[albummaster]

Today's album of the day

The Fragile by Nine Inch Nails (View album)

Year: 1999.
Overall rank: 448.
Average rating: 77/100 (from 97 votes).

Thumbnail. Click to enlarge.

Tracks:
1. Somewhat Damaged
2. The Day The World Went Away
3. The Frail
4. The Wretched
5. We're In This Together
6. The Fragile
7. Just Like You Imagined
8. Even Deeper
9. Pilgrimage
10. No, You Don't
11. La Mer
12. The Great Below
13. The Way Out Is Through
14. Into The Void
15. Where Is Everybody?
16. The Mark Has Been Made
17. Please
18. Starfuckers, Inc.
19. Complication
20. I'm Looking Forward To Joining You, Finally
21. The Big Come Down
22. Underneath It All
23. Ripe (With Decay)

About album of the day: The BestEverAlbums.com album of the day is the album appearing most prominently in member charts in the previous 24 hours. If an album has previously been selected within a x day period, the next highest album is picked instead (and so on) to ensure a bit of variety.

[Applerill]

Even though it's not on my chart anymore, this is one of the most important records I ever listened to. Almost a year before I became serious about music because of Little Earthquakes, I bought this as an eight grade graduation present. This gave me a taste of what true emotion can show in music.

Yes, it has a lot of filler. Yes, it's not even as "industrial" as The Downward Spiral. But this is still one incredible record, at least when it comes to the first disc.

Here's what the AV Club has to say about it:
“I wanted this record to sound like it was falling apart,” Reznor later told Spin. “So I really went for imperfection.” And yet the so-called “imperfections” on The Fragile are executed with the precision of a born technician. Everything is in its right place, especially the stuff that initially doesn’t seem like it fits: the out-of-tune violins, the atonal piano plunks, the deconstructed dance grooves.

The Fragile is linked in my mind with Raging Bull in part because of this technical brilliance. The gut-rot of suppressed violence (whether physical or emotional) lingers in both works, but this unpredictability doesn’t carry over to how they were made. Reznor, like Scorsese, used his medium as a haven from the messiness of the outside world, and he was able to exert an uncommon amount of control over his tools. With the possible exception of Billy Corgan, no other ’90s rocker was nearly as skilled at the art of making records as Reznor. Even Corgan would’ve been outmatched trying to replicate the complexities of The Fragile, with its prog-rock overtures and classical-music pretensions. (It is very much a “composed by” record.)


And yet, for Reznor and Scorsese, what came out of this masterful control over their respective mediums were wild, rough, sickening depictions of the world that were also vital, and in their own way, beautiful.

The article ends by pointing out that it was real rock's last stand. Forget about OK Computer; this album was the last serious physical release in music. AV Club goes on to say:

Alternative rock was, in many respects, an extension of classic rock; bands fetishized vinyl, railed against corporations, and brought back music festivals as peaceful places for young people to commune and dream of better futures.

The Fragile was heavy, figuratively and literally, with generous packaging and an evocative album cover designed so fans could stare at it for hours without really getting it. And it was made to be played on an expensive stereo system, or at the very least, on top-notch headphones.

The Fragile was unseated by Creed’s Human Clay, a perfect metaphor for the changing of the guard if there ever was one.

In other words, every true music listener should at least respect this album for being the end of the most wonderful era in music.

[paladisiac]

link to av article, which i just read late last week:

http://www.avclub.com/articles/trent-re...fra,82235/
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fav artists NOW | ALL-TIME favs | i listen 2 more music than u so u don't have 2!

[paladisiac]

At the time, i felt this album was huge and sprawling, a colossal release following one of the seminal albums of the 90s. Initially, it was meant as one disc of instrumental works and one disc not, which i think would've been a big mistake; because, justifiably or NOT, i probably would've mostly ignored that instrumental disc.

Over time, i've grown more appreciative of trent's compositional skills, especially after the soundtracks him & atticus have put together. In that context, i return to my initial impression of this album, that it's a very good, colossal album.
_________________
fav artists NOW | ALL-TIME favs | i listen 2 more music than u so u don't have 2!

[thejoj96]

A decent album.

[ProfessorSquid]

Didn't really like this. The laid back tracks aren't so bad. I'm even less happy to read this being compared to Raging Bull. That film was Scorsese at his absolute peak and Deniro giving one of the all time greatest performances. This is, decidedly, not Reznor at his most impressive.
The danger of any double album is that it will contain a lot of filler or feel overlong. In this case it's both and it left me bored throughout.

The Swizz

[Wombi]

Hate it. A lot. I probably need to listen to it again...but I really don't want to.