The day the POLL went away: NIN's The Fragile

I think the only song on (Right) that I ever play is "Into The Void", but I love (Left) to bits

― MC Tramp Stamp (HI DERE), Tuesday, October 19, 2010 3:15 PM (6 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I'm Looking Forward to Joining You and The Big Comedown are hidden gems on (Right)

― A brownish area with points (chap), Tuesday, October 19, 2010 3:21 PM (28 seconds ago) Bookmark

"The Great Below" is kinda underrated. Need to relisten to this.

I'd forgotten about "Pilgrimage"

(Left) is so great

I way prefer the Still version of TDTWWA to the album version, by the way.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7fsHtkNU7w

i got off the bus before this album - don't know why, i loved TDS. maybe it felt like too much of a commitment - two whole discs! anyway i wonder if it's too late to go back - i gave year zero and the next one a try, didn't love, didn't hate.

"Somewhat Damaged" is a pretty great opening track.

Ledge - Disc 1 is significantly more accessible, I'd start with that one and see how you feel about tackling disc 2. It's closer to TDS than later stuff, though warmer and less harsh.

"just like you imagined" without a doubt

ledge: I think you will dig the album if you dig the singles ("The Day The World Went Away", "We're In This Together", "Into The Void", and lol "Starfuckers Inc" although if you hate that one, that just means you are like me)

Did you hear the Year Zero remix album? It's astonishing top to bottom and made me appreciate YZ a lot more.

you know the instrumentals on this are fucking great

Kind of like the very first and very last tracks best on this one tbh.

The eerie distant string samples and skittery beats might get me to vote Even Deeper.

Mixing assistance by Dr. Dre!

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Interesting.

The Fragile 0
The Wretched 0
The Day the World Went Away 0

boo

HI DERE speaks many truths.

at least three.

such an underrated album.

^^^

yes its long but its really consistent and well crafted. the few albums after it felt like they were going through the motions slightly, but fragile has enough of the good textural/production fun of the Downward Spiral era with some more mature compositions and is just overall a great listening experience.

this album's arrival in the marketplace is the definition of "too much too late." i'd probably enjoy it a lot if i revisited it now but all but the biggest NIN diehards found it hard to give a damn at the time.

i definitely voted for "We're In This Together," such a massive-sounding song that wasn't destined to be a massive single

I still rep for Year Zero. As a concept album it's ultimately a failure, since listening to the whole thing in one go can be really overbearing and tiring, but most of the songs in isolation are really, really great (especially "The Great Destroyer", "God Given" and "Zeros and Ones")

It's on the trailer to the Avengers movie.

xpost

I still rep for Year Zero. As a concept album it's ultimately a failure, since listening to the whole thing in one go can be really overbearing and tiring, but most of the songs in isolation are really, really great (especially "The Great Destroyer", "God Given" and "Zeros and Ones")

― Bam! Orgasm explosion in your facehole. (DJP), Friday, January 6, 2012 3:59 PM (36 seconds ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I would add "The Good Soldier" and a creepy instrumental on the second half the name of which I can't remember.

"Another Version of the Truth"?

also lol @ me for calling "Zero Sum" "Zeros and Ones", hi dere long dormant Jesus Jones fandom

Year Zero is the worst NIN album imo, all the later ones sound way better, especially The Slip

yeah i'd probably agree, but some of the year zero stuff was still decent live

Year Zero is my favourite post-Fragile album! With Teeth sounds to me like a not massively successful attempt to become more of a straight-up rock act, Ghosts I find a bit impenetrable, and the Slip is a re-hash of old ideas, and easily the most boringly produced of his albums. There is decent music to be found on all three, mind.

this album's arrival in the marketplace is the definition of "too much too late." i'd probably enjoy it a lot if i revisited it now but all but the biggest NIN diehards found it hard to give a damn at the time.

this is exactly how I felt...grew up listening to PHM and Downward Spiral but the idea of a massive new NIN double-CD felt anachronistic by fall 99. Then again if the album kicked ass, which it doesn't, things may have turned out differently.

tbf Melon Collie pretty much turned out to be the last gasp of the whole 'ambitious double album as ultimate artistic statement and commercial peak of a megaselling rock band' phenomenon, if NIN had been more timely with a follow-up they might have the momentum to be part of that club

plus Mellon Collie has way more good songs than The Fragile.

just realized the other day that "la mer" and "into the void" sort of feature the same melodic motif.

i listened to this record all the time when it came out and this fact did not occur to me at all

plus Mellon Collie has way more good songs than The Fragile.

