Published on Sep 28, 1999
Trent Reznor might have one of the most difficult jobs in the
world of alternative rock. After the breakthrough success of his
one-man group Nine Inch Nails’s debut album
Pretty Hate Machine, Reznor has faced the unenviable task of
having to try to outdo himself with each successive release.
It seems like an eternity has passed since Nine Inch Nails last
graced us with a full-length release.
The Downward Spiral contained some absolute moments of
brilliance, angst, anger and existentialism that would have had
Jean-Paul Sartre saying that things had gone too far. The disc also
brought Nine Inch Nails two surprise hits in “Closer” and “Hurt,”
the latter starting a dangerous trend as the band started
experimenting with ballads. For the past two years, long-time fans
have waited and waited to see what Reznor had to offer as a return
volley.
That volley finally came in the form of
The Fragile, a two-disc, 100-minute set that proves an old
saying true: less is more.
If you’ve felt apprehension by some of the reports that this
album is Reznor at his happiest, relax… there’s enough loathing
and angst on this album to wipe the smile off a clown. And just in
case that one parent who keeps getting albums banned from Wal-Mart
sees his kid walk in the door with this one, let’s just say that
The Fragile makes sure it earns the dreaded “Parental
Advisory” sticker. How could it not with such a charmingly named
song as “Starfuckers, Inc.”?
The Fragile opens up strongly enough with tracks like
“Somewhat Damaged,” a tune which sounds like it could have easily
come from the period of
Broken. Other tracks, like “The Wretched,” “We’re In This
Together” and the title track all show the signs that prove
Reznor’s brilliance.
But the early dive into ballad land on “The Day The World Went
Away” is a harbinger of things to come – and the picture isn’t
pretty. Reznor makes use of instrumentals far too often on
The Fragile – or, at the least, extended instrumental
periods in songs. For an artist whose power comes from the written
word combined with the challenging progression of his songs, it
almost seems like Reznor uses these pieces to fill in the creative
blanks – not a good sign.
The first half of
The Fragile (charmingly subtitled “Left” – disc two is named
“Right”) weakens witha series of pieces that dares to suggest this
might be a concept album. The way that “Even Better,” “Pilgrimage,”
“No, You Don’t,” “La Mer” and “The Great Below” fit together is a
little too ordered to have been an accident. If only there were
some power behind this track grouping, it might have had a kick
like a mule.
The second half of
The Fragile is better, though the mistakes made on the first
half are still made (albeit on a lesser scale). Tracks like “Into
The Void” dare to suggest that Reznor is trying to be a pop star in
the line of Marilyn Manson, while “Starfuckers, Inc.” – a good
track on its own – is grating mostly for the chorus, not for the
music that, at one time, could send your spinal column
crumbling.
The Fragile is the kind of disc that could have easily gone
under the razor blade to become a more cohesive album. It doesn’t
have to sound pissed all the time, but there just seems to be too
much shift in mood to be followable. And maybe – just maybe – if
this album had been shorter and not so jam-packed with
instrumentals, Reznor could have focused his energies into making
an album that could have done a Texas two-step on even
Pretty Hate Machine.
The Fragile is the kind of album that the diehard fans will
find little fault with, and it does have its moments – but it’s far
from the masterpiece that Reznor would have liked to have created.
This one is too ambitious, it’s too disjointed… it’s just simply
too much.