Customer Reviews
UNDERRATED MASTERPIECE - By: Brian O'connell, 25 Jan 2008 
Its amazing to think that 'The Fragile' divides fans of nin, with some saying its his best & most challenging work & with others unable to appreciate the complex nature of 'The Fragile'.
'The Fragile' was releasedin 1999 five years after the much loved & highly successful 'The Downward Spiral' into a music world that was dominated at the time by nu metal & boybands. Its release should have really saved us from the world of 35 year old men pretending they were 18, & 18 year olds making a bunch of grey haired menin an office rich. Despite a strong start it faded away quickly, missed by many fans as a result.
The album itself is a double & while most double albums dont make sense, 'The Fragile' would have been lost as single album. The album starts of with 'Somewhat Damaged' which is as heavy as anything Reznors done it then moves onto 'The day the world went away' which sets up the first disc nicely. Both discs have their share of instrumentals which rather than take away from the album really add to the whole feel of it. And this really is the thing about 'The Fragile' its meant to be listened to as whole album.
Reznor even finds time to bait one time friend Marilyn Manson with the superb 'Starf****ers' & with the likes of Dr Dre adding mxing assitance to 'even deeper' & touring members Danny Lohner & Charile Clouser also appearing 'The Fagile' has no real weak points, its not an album your going to love after one brief listen but stick it on from start to finish & you soon will.
blown away... - By: Mr. W. A. Third, 07 May 2007 after having listened to Downward Spiral, followed by With Teeth, Pretty Hate Machine, Broken & Year Zero (in that order)
The Fragile was next...
Can't believe I missed this album, shocking I know it really is a masterpiece & is everybit an extension of the Downward Spiral, genius
It's so good I can't even write anymore, that good...just buy it seriously
Fragility Exposed - By: L. Otto, 15 Jun 2006 
It must be said that this album is truly dark, Trent Reznor exposes his darkest thoughts & feelings, & you can almost taste the melanchonyin his songs. Songs differ from album to album butin The Fragile, each CD is truly diverse. The first CD, questionably named 'left' rather than the standard '1' or '2' is definately the more 'mainstream' & even then it's very hard to call it that. CD 'right' is more of a gradual decay, with amazing industrial rythms throughout & those same depressing, deep vocals, this album screams desperation.
Overall, immense although I find you need to bein the mood to listen to the entire album, otherwise it seems rather boring. Songs like We're In This Together, & Into the Void can be listened to overand over again, but once more I say, this album is brilliant.
the fragile - a great album (whatever mood youre in) - By: Ms. E. Robinson, 12 Jan 2006 this album is not just about one style. there is a mix of dark, heavy, relaxing & light music here. trent reznor composes some beautiful instrumentals along with heavy pumping beats. La Mer is a wonderful song to relax to, Somewhat Damaged is a great opening track - love the drums on that one. The Great Below is an intense track (which really does seem like the sea), Into The Void has a really nice marimba intro that turns into a great electro song & Please & We're In This Together are powerful, industrial & heavy. Although not as destructive a sound as The Downward Spiral, The Fragile is still a powerful record & one that no NIN fan should be without.
Gut wrenching - By: , 15 Dec 2005 As is an ever present theme of NIN albums The fragile 'halo fourteen' invites you into a deeply emotive world of self indulgent remorse, pain, & confusion. If you are familiar with their work this will be of no surprise to you & willin fact be a pre-requisite of your nails experience.
It would be of little use to highlight any tracks of particular interest as each one complements the other, &in turn the theme of the album; although, unable to resist temptation the gut wrenching emotivism of 'The great below', the raw power of 'We'rein this together' & the seductively destructive 'big come down' will really hit you where it hurts.
Many people comment on nails as being suicide music, & without any fear of reducing their opinions to drivle i will simply say that they can only be denying something that dwells deep within us all. This album will suck youin & emrace you with its iron grip, you'll experience crushing riffs, turbulent synthesized beats & a wealth of percussion effects, with of course the prolific sound of trents agonisingly raw vocal talent to transcend the lot into another dimention of expression through music.
Raw, industrial & thoroughly enjoyable
