We find it a tad (or a lot) ironic that Trent Reznor would start ‘Hesitation Marks’ by singing припяващ “I am just a copy of a copy of a copy”.

This could, of course, be a mere coincidence but we doubt it, having in mind how pretty much everything about NIИ has always been carefully calculated and put into its right place. In fact, this new NIИ release is just what one might expect from Renor. Plus a few things noone expected.

Armed with his disregard for any formulas and rules and knowing well that ‘Hesitation Marks’ is hardly going to be the musical revolution that ‘The Downward Spiral’ was, Reznor has concentrated on creating just another great addition to his already great discography.

These here are all well balanced, rather introvert songs in which an intelligent pop sound meets noisy industrial (Reznor has pointed out Skinny Puppy and Throbbing Gristle as influence), some oldschool 80’s electro beats (reminding us of just how the NIИ story started with ‘Pretty Hate Machine’), loads of samples and ambience plus the occasional guitar onslaught (after all King Crimson’s Adrian Belew and Fleetwood Mac’s Lindsey Buckingham have been involved in the recording process).

Just like with 2008’s ‘The Slip’, we see a musician who is completely in control and knows full well how not to overdo a track, making it easy to listen to while staying true to the underground feel.

Thus ‘Hesitation Marks’ should be an easy winner for most NIИ, being (forgive us the bold words) truly a hit album.

For, after all, ‘Satellite’, ‘Disappointed’, ‘Copy of A’ and ‘I Would For You’ are just what contemporary pop music could have been, had it been approached with more wits, musical knowledge and attention to the detail. This is also an album that is so layered and complex in its sound that requires you to listen to it either on good headphones or on a good sound system.

And if we consider the gaps between the albums (six years between ‘The Fragile’ and ‘With Teeth’, five between ‘The Slip’ and ‘Hesitation Marks’) for markers of the NIИ eras, then the project’s Era Three starts even better than Era Two.