Line #78 Music/TheFragile1999


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_fragile.jpg]]
2	[[caption-width-right:350:''I'd listen to the words he'd say,\
3	but in his voice, I heard decay.'']]
4
5	->''"The clouds will part and the sky cracks open,\
6	and God himself will reach his fucking arm through\
7	just to push you down."''
8	-->-- '''"The Wretched"'''
9
10	''The Fragile'' is the third studio album by American rock band Music/NineInchNails, released through Nothing Records and Creator/InterscopeRecords on September 21, 1999. The album was recorded at Trent Reznor's Nothing Studios in New Orleans, taking over two years to make.
11
12	The album was reportedly intended by Reznor to be a [[ConceptAlbum conceptual]] [[SpiritualSuccessor sequel]] to the band's previous album ''Music/TheDownwardSpiral'' from the perspective of that album's protagonist. The music and lyrics explore the protagonist's internal turmoil in his attempts to find stability and build back up from the dark place he's in emotionally and existentially.
13
14	In terms of sound, the album [[NewSoundAlbum differs a great deal]] from ''Spiral'' by largely forgoing distorted and gritty sounds in favor of a more eclectic, art rock-styled approach. It's also, to date, one of the band's only two [[MultiDiscWork multi-disc studio albums]][[note]]Not counting different disc arrangements between formats like vinyl[[/note]] (the other being ''[[Music/GhostsIToIV Ghosts I-IV]]''), with its CD release split into "left" and "right" discs around 50 minutes each in length (totaling at 104 minutes, about 39 longer than ''Spiral''). As a result, the album's additional time lends a slower pace, with its tracks focusing more on somber progression than the raw energy of its predecessor.
15
16	Although ''The Fragile'' reached #1 on the ''Billboard'' 200 chart on release and has since been certified double platinum, it didn't perform as well as ''Spiral'', which was attributed to its different sound and insufficient promotion from Interscope Records. Around a year after release, the album (like its predecessor) received a remix album titled ''Things Falling Apart'', which featured a cover of the Music/GaryNuman song "Metal", as well as new tracks such as "10 Miles High" and "The Great Collapse".
17
18	In 2016, as part of the band's campaign to release all of their albums on vinyl, the band released a special four-LP version of the album called ''The Fragile: Deviations 1'', which contains altered or instrumental formats of all of the songs combined with new songs written during the recording of the album.
19
20	Not to be confused with the Music/{{Yes}} album ''Music/{{Fragile}}''.
21	----
22	!!Tracklist:
23	[[AC:Left Disc]]
24	# "Somewhat Damaged" (4:31)
25	# "The Day the World Went Away" (4:33)
26	# "The Frail" (1:54)
27	# "The Wretched" (5:25)
28	# "We're In This Together" (7:16)
29	# "The Fragile" (4:35)
30	# "Just Like You Imagined" (3:49)
31	# "Even Deeper" (5:48)
32	# "Pilgrimage" (3:31)
33	# "No, You Don't" (3:35)
34	# "La Mer" (4:37)
35	# "The Great Below" (5:17)
36
37	[[AC:Right Disc]]
38	# "The Way Out is Through" (4:17)
39	# "Into The Void" (4:49)
40	# "Where Is Everybody?" (5:40)
41	# "The Mark Has Been Made" (5:15)
42	# "Please" (3:30)
43	# "Starfuckers, Inc." (5:00)
44	# "Complication" (2:30)
45	# "I'm Looking Forward to Joining You, Finally" (4:13)
46	# "The Big Come Down" (4:12)
47	# "Underneath It All" (2:46)
48	# "Ripe (With Decay)" (6:34)
49
50	[[AC:Outtakes]]
51	# "The New Flesh" (3:40)[[note]]found on the vinyl edition and the single for "We're In This Together"[[/note]]
52	# "Ten Miles High" (5:13)[[note]]found on the vinyl edition and the single for "We're In This Together"[[/note]]
53	# "+Appendage" (2:44)[[note]]found on the cassette edition[[/note]]
54	# "Missing Places" (1:26)[[note]]found on ''The Fragile: Deviations 1''[[/note]]
55	# "The March" (3:42)[[note]]found on ''The Fragile: Deviations 1'' and ''The Fragile Instrumentals''[[/note]]
56	# "One Way To Get There" (2:44)[[note]]found on ''The Fragile: Deviations 1''[[/note]]
57	# "Taken" (3:35)[[note]]found on ''The Fragile: Deviations 1''[[/note]]
58	# "Not What It Seems Like" (3:30)[[note]]found on ''The Fragile: Deviations 1''[[/note]]
