THE FRAGILE

Many NIN fans have high praise for The Fragile, but I honestly have only recently been able to get into it. Lyrically speaking, it very much comes across as a double album version of The Downward Spiral - or rather, of material which might have got onto The Downward Spiral had it received a little more polish. The five years since the last official NIN studio album (if you don't count the excellent soundtrack Trent Reznor made for Quake) seemed to have resulted in no emotional growth on Reznor's part, if the lyrics are anything to judge by, and whilst the Downward Spiral's lyrics managed to be, at their best, cutting and emotionally raw, the lyrics of The Fragile too often tend towards the grumpy and petulant.

It is only comparatively recently that I've been able to get past the embarrassing lyrics to really appreciate the musical accomplishments here. Technically, Reznor had spent the intervening years honing his craft yet further, and it really does show. The Fragile may be the most sonically diverse Nine Inch Nails release ever - why, on Into the Void Reznor even gets a funky little strut going. I should really make a point of investigating The Fragile: Deviations 1, a recent release of instrumental tracks from The Fragile mixed in with rarities from the same era, since it really does seem like the vocals and lyrics have been the main barrier to me enjoying this particular box of musical tricks. Even then, at points I still feel like this is a five-star single album loaded down by two-star filler.