Review Summary: The most varied, atmospheric, and wild Nine Inch Nails release to date creates one of the best albums of all time.
For most of my life, I've always been one of Trent Reznor's biggest fans. Been to at least one show in each of his last four tours, and I've met him backstage before. For many years,
The Downward Spiral was the best album I'd ever listened to; hands down. When
The Fragile came out, I was happy with it and its more atmospheric sound, even if I secretly wanted another
The Downward Spiral.
This all quickly changed for me recently, maybe its the presence of more styles of music in my taste, but
The Fragile has officially taken over
The Downward Spiral as my favorite album of all time. Why is this that its taken me eight years to fully see
The Fragile's glory and greatness? Its beyond me, but let me tell you, this album never slows down, and doesn't have any imperferections whatsoever. From the Left side opener,
Somewhat Damaged, the album is off and kicking to a loud and angry start, and doesn't really ever drag, bore, or even make me yawn up until the grand finale,
Ripe (With Decay). This isn't the traditional crazy, guitar-driven industrial metal of
The Downward Spiral; this is deep, heavy, atmospheric stuff that manages to focus a bit more on the sound rather than the vocals. Built off of dense 'soundscapes', this album manages to be every bit as epic and original as
The Downward Spiral.
What's so great about this album is the fact that there's no clear standout track like there was on
The Downward Spiral. There was a few filler tracks Trent's last time around, but now, the whole album fits together like a puzzle and the whole album is a standout track. From the extreme dynamic changes in
The Day the World Went Away to the solemn atmospheres of
The Great Below, the album is always there, full guns blazing, and letting you know who's boss. Not only that, Trent Reznor's ability to make a piano-driven track into a hard rock anthem is impeccable, and can be found in tracks like
The Wretched.
The album fits together like one big, long story telling the story of Trent Reznor's drug addiction and it works very well in the process. The songs flow together perfectly, almost as well as Pink Floyd's classic
Dark Side of the Moon, as half of the time, the only thing stopping the tracks from falling together is your player changing songs. Don't be mistaken, the album is still hard, angry, and loud, which is shown in songs like
We're In This Together and
Starfuckers, Inc.. In fact, the songs are often louder and more industrial than songs like
Mr. Self Destruct and
Heresy off of
The Downward Spiral.
It shocks me that Trent Reznor wasn't happy with this album; I don't know what more he could have wanted from a release. Its filled with the angry, aggressive tracks mixed in with a bit of odd sounds and tempos, especially in songs like
The Big Come Down and
Into the Void. The songs often build slowly, before exploding in the end, which is found in tracks like
Somewhat Damaged and
Into the Void. This album is a case of the album
living up to the hype built for it. Five years is a long time, and Trent may have alienated traditional rock listeners farther away from his music while keeping his fanbase happier than ever.
As Spin Magazine put it,
The Fragile is a clear choice for Album of the Year back in 1999, and in my opinion its still one of the best releases of the 90s, if not of all time. You can't deny Reznor's ability to fuse industrial, dance, and hard rock into amazing, sprawling epics like
The Downward Spiral and
The Fragile. No matter what Tremt does with the rest of his career, this album will be the album and the one that came before it will be the releases that made Nine Inch Nails one of the most successful, and influential bands of all time.
DOWNLOAD:
Somewhat Damaged
We're In This Together
The Great Below
Into the Void
Starfuckers, Inc.
The Big Come Down