I like Mellon Collie a lot and I don't think this is at all true

just realized the other day that "la mer" and "into the void" sort of feature the same melodic motif.

As do "The Frail" and the chorus of "The Fragile".

http://www.avclub.com/articles/trent-reznor-made-altrocks-last-stand-with-the-fra,82235/

Alright I'm finally gonna listen to it. On less than top-notch headphones.

xpost -- It's like they wrote the thoughts in your head (including hating "Starfuckers")

This album is mostly awesome, so much so that it barely needs anyone to come to its defense.

Huh, that piece missed noted Reznor's descent into drugs. When next we saw our hero, he was clean, sober and Hulk-huge.

It's like they wrote the thoughts in your head (including hating "Starfuckers")

haha basically

"this works best as a contiguous piece" - check
"by the time this was released, it was out of fashion" - check
"'Starfuckers Inc' is super dumb" - check

xp: he was also back to distilling his angst into digestible 4 minute nuggets as opposed to thematically-linked double albums, which I think plays a lot into NIN's modern rock resurgence

My 39-minute edit, contiguous with SPIN magazine thread:

Just Like You Imagined
The Day The World Went Away
The Wretched
We're In This Together
Even Deeper
Please
The Big Come Down
La Mer

I made a 10 track edit I'm quite pleased with a while ago (cheating slightly with track 2):

La Mer
The Day the World Went Away (Still)
We're in this Together
The Fragile
Just Like You Imagined
Even Deeper
Into the Void
I'm Looking Forward to Joining You
The Big Come Down
The Great Below

you can't have La Mer AND Into The Void

pfft, maybe you can

There's a lot of room between them!

I remember Stylus doing a single-disc edit but really 10 tracks or fewer if you're taking it seriously

Obviously I like your one because you've chosen most of the tracks I've chosen

Thanks, yours is cool too - though I'm not that big on Please.

The main trouble with listening to an edit is some of the opening segues sound really jarring in isolation.

Please is in only because I needed to flesh out the relative perfection of the other 7 tracks and because of the chord-change into the chorus

Definitely some of his prettiest moments on this album; the Frail and the coda of We're in This Together are just lush.

he did "the big come down" at the show i saw the other night, was not expecting my favorite fragile deep cut in a nin setlist in 2013

wow chap's 10 track reduction is probably perfect

Cheers!

to make it twelve tracks i'd probably drop in "the mark has been made" and "underneath it all"

Yeah good choices. I'm a little sad to lose The Frail/The Wretched as well.

there's no way I could cut The frail/The wretched

lj how would you assess the lyrics of this album

balladic

more in terms of value judgments than structure

there are some beautiful moments on this album in terms of SONICS
i am going to get high drink some burgundy and play it loud one of these days

the big come down = don't give this track that title

the lyrics on this album work surprisingly well for the puerile sloganeering that they are

directness of lyric to match directness of the music perhaps although the latter has more subtlety

see with the downward spiral i would use that same argument but that album had a reassuring kind of acrid, devitalized sort of feel that kept it in the lineage of various industrial predecessors but the fragile is much more refined and 'full' sort of sound probably courtesy of whatever state of the art late 90s digital production

i revisited this album for the first time in ages recently. and even now, i'm no closer to remembering anything but "We're In This Together" in any particular detail.

Even Deeper has that direct chorus, but it also has some jazzy touches unthinkable in The Downward Spiral. I guess the lyrics, while still direct, are less confrontational, more reflective this time out.

