Review Summary: More layered, textured, fastidiously recorded and re-recorded than any of his work to date, "The Fragile" remains not only arguably the least dated of his works, but also the most emotionally poignant and sonically diverse album in the Nine Inch Nails dis
I've listened to "The Fragile" more than a hundred times all the way through since I first heard it. I think all masterpieces not only deserve, but require, multiple listens. "The Fragile" is one such masterpiece.
"The Fragile" is an album with a very rich yet somewhat undisclosed history: it was written, recorded, mixed and mastered over the course of two years in Reznor's New Orleans funeral-home-turned-recording-studio. It has a lot of reputable names backing the production and recording of the album, which is about fifteen minutes shy of two hours long, including members of Reznor's live band like Danny Lohner, Charlie Clouser and Jerome Dillon, previous collaborator and guitar virtuoso Adrian Belew (who had worked with Reznor on Downward Spiral), and even renowned hip-hop producer Dr. Dre as a mixing assistant for a song. There were also many no-names who were given the privilege to work on the album. For example, the choir for the coda of the track Day the World Went Away was a random group of bar patrons from across the studio in New Orleans. The album is a testament to Reznor's deliberately paced work ethic and sometimes rigid perfectionism, if there ever was such a perfect example. More layered, textured, fastidiously recorded and re-recorded than any of his work to date, "The Fragile" remains not only arguably the least dated of his works, but also the most emotionally poignant and sonically diverse album in the Nine Inch Nails discography. It's also arguably more thematically depressing and even more nihilistic than its predecessor "The Downward Spiral," and what remains mostly undisclosed about the history of "The Fragile" is Reznor's scarily frail emotional state at the time.
"The Fragile", in a sense, acts as a very clever psuedo-sequel to his previous masterpiece "The Downward Spiral." While "Spiral" explicitly follows a storyline of a very broken and depressed individual, who goes through the album shedding his humanity little by little, "Fragile" seems to be the story after the story ends; where do you go when you're absolutely positively at the lowest point you can possibly be? This idea is what makes the album more depressing in concept than "Spiral;" where "Spiral" had hope in oblivion and self-annhiliation, closing with the song Hurt, "The Fragile" starts with nothing and ends with even less. Just look at the track-names; starting Somewhat Damaged, ending Ripe (With Decay).
These albums also connect with a familiar concept of man being one with a machine: in "Downward Spiral," the man embraces the machine, allowing it to eat away at his humanity, and now he's "made up of wires." In "The Fragile," he seems to be remorseful, saying in the opening track Somewhat Damaged that the machine is "obsolete," and that he "flew too high and broke his wings," and now he's paying for it, drowning in the sonic wasteland of the album. This regret is shown and displayed incredibly well in the instrumentals of the album, ranging from the familiar hard-hitting industrial noise of Somewhat Damaged, to almost jazz-like, with drums and bassline of La Mer, to symphony-worthy string ensemble tracks like that of The Great Below. All the influences, like that of rock, electronic, jazz, other industrial acts, what have you, are turned on its head by Reznor, who makes these sounds his own and makes them interesting and distinctly "him." A few highlights include the opener Somewhat Damaged, which is layer-upon-layer of guitars and synths climbing and dog-piling over each other on varied time signatures, the epic rock instrumental Just Like You Imagined, featuring genius piano work by Mike Garson, the song La Mer, a sad jazz-influenced track about death sung in Creole-French, the extremely catchy and repetitive Into the Void with its stomping beat and fuzzed-out bass, and The Big Come Down, featuring oddly-tuned guitar and an amazing synth outro...just to name a few gems off this huge album.
Both halves of the album divide the story perfectly - the first half ends with the protagonist drowning (if you didn't think he could end up any lower) and the second half begins with him pushing through for one last chance to revive his humanity on the track The Way Out is Through. Of course, in true Reznor-fashion, this ends with death and silence in the instrumental finale Ripe (With Decay), and the efforts are proven to be futile. The listener learns from the protagonist's decisions, takes them to heart, and sees that he took his life for granted and ended up having to "take" his life. A timeless fable on the frailty of humanity and the gifts we disrespect.
I want to make something clear: "The Fragile," like anything else made with TLC by humans, is not perfect - the thematics of the album's concept leave room for melodrama which shines here and there, but it's not much to handle considering the hyperbole of many other, perhaps more popular artists of his time or any other era's. Also, the track "Star***ers Inc.," though enjoyable, is a major speed bump on the story's narrative and really sort of kills the buzz that album had built up for almost eighty-minutes before.
It's a profound statement on the importance of being human, and the consequences of taking our gifts for granted. The instruments paint a picture so vividly across a sonic canvas...a canvas that the listener feels like he's/she's nailed to. It's an album that has, in the hundred-something times I've listened to it, left an increasingly more significant impression on me that no other album could/can/will. It remains a classic that will continue to age well with its equally-magnificent predecessor "The Downward Spiral," and it remains my favorite album, warts and all.
Favorite Tracks
Somewhat Damaged
The Frail/ The Wretched
Just Like You Imagined
Even Deeper
La Mer
The Way Out is Through
Into the Void
The Mark Has Been Made
The Big Come Down
Ripe (With Decay)
(if I had to narrow it down)
Least Favorite Tracks
Pilgrimage
Star***ers Inc.
