Hesitation Marks is the eighth full album by Nine Inch Nails, released on September 3, 2013 by Columbia Records. It was the first NIN album since 2008's The Slip, marking a return from a four-year hiatus, during which frontman Trent Reznor worked with his wife Mariqueen Maandig in How to Destroy Angels and started composing film scores with producer Atticus Ross. It also marks NIN’s return to a major label after his split with Interscope Records after 2007's Year Zero.
The album originated as a pair of songs intended for a Greatest Hits Album to be made as a Contractual Obligation Project for Interscope. However, the compilation fell into Development Hell as the sessions for the two songs expanded into a full album.
Musically, this album has a more minimalist style than usual and contains some of Reznor's most personal lyrics since 2005's With Teeth. The artwork was designed by Russell Mills, who also did the artwork for 1994's The Downward Spiral, as a deliberate choice by Reznor to reflect on where he was at the time of that album.
This is the last NIN album Reznor made as the sole official member, though session musicians are present on the majority of the songs. The tour for this album was also the last one to have a Revolving Door Band back him on stage; after the departure of four members — bassist Pino Palladino, multi-instrumentalist Josh Eustis, and backing vocalists Lisa Fischer and Sharlotte Gibson — Reznor settled on the band members that remained for the 2014 tour, with the only change being the addition of Atticus Ross after Ross' promotion to official member for the next NIN release, 2016's Not the Actual Events EP.
Tracklist:
- "The Eater of Dreams" (0:52)
- "Copy of a" (5:23)
- "Came Back Haunted" (5:17)
- "Find My Way" (5:16)
- "All Time Low" (6:18)
- "Disappointed" (5:44)
- "Everything" (3:20)
- "Satellite" (5:03)
- "Various Methods of Escape" (5:01)
- "Running" (4:08)
- "I Would for You" (4:33)
- "In Two" (5:32)
- "While I'm Still Here" (4:03)
- "Black Noise" (1:29)
Deluxe Edition Bonus Tracks
- "Find My Way" (Oneohtrix Point Never Remix) (4:47)
- "All Time Low" (Todd Rundgren Remix) (5:49)
- "While I'm Still Here" (Breyer P-Orridge 'Howler' Remix) (7:03)
- "Trent Reznor in Conversation With..." (41:58) note
Japanese Bonus Track
- "Everything" (Autolux Remix) (4:29)
Musicians:
- Trent Reznor - Lead vocals, all instruments except where noted
- Alessandro Cortini – electronics (tracks 1, 3)
- Pino Palladino – bass (tracks 2, 5, 9, 13)
- Ilan Rubin – toms (tracks 2, 3), live drums (track 11)
- Lindsey Buckingham – guitars (tracks 2, 12, 13)
- Adrian Belew – guitars (tracks 4, 5, 9, 12), electronics (track 7), backing vocals (tracks 7, 11)
- Eugene Goreshter – strings (track 6), electronics (tracks 6, 11, 12), violin (track 11), bass (track 12)
- Daniel Rowland – electronics, guitar, additional sound design (track 7)
- Joshua Eustis – backing vocals (track 11)
I am just a trope of a trope of a trope:
- Album Intro Track: "The Eater of Dreams" is a mostly instrumental piece co-composed by touring keyboardist Alessandro Cortini with noise blips and synth layers.
- Alternate Album Cover: No two editions of the album have the same cover. The standard CD, deluxe CD, standard digital, deluxe digital, and vinyl versions have completely different covers.
- Big Brother Is Watching: "Satellite. I'm watching you. I'm one step ahead. Satellite. I'm part of you. I'm inside your head."
- Book Ends: The first and last tracks are short instrumentals.
- Epic Rocking: "All Time Low" (6:18)
- Fading into the Next Song: The last four tracks, which make up side 4 of the vinyl, are basically an extended suite. The end of "I Would for You" flows seamlessly into the start of "In Two", and the rest have No Ending.
- Holy Pipe Organ: The remix of "Find My Way" invokes this with samples of a church organ.
- Instrumentals: "The Eater of Dreams" and "Black Noise", though the former has a heavily distorted vocal at the end.
- Lighter and Softer: Zig-zagged. Musically, this is one of the softest and most minimalist NIN albums, but it is lyrically one of Trent's most personal latter-day albums, reflecting on where he was roughly 20 years earlier.
- Lyrical Dissonance: "Everything" initially seems like the narrator is happy, but only because he's accepting whatever has been eating at him away inside and will wither away to die.
- Mesodiplosis: In "Came Back Haunted", it's the unknown "something":
- "Now I've got something you have to see
They put something inside of me"
- No Ending:
- "In Two" abruptly segues into "While I'm Still Here" amid a solo.
- "Black Noise" ends the album abruptly.
- Siamese Twin Songs: "Black Noise" is essentially the outro of "While I'm Still Here". The two were played live this way on the 2013 tour.
- Song of Prayer: "I'm just trying to find my way. Oh dear Lord, hear my prayer."