Apart from that shitty Starfuckers song

there's no way I could cut The frail/The wretched

― set the controls for the heart of the sun (VegemiteGrrl), Friday, 18 October 2013 03:52 (Yesterday) Permalink

if it had been released on either a pre-/post- Fragile EP with maybe some of these castoffs [excluding starfuckers], i don't see why not.

lawl i was trying to get you to riff on starfuckers inc

still has some nice chunky rock sounds

I like the 'You're So Vain' middle eight in Starfuckers.

the single version of starfuckers ends with a live Kiss sample which totally makes the song IMO

or rather the version included on the "day the world went away" single

This... might be my favorite NIN album? At least (Left) is a strong contender; we'll see how I feel once I get to (Right)

"We're In This Together" is almost definitely my favorite NIN single at this point.

I like this album a hell of a lot and whenever I've listened to it always felt that there's a whole bunch of underrated work on here. Pretty Hate Machine is pretty much my go-to Nine Inch Nails album at this point, and I still enjoy the hell out of The Downward Spiral even though I've listened to it so much that I don't think there's anything left to discover about it (that, and it seems to be one of those records that are best listened to when you're of a certain age) but the highlights on The Fragile are easily as good as anything Trent ever did.

weirdly, Pilgrimage is the track i enjoy hearing the most of this these days.

There are 3-4 songs I really like but honestly if I'm gonna listen to NIN now it's gonna be either The Slip or Hesitation Marks.

our Hesitation Marks, I hope

well full disclosure, the album I actually LISTEN to the most is Year Zero Remixed

I haven't really listened to Hesitation Marks since it first came out.

this is really my favorite nin album. a 9-track edit of hesitation marks would also be a contender

i was v disappointed by every successive nin album bc i really just want him to build on his instrumental work on this record. ghosts was v inadequate as that goes

I should also relisten to With Teeth sometime

'Right Where It Belongs' probably one of my favourite Nine Inch Nails tracks, when all's said and done.

last two tracks on with teeth are incredible

rest of it ehh

last time i saw them live the year zero tracks were kinda the best part of the set tbh, feel like that record is undersung

Oh definitely, partially because "Survivalism" doesn't really work as a single but is incredible in context

Also the remix album really opens up a lot of that album's magic; I liked the original a LOT more after playing the remix album to death

The whole concept album/weirdo marketing stunts/hey-there's-gonna-be-an-HBO-show! thing really hurt Year Zero as an album. But the only song I really remember being a good song is "Survivalism."

xpost

"the great destroyer" and "in this twilight" are two of his best songs

"The Great Destroyer" is fucking incredible on the remix album, which is what opened the original up for me:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRjOM59pduQ

this reminds me that I never did check out modwheelmood

I still think that the heat sensitive CD art on Year Zero is pretty neat... on CD players where you can see the CD as it's spinning, you can see it gradually change colour as it plays.

that "great destroyer" remix is great. turns it into a normal song lol

all versions of the great destroyer live remixed original and otherwise are dope as hell

sometimes i think zero is my absolute favorite but i do have way too much downward spiral angst nostalgia to not adore it

The instrumental/alt version of the Fragile up on Apple Music is worth a listen, the instrumental version of With Teeth not so much.

The instrumental/alt version of the Fragile up on Apple Music is worth a listen

Listening now and enjoying it, but definitely one for the fans. Don't think someone who didn't know the songs quite well already would get much out of it.

Listening to this for only the third or fourth time ever (private session turned on in spotify so the discover playlist doesn't get the wrong idea). Disc 1 sounds in parts very Downward Spiral redux, but less intricate. Some classic angry Trent but my days of angry Trent appreciation are long behind me, I'm mostly digging the later quieter tracks although I do appreciate the machines that sound like guitars that sound like machines chewed up and spread between two intact machines that sound like guitars that sound like machines, and "the clouds will part and the sky cracks open and god himself will reach his fucking arm through just to push you down, to hold you down" is an A+ lol. We're in This Together I already knew was fucking immense. Disc 2 up next...

Disc 2 may be more to your taste, it tends more towards quiet/tripped-out Trent.

