Here is a review my friend wrote:
THE FRAGILE
Five years have past since the birth of the downward spiral, and its
influence can undoubtedly be seen. Between pretty hate machine and the
downward spiral, Trent Reznor has influenced and inspired a countless number
of computer nerds, rockers, and metal-heads. Trents genius was to take
aspects of industrial, ambient, synth-pop, and rock and mesh them together in
a manner never seen by the music community before. With a broad range of
influences like prince, black sabbath, depeche mode, skinny puppy, david
bowie, coil, ministry, public enemy, afx, and pink floyd, some people say he
took a lot of avant-garde electronic elements and techniques and added a hook
to it. It is very hard to distill an unfriendly genre for public consumption
without ruining its core essence. Reznor did not ruin the essence of the
underground; he embraced it. Regardless of what he did, Reznor is one of the
most respected musicians of this decade commanding respect in both the
underground and the mainstream. Now, with the new album the fragile,
people are wondering if it lives up to the hype and standards laid out by the
first two albums. What Reznor has done here is made a concept album about
anger, despair, distrust, and betrayal that covers a broad range of genres
from metal, industrial, electronica(HAHA), rock, funk, and soundtracky
sounding stuff. While the album may not be a total innovation and
reinvention, it is definitely a great album and a nice progression for Trent
Reznor.
You are not going to find better production and engineering than what
you will find on this album. Every sound has been fucked, ducked, shucked,
stacked, toyed, plowed, and eqd for days on end. All the sounds have their
own special and distinct place in the sonic environment. Even when things do
seem to be out of place or too dense, they eventually begin to make sense
with repeated listens. The use of stereo is very cool on this album (not as
cool as Richard Devine or monolake), but still very interesting in places. I
was hoping that Trent would have a lot more of the idm influence on the new
album. We all know Trent loves aphex and autechre. Just for my taste, I
would have liked to seen more of the current underground electronic element
on the album. Oh well.
The album has a lot of different instrumentation: cello, upright bass,
guitar, slide guitar, synth, ukulele, piano, computer, trumpet, ect
. The
arrangements are also very interesting with the use of a wide range of song
structures. While there is a lot of variety on the fragile, there is still
that recurring nin formula at work here: the use of a build up to power
guitar/noise choruses and crescendos. No one seems to do this better than
nin, but for my tastes I would have like to seen it used a little bit less
here. Every time a song kicks into a chorus, there seems to be a guitar
somewhere in the mix, usually the most prevalent thing. I sometimes long for
the synth driven choruses of pretty hate machine. Trent does just as good
a job at low decibel levels as he does at loud decibels (see the great below
for instance). I think the album could have been a little stronger if it
would have had a few more tracks in that vein, and a few less loud guitar
tracks. How bout a little more melodicism here and there, we know you got it
in you Trent. It would have also been nice to see a couple of dance tracks on
there too. Maybe I am asking for too much variety? I dont know
. I guess
after a five year wait, I just want a taste of everything Trent does well.
The sound design is good as usual. Tracks like somewhat damaged the
way out is through and the big comedown have wicked new sounds and
textures. While the sound design is great in some places I think it is
lacking in others. The tracks the wretched and please have rehashes of
sounds that were on the downward spiral and antichrist superstar
respectively. The title track has the use of a jp- 8000 preset in the break
down. (presets are not fucking cool). By the middle of the second disc I
begin to get tired of that processed fuzz guitar. Enough already. Do
something different. Sound creation has limitless possibilities. That is
just me being picky of course. All in all, the sound design is still pretty
tight and Reznor has become one of the greatest texturalist of the past ten
years.
Lyrically the album is not as bleak as the downward spiral, but is
still pretty dark thematically. Trent seems to offer a little more hope on
this album than on previous. He has also matured vocally. He is still not
the greatest singer in the world but his technique seems to have gotten
better and varied (the wretched and the big come down). Either way, I
have always been a fan of Trents emotional vocals.
Overall, the album is really tight. The typical nin tracks are better
than ever, and the tracks that are the least like nin are even better. Trent
definitely has a sound that he can call his own. All the instrumentals are
worth something real special and make me feel all gooey inside with their
sci-fi appeal. "The fragile is the type of album that makes more sense on
the fifth or sixth listen then on the first listen; that is the mark of a
great album when it doesnt reveal itself to one immediately.
The fragile may not be the total reinvention and innovation some
people were hoping for but it is definitely a big growth for Mr. Trent
Reznor. It may have a few setbacks that keep it from the being a masterpiece
like the downward spiral, but you are still not going to find a rock album
this year that has as much depth and smarts as the fragile.
9 of 10