NINE INCH NAILS
THE FRAGILE
by James Russell

As provider of the soundtrack to one's self-loathing, Trent Reznor has been the choice of a generation, or at least a decade. Thunderous industrial noises, bizarre music videos, much shouting, pitch black lyrical themes, and all-round intensity and aggression-roll all that into one package, and you basically have Nine Inch Nails. I still marvel at the fact that Broken and The Downward Spiral both debuted in the US Billboard Top Ten chart in 1992 and 1994 respectively. There's something wrong about that somehow.

Having dithered a bit since the last NIN album, producing only a remix album, the Perfect Drug EP and the Natural Born Killers and Lost Highway soundtracks in that time, Trent has finally consented to release a new NIN album by the name of The Fragile-and shock horror, it's not all ferocious negativity. Some of it even borders on the actually positive. The Fragile contains a bit over a hundred minutes of music, some twenty-three tracks spread over two discs, twelve tracks on the first and eleven on the second. Let's take them in order of appearance, starting with disc one (or "Left").

"Somewhat Damaged" opens the album with the sound of-perhaps surprisingly, or perhaps not-an acoustic guitar, before the electronic drums kick in to reassure us. It's OK but not really anything special. The first single from the album, "The Day The World Went Away", follows hard upon. When we all first heard this, we should've known something different was afoot. Apart from the dramatic and unexpected dead stop, its most notable feature is its total lack of drums. It takes some getting used to, but its a wonderful thing after a few listens. This is followed by the first of numerous instrumentals scattered through the album, "The Frail"; less than two minutes long, it's basically a repeating series of gentle piano chords, ending in a synthesiser drone that segues into track four, "The Wretched". This also features a lot of piano, though the chorus parts are more guitar-driven, working on the old soft(ish) verse/loud chorus structure. Somehow it feels longer than it actually is.

"We're In This Together" is the longest track on the album, running over seven minutes. Length aside, this song is an obvious choice for single release and would've been far less remote and difficult than "The Day The World Went Away". The lyrical stance of the song is the surprise here; given that Trent's most famous line will probably always be "I want to fuck you like an animal", the sentiments on offer here are positively romantic ones. This also holds true for the title track which comes next and is probably as balladic as the album gets. Another instrumental follows, "Just Like You Imagined", another rather splendid item featuring guest appearances by erstwhile Bowie pianist Mike Garson and King Crimson guitarist Adrian Belew.

"Even Deeper" returns us to the mid-tempo brooding; mixing assistance is provided on this track by Dr Dre. A third instrumental, "Pilgrimage", comes next; a twisting theme in 6/4 time is carried out by a synthesised marching band, weird chanting, and stomping percussion. Undeniably peculiar but rather good; best described perhaps as foot- tapping material for the three-legged. "No, You Don't" is the most rocked-up that disc one gets, with some heavy industrial beats. This song would sit without much discomfort on The Downward Spiral or Broken, possibly better than it does here.

After that bit of noise, "Left" closes in more relaxed fashion, firstly with "La Mer", another piano-driven tune with guest drummer Bill Rieflin (from Ministry) providing it with an almost jazzy beat. Jazzy is another word I'd never once have used in relation to NIN, but that's how it sounds to me. The tune has an overlaying veneer of guitar buzz and the few lyrics are delivered by one Denise Montfort, but she's mixed down almost to inaudibility. The last track is "The Great Below"; essentially it's a suicide song, but the lyric theme is offset by the subdued delivery and atmospherics. Not as elegant a handling of the idea as, say, Powderfinger's "Private Man", but still comparatively restrained; a few years ago Trent would've wrenched far more agony from the lyrics than he does now.

Disc two, or "Right", opens with "The Way Out Is Through". It begins quietly but gets progressively louder, until it explodes with volume as Trent recites the song's few lyrics and then dies away to ambient noise and atonally tinkling piano by Mike Garson. "Into The Void" begins with percussive sounds like a prepared piano or something, then guitar and drum machine kick in with a peculiarly early-1980s aura to them; this would also sit comfortably on one of the earlier albums, particularly with that "tried to save myself but myself keeps slipping away" refrain. "Where Is Everybody?" is pretty standard, driven by drum machine beat and distorted synthesiser; not especially distinguished and possibly the album's weakest moment. "The Mark Has Been Made" is another instrumental with a curiously bitter taste, with broken-up guitar distortion and synthesised lower strings grumbling quietly over a mid-tempo beat and quiet piano, until again the volume dramatically increases and the beat gets heavier, but generally it goes nowhere fast as it tails off again. The Fragile finally starts to show signs of sagging.

We pick up again from this slump with "Please", another forceful and driving little number with one of the best chorus hooks on the album. Then follows the marvellous "Starfuckers Inc.", Trent's take on the supermodel scene, in which NIN virtually go glam rock on us, pulling out sliced-up vocals and jungle-style beats and a splendidly shouty chorus. This also came out as the B-side to "The Day The World Went Away", though the album version leaves off the sampled crowd applause at the end of the single version. Yet another instrumental, "Complication", follows hard upon, with more dance beats doing the business beneath the guitar and synthesiser noises.

"I'm Looking Forward To Joining You, Finally" is dedicated to his late grandmother-we all knew he was a family man at heart, eh?-a strange and sinister piece of work. "The Big Comedown" opens with junk and electric percussion and some pretty damn rubbery guitar; kind of NIN by numbers, but the conclusion is good. "Underneath It All" shudders evilly into being from a relatively quiet start to a loud climax with Trent acting as a one-man overdubbed choir which finally fractures. The album finally ends with "Ripe (With Decay)", another instrumental and an ominous one too, with the steely sound of guitar strings being picked, and joined in by another burst of Mike Garson's piano work and even some violin, ending on some percussion and electric guitar noises, maybe even some King Crimson-style stick playing. And there endeth the lesson.

Lyrically speaking The Fragile still largely works over the same sort of thematic territory as previous releases have done, though of course there are some noted (and notable) exceptions; for the most part I don't suppose long-term NIN fans will have much trouble with it. But there's still some differences which may increase its broader appeal. For one thing it's not as harsh as previous releases have been; the production is more spacious and it doesn't have the glacial Arctic chill of Broken and The Downward Spiral. There's a subtlety to some parts of it, which is another word I would rarely have used in relation to NIN at one time. And let's just put it this way. When I first heard The Downward Spiral I had to listen to it at two sittings, it was too heavy for one go. And yet the first time I played The Fragile, which is much longer than the previous album, I managed to get through both discs in one go. This may be a sign of how much more easily digestible The Fragile is; it's nowhere near easy listening, of course, but less hard to handle than his previous work.

It's not perfect-I think he overplays the soft/loud dynamics-and it's indulgent, as double albums have always tended to be, with a noticeable slump around the middle; although "Right" has its beauties, "Left" is probably the more consistently successful. But I suppose it's not as indulgent as it could have been (it could've been up to fifty minutes longer if he'd wanted to actually fill both discs to capacity, for one thing), and there's not much of it which is actually bad as such. The Fragile, therefore, can generally be counted a success. I just wonder now how long he'll take to release the results of the hiphop project he's now supposed to be doing with Dre, which may or may not be the same thing as the Tapeworm thing he's also been apparently planning for a while; at the current going rate though, we probably shouldn't expect an answer to that question before 2005 or so…