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Nine Inch Nails - The Fragile
- Sometimes an artist releases an album that proves that although he may not be proficient, or even commercial, he is a master and has a plan for his music. Trent Reznor is one of those artists, and "The Fragile" is definitely one of those albums.
"The Fragile" was released in 1999, five years after "The Downward Spiral" cemented Nine Inch Nails as one of the overlords of dark electronic music. Unable to produce hits to his record companies liking, Reznor hid away in a funeral home-turned studio in New Orleans, got sober, and prepared his magnum opus.
This is nothing less than a concept album. Although the lyrics concepts are too general to form a definite story, one exists. It starts out in a negative place in "Somewhat Damaged", and though the album reaches dizzying heights of subtle beauty and sadness Trent always returns to the mechanical clanks, roars, and whirs, that brought him fame in 1989 and 1994 with "Into The Void".
The concepts are musical. Four or five note sequences show up in different places around the album, sometimes appearing unexpectedly. Often these progressions, and many, many, others, are layered over and over again, as though Reznor is trying to pack the entire album into one song, "Just Like You Imagined."
The album is very long. For its length it doesn't have as many hits as one would expect a double-disc concept album. There are more instrumentals and slow, brooding numbers than one would expect in an endeavor such as this. What I'm sure has happened is Reznor is learning not to play the crowd, but the cult who propelled this album to #1 in the charts on its first day of sales.
Reviewer: Josh Brachfeld
new
Reviewer's Rating: 9
Reader's Rating: 0
Reader's Votes: 0
Added: 2-Jun-2009
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