First impressions: Nine Inch Nails - Hesitation Marks.

So, I've had a chance to listen to the first of my highly anticipated batch of September albums. Nine Inch Nails most recent offering, Hesitation Marks being the album in question. I don't know a huge deal of Nine Inch Nails material. The only other album of theirs I've heard in full is their debut, Pretty Hate Machine, which I really like. I love them when they're more melodic, but some of their material is simply too heavy for me. I guess you say I was greeting the news of their new album with a degree of hesitation (pun intended). They were worries that were quickly put to rest. After being blown away by Came Back Haunted, and later Copy Of A, I simply couldn't wait to hear the album in full. I have to say - I really liked it! To be honest, Copy Of A and Came Back Haunted do remain the stand-outs for me, but that's not to say the album tracks were poor. Honestly I would have been very surprised if the album had have sustained the quality of those two songs all the way through. To be honest, I doubt there's a more accessible Nine Inch Nails album. I guess that may make the album unpopular with more hard-nosed fans. For me though, it's good. It's more melodic than a barrage of harsh electronics, which is a-okay in my book. I liked every song, Find My Way is growing on me in particular. Everything and Satellites being other standouts. The only two I felt were borderline filler were In Two and While I'm Still Here. The irony being? They were the tracks on which Lindsey Buckingham (from Fleetwood Mac) played guitar. I have to admit - I'm surprised at that. I would have guessed he featured on Everything in all honesty. Oh well, brownie points for featuring Lindsey all the same; I do love Fleetwood Mac (and his guitar skills). I'm definitely going to purchase Hesitation Marks at some point, it's a very good album. I'm very much at the beginning stages of my investigation into Nine Inch Nails work, but Hesitation Marks leaves me very much looking forward to delving further into Trent Reznor's alternate world.

Sound of the week: albums

Hello all from (yet again) a Belfast that spent most of the day spent drenched in glorious sunshine. I've actually knuckled down and listened to some new albums this week. There's not much point in doing a sound of the week song this week - it would just be another post on Nine Inch Nails new single Came Back Haunted and it basically would be a reiteration of all that I've said in my previous post on it (which would make for very dull reading). These aren't the only albums I'e listened to this week - just the new ones I've enjoyed the most

So - the first album I listened to this week was Settle, the hotly anticipated debut offering from Disclosure. Disclosure are receiving a lot of hype here in the UK. They were actually playing a club here in Belfast yesterday or the night before. I had only heard one song of theirs, but I had really liked it. Not to mention that they collaborate with two of my favourite current artists: Jessie Ware and Ed McFarlene (Friendly Fires). Not to mention that they also have collaborated with Alunageorge (who's debut album I'm eager to hear). I have to say I really like their style of soulful house! And at the risk of sounding controversial - I prefer it to Daft Punk's Random Access Memories. I think its because Settle is more of what I was hoping Random Acess Memories would be like. Nevertheless, definitely an album I will be purchasing!

 So, another album I've (finally) heard that's newly released is Yeah Yeah Yeah's fourth album, Mosquitos which came out in April (on my birthday actually). I've tried to listen to this album about three times and every time I've made it roughly halfway through before being interrupted. This week, I finally listened to the whole thing! I have to say I really liked it, particularly Under The Earth, Subway, Buried Alive, Mosquito and Sacrilege. Yeah Yeah Yeahs are a band I've been meaning to listen to for a while, and they've impressed me with Mosquito! I've definitely got an increased urge to listen to their previous three studio albums now, I just hope they match up to the quality of Mosquito!

Now a trip back in time for this one, I've started listening to the back catalogue of Nine Inch Nails. Only one place to start, with the debut album. So far this is the only album I've heard in full. I did start listening to Downward Spiral earlier on but I only got three or four tracks into it before having to do something - Sundays can be a bit of a busy day for me. Anyhow this was an album I really liked - sadly the opening tracks of Downward Spiral didn't hit me quite as much. I've got a feeling Nine Inch Nails will be a slow burner for me, but we shall see. Anyhow, I liked all the songs on this album, particularly Ringfinger. I'm still very much deciding whether to go or not to their upcoming Belfast show... as I know so little about their music at the moment it's very much undecided and could go either way to be perfectly honest.

So another week is over, time flies eh? I've no doubt this coming week is going to be another busy one on the blog: my new purchases are due anyday now (most likely Tuesday) and I've no shortage of music related material to discuss anyway, so thanks for reading and stay tuned!

Suprise hit: Nine Inch Nails - Came Back Haunted

I love electronic music (if that wasn't already obvious), but I must admit that industrial style music wouldn't be a sub genre that I listen to at all. In saying that - Nine Inch Nails have been recommended to me before (in particular Downward Spiral and Pretty Hate Machine), so when the same person recommended I check out their new single which was just unveiled yesterday I was rather interested. I don't know many songs of Nine Inch Nails, and whilst I've quite liked the ones I do know I did have slight qualms that on the whole their style of music might be too heavy for me. In saying that when I listened to Came Back Haunted yesterday I was floored - so much so I've listened to it about ten times in two days and listened to it about five times on a loop! It's the first single from the upcoming Hesitation Marks album which is due to land on September 3rd. It's  definitely more electronic as opposed to the more heavy rock style I thought Nine Inch Nails were known for. Alias, it looks like I was wrong there. Already end of August/start of September is shaping up to be a busy month for me with Madonna's MDNA tour DVD, The Clash's Soundsystem boxset and now Nine Inch Nails. They're also playing Belfast's Belsonic festival at the end of August... if I like their albums enough when I check them out I won't rule out a ticket for them, but that's very much something that needs to be decided. In any case, Came Back Haunted is probably my favourite single of the year so far!