Sounds to me like it tends more towards funky Trent! RHCP rather than Parliament funky obv, but still. Nah disc 1 is the winner here, I would save We're in This Together, Just Like You Imagined, Even Deeper, La Mer, & The Great Below, maybe Into The Void and Complication from disc 2.

I really like I'm Looking Forward to Joining You (or whatever it's called) and The Big Comedown from disc 2, but they took a while to grow on me.

Also check out the 'Still' version of the The Day the World Went Away, it's gorgeous and miles better than the album mix.

My (Right) surprise "oh I should play this more" tracks were "The Mark Has Been Made" and "I'm Looking Forward To Joining You, Finally"

Into the Void doesn't get enough love (only one vote here!), love the groove and the million-Trent final chorus

There's also that bit at the start the instrumental break which sounds like the song is being sucked into a wormhole then spat out backwards.

My 15 track edit I made many moons ago I recently unearthed. Some had custom transitions. Definitely interested in revisiting this and putting together a leaner cut closer to 10-12 songs in the same vein as the other examples above.

01 the way out is through
02 the day the world went away
03 somewhat damaged
04 into the void
05 just like you imagined
06 the fragile
07 the frail
08 the big come down
09 complication
10 the mark has been made
11 10 miles high
12 pilgrimage
13 underneath it all
14 la mer
15 the great below

I'm finally relistening to this and large chunks of Right are actually good, but "Starfuckers, Inc" is such a bad song that if I play the whole thing in sequence, I end up not enjoying anything that comes after it because I'm mad that I listened to it.

"starfuckers inc" is one of my favorite songs to sing at karaoke. it is still bad

it is SO BAD

I am greatly enjoying DJP livetweeting listening to the entire NIN discography.

Aw, thanks!

Not everything on this record hits the mark, but I still really like it - the highlights are still quite strong.

it's hard to believe starfucker exists on the same album as the frail/the wretched

Listening to it today, it is definitely too much of a good thing; I was severely running out of steam by the end of (Right) even though in the abstract I was enjoying most of what I heard. Also, it is 100% criminal that "Starfuckers, Inc" made it onto the album because I strongly suspect the end of (Right) wouldn't feel like such an unholy slog if you skipped over that thing shitting into your ears.

In the abstract of how you see yourself?

*a With Teeth joke, I'll see myself out*

Take that to the With Teeth poll thread, mister

"Starfuckers" is super out of place on the album, but I like it in the same way I like Andrew WK. Big, fun and dumb. I like when Trent undercuts his usual seriousness with playfulness, though this song does it a bit... unsubtly

i don't actually remember the last time i listened to the fragile straight through. shouts out to the piano solo in "just like you imagined" which i completely forgot about

there's some superb piano on this album imo

Yeah, the lengthy coda of We're in This Together is gorgeous.

enya should cover "the great below"

i guess this is still my favorite nin record. even my one-disc digest of this record kinda proves it should be two discs (i agonized over cutting "pilgrimage," "i'm looking forward to joining you finally," and "please")

incidentally it's

the way out is through
somewhat damaged
the day the world went away
the frail
the wretched
we're in this together
the fragile
just like you imagined
into the void
the mark has been made
the big come down
underneath it all
la mer
the great below

about as long as the downward spiral in this configuration

No Even Deeper smh.

yeah srsly

Even the less good songs mostly have some textures and atmospheres I would miss. This is one of my favourite sounding albums.

"Even Deeper" is a slog imo

you're a slog

oh yeah it also hurt me a lot to cut "even deeper," sorry bros

you're a slog

harsh but fair

Hello.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PW_Ws04Vs_0

Per an NIN Hotline tweet:

Check out this youtube "album" of Fragility (1999-2000) performance recordings assembled by ETS member mauro995. "I made a heavier-than-aatchb live album of the Fragile era with some recordings from the NIN Live Archive" says mauro995.

Briefly read that as "heavier than abacab."

this album finally clicked for me, there'd been moments i'd loved before but it was just too dense/too heavy/too abstract/not pop enough for me before, but none of that was an issue today

it's totally too much to listen to all as once, but taken as two separate-but-related albums it's fantastic, which feels pretty unusual for a double album? like the typical modes of double albums are 'overwhelming messy stylistic grab bag' or 'too long to be a single album but not quite enough to be two separate things' but this doesn't fall into either of those? and the sequencing is perfect

the right disc is a little less fully-formed than the left and has the album's only dud in "starfuckers, inc." (but even that has the nice quiet part in the middle) but you could totally cut it without losing anything?

