looking foward to joining you, finally. Kick ass, but you know, chilled.

[screwdriver]

In all reality though, the vibe I'm getting from the song titles and album art is an album that's going to be his most personal lyrically since TF, and I'm begrudgingly thinking the majority of it musically will be on the more mellow side, like even deeper and looking foward to joining you, finally. Kick ass, but you know, chilled.

I'll make the case that With Teeth was arguably way more personal than TF; or, at least, more naked

[HurtinMinorKey]

I'll make the case that With Teeth was arguably way more personal than TF; or, at least, more naked

It's really hard to say, WT is definitely more introspective. At the same time, The Fragile is more visceral, but I think songs like The Great Below, Fragile, and Somewhat Damaged are still pretty personal.

[Prettybrokenspiral]

Killing Joke, Sonic Youth to name a few have all released mindblowing music recently

You thought KJ's '2012' and SY's 'The Eternal' were mind-blowing? Are you shitting me??

[simonn]

You thought KJ's '2012' and SY's 'The Eternal' were mind-blowing? Are you shitting me??

Killing Joke's album was pretty damn good I thought!

[Prettybrokenspiral]

It wasn't bad. But compared to the three that came before it, that shit was weak. I've listened to it probably a dozen times and the only song I can remember is the one where he screams "Raaaaaaaaptuuuuuuuuure!"

[xfocalinx]

Welp, as if I didn't already want to buy all the versions, now is more of an indication to!

[Lew]

I really appreciate you letting me know, bro. It was a slip-up on my part.

no prob, bob. or dare i quote the trently and say "it's all good". lol.

[sheepdean]

Welp, as if I didn't already want to buy all the versions, now is more of an indication to!

And now you see the reason for multiple covers

[Max Leo]

Rockzone and the mexican site have just 5 tracks plus CBH, so maybe there are other tracks in the album that are more agressive or completely different to the ones that they have listened.

The mexican site said that CBH was the best track, but I guess it's just the most commercial or the closest to "traditional NIN" like Trent said. They also said that the rest sounded like a mix of the 90s stuff and the the sound from Trent's last releases like the HTDA album, they even said that one song started like a grunge song and ended like an electronic HTDA song, no idea of what this could mean, I guess that by "grunge" they mean a rock/guitar sound.

[xfocalinx]

Right, I was planning on buying every version, anyway..but at least now my parents won't question me on "wasting my money buying something I already have"

[pigpen]

I too will be purchasing every version..well, except for the digital version..
It's kind of a shame that the vinyl version has the artwork it does. Not because I don't like it, I'd just prefer the
standard artwork to be all huge instead.

[piggy]

I just wanna say that I love the vinyl artwork so hard. In truth I love them all, though the standard CD is my least favorite.

[thefragile_jake]

From the NY Times article...

“Hesitation Marks” was a year of patient effort. Mr. Reznor composed music on his laptop, using it largely as a drum machine and coming up with austere, brittle, sneakily evolving grooves. “It feels sparse, and it feels minimal,” he said. “It’s hard for me to do that. I’ve realized over the years that if I have 100 tracks, I’ll use 110 tracks. This was really about economy. It was just a weird puzzle of grooves.”

And in the context of the Nine Inch Nails catalog, where a whisper tends to lead, sooner or later, to a scream, Mr. Reznor found himself following other impulses. “It didn’t dawn on me until I was almost done with the record that I don’t really even raise my voice on this album that much,” Mr. Reznor added. “The mechanism of screaming choruses doesn’t exist here. And that wasn’t by design.”

He said: “I don’t think it’s a gentle record. I do think it’s more subversive in how it gets you. It’s not about everything being at 11 and the pyrotechnics of sound and scare tactics, which I’ve definitely used in the past. But it doesn’t feel like the middle-aged, I’ve-given-up record either.”

As the album took shape, surprising songs emerged. One, “Find My Way,” is an overt prayer. And the album’s final song with words, “While I’m Still Here,” faces up to mortality yet ends up with thoughts not of apocalypse or alienation, but of quiet connection: “Stay with me, hold me near, while I’m still here,” Mr. Reznor sings.

He thought hard about how that would fit the Nine Inch Nails canon. “To include it as the final emotional ending point of the record, that ties things together — that’s daring for me,” he said. “It would be safe if I made it uglier and noisier. It’s not safe. So I think that maybe it’s the right thing to do.”

[screwdriver]

From the NY Times article...

I'm really intrigued by about 99% of this, but somewhat bummed about the "sparse" "minimal" description. CBH didn't feel like that at all.

Either way, it mainly jacked me up about the album quite a bit more. And I'm excited to see (via internet magic) the show tomorrow!

[fillow]

Relax, TR has been pursuing "minimal" sound on every record since WT, in his own words.

[screwdriver]

Relax, TR has been pursuing "minimal" sound on every record since WT, in his own words.

I know, and it was exciting for WT. It's just getting a bit... ya know.

Either way, I'm totally doing that thing that annoys me where I'm speculating on stuff I haven't even heard yet. I'll stop, just mindless message board chatter. The interview was otherwise very interesting!