Nine Inch Nails - The Fragile

Year of Release: 1999
Label: Nothing/Interscope
Catalog Number: 90473
Format: CD
Total Time: 103:39:00

This review is excerpted from Clayton's March 9, 2003 The Prog Life column found here -ed.

Nine Inch Nails may not have invented industrial music, but they (actually, he) definitely put it on the map. The previously parenthetic "he" is Trent Reznor, who is Nine Inch Nails. Trent takes psychological disturbances from his brain and crams them into his machines to create some of the most savagely creative music out there. With each NIN album, the music gets closer and closer to bona fide progressive, and I'd venture to say that, if it weren't for NIN's mainstream popularity, we progressive folks would have long ago raised Trent to the pedestal upon which he deserves to stand. Start off with The Fragile, an album that covers a full range of sound from the gently atmospheric to the ferociously explosive. WARNING: Due to triply-distorted guitars and vocal shrieks, much of this music is not for the weak-hearted!

Tracklisting:
Disc One: Somewhat Damaged (4:31) / The Day The World Went Away (4:33) / The Frail (1:54) / The Wretched (5:25) / We're In This Together (7:16) / The Fragile (4:35) / Just Like You Imagined (3:49) / Even Deeper (5:47) / Pilgrimage (3:31) / No You Don't (3:35) / La Mer (4:37) / The Great Below (5:19)

Disc Two: The Way Out Is Through (4:17) / Into The Void (4:49) / Where Is Everybody? (5:40) / The Mark Has Been Made (5:15) / Please (3:30) / Starfuckers, Inc. (5:00) / Complication (2:30) / I'm Looking Forward To Joining You, Finally (4:13) / The Big Come Down (4:12) / Underneath It All (2:46) / Ripe (With Decay) (6:36)

Musicians:
Trent Reznor - programming
Adrian Belew - guitar
Paul Bradley - programming
Charles Clouser - programming, atmosphere
Paul DeCarli - programming
Jerome Dillon - drums
Steve Duda - percussion, violin, programming, choir
Mike Garson - piano
Keith Hillebrandt - programming, choir, sound design
Cherry Holly - trumpet
Danny Lohner - synthesizer, guitar, drum programming, ambience
Denise Milfrot - Vocals
Martha Prevost - vocals
Bill Rieflin - drums
Willie - cello
Heather Bennet, Di Coleman, Melissa Daigle, Tracy Hardin, Judy Miller, Gary I Neal, Christine Parrish, Elquine Rice, Terry Rice, M. Gabriela Rivas, Rodney Sulton, Stefani Taylor, Barbara Wilson, Leslie Wilson, Martha Wood - background vocals
Eric Edmonson, Doug Idleman, Marcus London, Clint Mansell, Adam Persaud, Nick Scott, Nigel Wiesehan - choir
Buddha Boys Choir - choir, chant
Buddha Debutante Choir - background vocals

Discography:
Pretty Hate Machine (1989)
The Downward Spiral (1994)
The Fragile (1999)
Fisted (comp.) (1999)
Things Falling Apart (comp.) (2000) And All That Could Have Been (2002)
Making Of Pretty Hate Machine (2002)
With Teeth (2005)
Year Zero (2007)
Remix (2007)
The Lowdown (comp.) (2007)

Closure (VID) (1997)
And All That Could Have Been (VID/DVD) (2002) Live: Beside You In Time (DVD) (2007)

Genre: Rock

Origin US

Added: March 9th 2003
Reviewer: Clayton Walnum

Artist website: www.nin.com
Hits: 2789
Language: english