"the day the world went away" is the best thing on this even though it's probably the most straightforward. a gorgeous wall of guitars

actually "the perfect drug" would have been the perfect replacement for "starfuckers" wouldn't it? i should give that a try

its abrupt end doesn't quite work there but otherwise it's exactly what the album needs

are there non-nin bands that encapsulate the "just like you imagined" vibe?

Maybe my favorite album? today, anyway.

Also “Into The Void” still goes <3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8LEheSUTGE

lol @ the one disc versions upthread
YOU BABIES

jk jk

the big comedown also gooeeesss

agreed into the void is top shelf

was a freshman in highschool when this came out, thought it was pretty cool after listening to downward spiral a million times but I very clearly remember talking to the class goth about it and he was absolutely scandalized, "his music used to mean something, man" too pop I guess?

granted this guy was the real deal, 100% black wardrobe, tortured soul, piercing his ears with a lighter and a safety pin in between class, wonder what he's up to now

really like big comedown too and also please

i have a reformed mega-goth friend who apparently got off the NIN boat after Downward Spiral! too commercial.
lol there’s just no pleasing ppl

The Fragile is so perfectly sequenced, i love how the instrumentals balance the before & after songs so well in terms of mood as well as just sounds

also i love the way he uses strings & piano so much on this album, adds some really gorgeous textures

imo i think piano is his secret weapon, so many of his best hooks are on piano

agreed, and that wouldn't surprise me if that helped lead him to doing movie scores.

i remember my mind being blown as a teenager when this was released and reading the liner notes that dr. dre was involved. i just reread them and had absolutely no idea steve albini had a small bit in it and wonder what's the story on that.

This album rules.

XP IIRC, Albini just recorded some drum/percussion tracks.

I think that's right, they tracked the drums, or at least some drums, with him. Wouldn't be surprised if that was for future use as samples, too.

This version of The Big Comedown -

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9b7K1D2z74

He needs to do an album with those backing singers

NIN was absolutely one of my favorite bands when this came out. They weren't anymore afterwards. Trying to think of why now and I only remember being really embarrassed to be listening to Starfuckers inc.

I still have very good memories of the live show I saw in support of this album. They were amazing live.

I still have very good memories of the live show I saw in support of this album. They were amazing live.

Yeah, I saw this tour at Madison Square Garden — it was a really, really good show.

yeah it was the first time i saw him use the full sized projection screens in front of the band, blew my mind

also remember a half-sold arena
ppl really did not like this album at the time

"starfuckers inc." is so bad and it would have been so much better if "the perfect drug" replaced it.

i get why this album underperformed though when it's so much denser and less accessible than the downward spiral, came after a 5 and a half year gap, and something like 1/3 of the tracks are instrumentals.

one of my strongest memories of The Fragile tour was standing behind a fan and watching her play “air piano” to “The Frail”

it was weird & funny but kind of cool somehow

It was too long, too all over the place, too willing to be a little goofy - after the relative concision of TDS this seemed ridiculous

I listened to it a lot at the time but never became obsessed with it. It’s been decades since I heard it in full, should change that and see how it strikes me.

it is ridiculous and not as good as the downward spiral, but it's still great and flows surprisingly well for a double album

yeah it was the first time i saw him use the full sized projection screens in front of the band, blew my mind

They def. had the scrim for projection when I saw him tour "The Downward Spiral." It's such a cool effect, I wish more bands did stuff like that.

"The Fragile" is definitely uneven and all over the place, like most good double ("") albums. I remember him saying that he needed Bob Ezrin's help to sequence it. Was this the reported heights of his drug use? Anyway, I think its length is the only thing that ultimately makes this less accessible than "The Downward Spiral," which is more aggressive, more abrasive and also kinda uneven; my energy always seems to fade after "A Warm Place," with that run of "Eraser," "Reptile" and the title track. Of course, those songs (and "A Warm Place") would all fit pretty well on "The Fragile," so ...

