This week marks the release of Hesitation Marks, the first Nine Inch Nails record since 2008’s The Slip — which we all assumed was the last hurrah for Trent Reznor in his NIN incarnation. Thankfully, that isn’t the case, and here we are! I’ve been listening to the new record for the past week and it doesn’t disappoint. Production-wise, it calls back to The Downward Spiral while making a significant step forward for the evolving sound of Nine Inch Nails (just take a listen to “Everything,” a song that wears its Joy Division love on its sleeve).
To celebrate Hesitation Marks, I decided to do the impossible task of ranking my top 25 NIN songs. A couple of qualifications: no covers (so “Physical” and “Dead Souls” are absent, I’m afraid), no remixes, and nothing from Ghosts (simply because that record is basically a symphony and should be consumed as a whole).
Here we go!