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

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