But yeah, "Perfect Drug" instead of "Starfuckers" would have ruled, though isn't "Perfect Drug" one of the few songs Reznor often outright dismisses?

he did used to dismiss it but they finally started playing it live on their last few tours so maybe he's come around on it

i think the fragile is way more abrasive and less pop than the downward spiral. there's no "closer" or anything

Sure there is! Into the Void.

I never got into The Fragile, should try again. With Teeth was my "we're so back" moment, even saw them on that tour and they were great (Josh Freese on drums).

It was too long, too all over the place, too willing to be a little goofy - after the relative concision of TDS this seemed ridiculous

I listened to it a lot at the time but never became obsessed with it. It’s been decades since I heard it in full, should change that and see how it strikes me.

This is pretty much where I fall, too. I haven't listened to it in so long I can't even remember half the songs. It definitely feels like a candidate for "chop it down to a single disc" pruning. Might give that some thought today.

what if it’s actually good at the length it already is

It does require a little pruning (ie, delete Starfuckers)

imo the album is improved when it's longer ("10 miles high" and "new flesh" added back in)

it was my first nin album though and i'll love it forever, nothing i'd change about it, not even "starfuckers" (great karaoke song)

like i just think of hearing "la mer" for the first time in sequence and how much that expanded my notion of what music could be??? in how it fits the despairing mood of the record even though it is closer to jazz fusion than any previous nin song

i think one of the ways i got my mom into them was being like "hey mom check out this funky/jazzy piano song on this otherwise dark hopeless glitchy double album about hitting and spending a significant amount of time at rock bottom"

yeah it was the first time i saw him use the full sized projection screens in front of the band, blew my mind

also remember a half-sold arena
ppl really did not like this album at the time

― werewolves of laudanum (VegemiteGrrl), Tuesday, 12 March 2024 04:42 (twelve hours ago) link

The show I saw was def sold-out and it was maybe a shade less fantastic than the time I'd seen them in 95, which was maybe the most unhinged "big" show I've ever seen (Trent fully kicked Robin Finck off the front of the stage into the crowd, much instrument destruction, etc)

The full sized projection screens were awesome

I don't know how I feel about this album, as much as I like the idea of it has never really stuck with me, it does sound pretty cool listening to it now

i also like his concept of The Fragile as a reverse of downward spiral, so starfuckers appearing towards the tail end makes sense (and tonally correlates to say, mr self destruct or march of pigs on DS)

The Fragile came out the same day as To Venus And Back. I was just turned 20 and I deeply associated NIN and Tori with my teenage years. I probably was mid-metamorphosis, psychologically. I bought both albums the day they came out, two double albums from two of my favourite teen artists. I remember 'really liking' certain parts, "La Mer" was nice, the production on "We're In This Together" was amazing. Same with Tori. But I felt deeply embarrassed by "Starfuckers" and Trent's lyrics in general. I felt embarrassed hearing Tori sing "bleese, yeah, bleese, yeah" and "blossom. Riot poof". I felt embarrassed for myself and embarrassed for them. I returned both albums and spent the year listening to cooler music. I need to listen to both albums again, now, I don't think I've heard either since I was 20

I don't know how I feel about this album, as much as I like the idea of it has never really stuck with me, it does sound pretty cool listening to it now

― chr1sb3singer, Tuesday, March 12, 2024 12:13 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

Listening to it today I kept wanting to the mix of the record to be a little messier, I kept wishing he's amplify the weird little bits here & there and leaning harder into the prog-funk of songs like "Into the Void" and "Where is Everybody", for a big, over-stuffed double record for me it sometimes feels a bit samey

All right, here it is, entirely predictable but much more enjoyable, to me anyway:

Nine Inch Nails - Less Fragile

1. Somewhat Damaged
2. The Day the World Went Away
3. The Wretched
4. We're In This Together
5. No, You Don't
6. La Mer
7. The Great Below
8. The Way Out Is Through
9. Into the Void
10. Where Is Everybody?
11. Please
12. Complication
13. I'm Looking Forward To Joining You, Finally
14. The Big Come Down

Total running time: 64:33

I bought this and Stereolab’s “Cobra and Phases” on the same day on CD, driving 90 minutes each way after getting off work. At that age/time - I was 22, fresh out of college - it was an event.

