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

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