Nine Inch Nails
The Fragile

Release Date: 1999 | Tracklist

In 1994, Nine Inch Nails released what would become known to many as their magnum opus, The Downward Spiral. Seething with unrelenting hatred and angst through every crevice of its mechanical skin, the album placed its mastermind, Trent Reznor, as an Alternative icon beside the likes of Grunge superstars such as Nirvana and Soundgarden in the mainstream. With bringing the Industrial genre into the public eye and selling 4 million copies in the US alone, The Downward Spiral seemed enough at the time to keep Nine Inch Nails as an Alternative Rock radio mainstay.

Nothing could've come further from the truth though, as after the successful Self-Destruct Tour ended in late 1995, Reznor entered a downward spiral of his own. He struggled with a hideous drug addiction to cocaine, and suffered severe writer's block that heavily delayed the release of his follow-up to The Downward Spiral. After a long 5 year wait, The Fragile was released in September of 1999 to a musical climate dominated by clean-cut boy bands and rap-metal clowns, leaving the album and Nine Inch Nails to drift out of sight from listeners.

It was an unfortunate turn of events, because what people unknowingly overlooked was that Nine Inch Nails' 3rd LP was the perfect follow-up to its overwhelming predecessor. The Downward Spiral thrived on all-out aggression and cynicism towards the world around it, and even at its most subdued moments on tracks like "Hurt", Trent Reznor had no restrictions on lashing out at his detractors with declarations such as "I will make you hurt". The Fragile continues with that album's themes, but instead of simply rehashing them verbatim, it expands them into a more reflective experience. Sure, Trent still finds no issue in demanding "where the f*** were you?" on album opener "Somewhat Damaged", but also tries to find strength to hold life together on the title track's pleaful statement to not let things fall apart, as well as on "We're In This Together", where he calls for unity in a deteriorating bond. Reznor perfectly portrays the feelings of fragility, not only displaying the frustration one feels in seeing their world crumble, but also their desire and effort to keep holding on in the hopeless moments.

The Fragile also tweaks the usual distorted assault of Nine Inch Nails' past musicianship. The heavy, drop-tuned guitars and sinister synth work remain as usual, but this time around they are to complement Reznor's more pronounced usage of classical string work and ambient piano textures. During the record's nearly 2 hour runtime, instrumental songs such as "La Mer" and "The Mark Has Been Made" blend The Fragile's 23 tracks into one captivating record that is almost cinematic in scope. The atmosphere that Nine Inch Nails began to cultivate on The Downward Spiral became even more refined here, and while it remained just as intense as before, it also reveled in a newfound sense of musical depth.

As the album closes with the blood-stained struggle of a finale, "Ripe (With Decay)", I can't recognize The Fragile as anything less than an essential Nine Inch Nails masterwork that sits perfectly aside The Downward Spiral, and even at times above it. It may not have possessed the same commercial viability in an ironic sense like the 1994 classic before it had, but The Fragile disregarded these pressures anyway, choosing to grow from its source material when contemporary artists at the same time were playing it painfully safe. Many of those acts ended up fading off like the shallow trends they were revealed to be a part of, but 15 years after its initial release, Nine Inch Nails' The Fragile can be recognized as the classic it was intended to be seen as.

Tweet

user ratings (2904)

rate it Awful - 1 Very Poor - 1.5 Poor - 2 Average - 2.5 Good - 3 Great - 3.5 Excellent - 4 Superb - 4.5 Classic - 5

4.3 superb

Rank: #24 for 1999