I’m gonna listen to that track list unperson thx

idk how anyone can leave off "just like you imagined" from a single-disc edit

i don’t know what in the ADD is wrong with you all that you can’t enjoy a 2 disc epic as god intended

Hell, it's half an hour shorter than "Speakerboxx/The Love Below," and nowhere near as uneven.

thank youuuu

re: accessibility i think the downward spiral is just a much catchier album and still draws more on his synthpop roots - even the heavier tracks like "mr self destruct" and "march of the pigs" are rather pop. on the fragile, even "into the void" is nowhere near as catchy as "closer". the fragile is just denser, weirder, and heavier

@chap are you still interested in running a nine inch nails poll? if you're not i might do that sometime soon

In retrospect, I spent way too much time convincing myself that most of The Love Below was good, actually

The good songs are AMAZING but also there is a bunch of unnecessary nonsense, Speakerboxxx is about a billion times more consistent

omg i am so down for a NIN poll

also djp otm, i had the same come to jesus moment lol

random tangent but DJP otm

I put on the "La Mer" earlier, really good, then got to "The Great Below" also good and I remembered this song being one of the highlights of his live show. Then I got to the second disc and shut it off. I still have a hard time with his vocals. Now listening to Quake soundtrack, which I had forgotten existed, but is bringing back some memories.

idk how anyone can leave off "just like you imagined" from a single-disc edit

― ufo, Tuesday, 12 March 2024 23:31 (four days ago)

And Even Deeper! Madness. Such incredible beat programming (with assist from Dr. Dre)

@chap are you still interested in running a nine inch nails poll? if you're not i might do that sometime soon

― ufo, Tuesday, 12 March 2024 23:44 (four days ago)

Sadly way too busy with work at the moment, but would vote!

i also wouldn't cut "the mark has been made"... or any of the instrumentals period

otm

i also wouldn't cut "the mark has been made"... or any of the instrumentals period

So your edit would be...everything but "Starfuckers"? Or would you keep that in too, just for the sake of flow?

i wouldn't edit this record!!!! as i've already stated

ivy is correct & you are all craven

No, Starfuckers needs to go

eat yr spinach

I will happily eat spinach but I will not eat diarrhea

lol

new board description

in case anyone is new here, yes, this is the guy you know from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles soundtrack.("putting the NIN in Ninja Turtles")

https://www.stereogum.com/2225186/trent-reznor-and-atticus-ross-composing-terrifying-score-for-teenage-mutant-ninja-turtles-movie/news/

suggest ban

the score for that movie slaps, though

I enjoy the moody bits too, and never bother with making my own edits of albums anyway, but the thing that always strikes me about The Fragile when I listen to it is how you could construct a tight album from its pop moments that sounds more like Pretty Hate Machine 2 than anything else Trent ever actually did.

Think I noted on a different thread that Leopold Ross, who used to collaborate more with his brother, did the score to that Godzilla TV show (among other things), and it sounded so much like Atticus and Trent that 1) it verged on parody and 2) it kind of made me wonder what Trent brought to his scores with Atticus.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7KI6S_Eq7pU

huh, I somehow had no idea that was Atticus's brother. I guess my deep NIN fandom dropped off at some point in the last, uh, 25 years

i'll probably try to get a poll up and running in the next week or two

:D

i'm going to open the poll later but first, any thoughts on side-polls beyond songs/albums? do people want to poll the reznor/ross soundtrack stuff too or remixes as side polls? i will probably just accept htda material as eligible for the main polls

remixes wd probably be good? - i think scores & soundtrack stuff is a bit much

sidepoll: trent hairdos
jk

The scores/soundtracks might be 2-3 separate polls alone!

yeah its a pretty hefty list