59	# "White Mask" (3:22)[[note]]found on ''The Fragile: Deviations 1''[[/note]]
60	# "Was It Worth It?" (5:03)[[note]]found on ''The Fragile: Deviations 1''[[/note]]
61	# "Can I Stay Here?" (4:25)[[note]]found on ''The Fragile: Deviations 1'' and ''The Fragile Instrumentals''[[/note]]
62	# "Hello, Everything Is Not Okay" (5:16) [AKA "Ten Miles High (Instrumental)"][[note]]found on ''The Fragile: Deviations 1'' and ''The Fragile Instrumentals''[[/note]]
63	# "Feeders" (2:02)[[note]]found on ''The Fragile: Deviations 1''[[/note]]
64	# "Claustrophobia Machine (Raw)[[note]]found on ''The Fragile: Deviations 1''[[/note]]
65	# "Last Heard From"[[note]]found on ''The Fragile: Deviations 1''[[/note]]
66	----
67	!! Personnel:
68	* Trent Reznor: Vocals, nearly all instruments
69	* Danny Lohner: Drum programming, ambience
70	* Charlie Clouser: Programming, synthesisers
71	* Adrian Belew: Guitars
72	* Mike Garson: Piano
73	----
74	!!''But in his voice, [[JustForFun/TVTropesWillRuinYourVocabulary I heard tropes]]'':
75	* AlbumTitleDrop: Almost; the TitleTrack uses the word "fragile" but not the phrase "''the'' fragile".
76	* ArcWords:
77	** The phrase "nothing can stop me now" from ''The Downward Spiral'' appears again on this album in a much more optimistic context.
78	** A variation of the line "and all that could have been" appears in both "The Wretched" and "The Great Below". This line later ended up being the title of both a live album and a song on its companion studio compilation ''Still'', both released three years after ''The Fragile''.
79	** The line "I can still feel you" appears on "The Great Below" and "Underneath It All", both of which are the last vocal tracks of their respective sides.
80	** "Slipping away" is said in both the title track and "Into The Void".
81	* BoleroEffect: Used to great effect in "Somewhat Damaged" and "Just Like You Imagined".
82	* {{Bowdlerise}}: The promotional radio edit of "Starfuckers, Inc." is called "Starsuckers, Inc.", and censors every swear (aside from the word "whore") as well as the words "suck you" and "taste" (in the context of fellatio). It additionally replaces the song's non-explicit bridge entirely, although this was more for legal reasons, since it heavily interpolated "You're So Vain" by Carly Simon without permission.
83	* BreakingTheFourthWall: "Starfuckers, Inc." has Trent speaking to the listener directly at the end of the bridge.
84	-->''I bet you think this song is about you, don't you?''
85	* CallBack: "The Wretched" contains the line: "Back at the beginning / Sinking, spinning...", while "The Big Come Down" contains the lines: "Got to get back to the bottom / Try to get back to where I'm from / [[FromBadToWorse The closer I get, the worse it becomes]]...", in which may be a reference to the title of the previous album ''The Downward Spiral''.
86	* ClusterFBomb: "Starfuckers, Inc." and, to a lesser extent, "Somewhat Damaged" (the majority of the swearing in the latter is concentrated in the "too fucked up to care anymore" part). There is little swearing elsewhere on the album.
87	* ConceptAlbum: According to an interview Trent gave, the album was intended as a continuation of [[Music/TheDownwardSpiral its predecessor]] in which the protagonist goes from seeking happiness (left side) to [[DownerEnding losing their hope and winding up right back where they started]] (right side). Although the connection isn't too explicit in the lyrics, they do consistently depict underlying themes of decay, brokenness, depression, and trying to re-assemble one's life.
88	* DarkerAndEdgier: Zig-zagged. It has more LighterAndSofter moments than ''The Downward Spiral'', but with its [[BookEnds cyclical nature]] and DownerEnding, it ultimately winds up being arguably just as dark overall as its predecessor.
89	* DeclarationOfProtection: "The Fragile", from the perspective of someone vowing to preserve the purity of a girl who "shines in a world full of ugliness", believing that they're the only person who sees her beauty.
90	-->''I won't let you fall apart.''
91	* DownerEnding: The album's narrative ends with the protagonist failing to find happiness and returning to their original feelings at the bottom of the downward spiral, which is expressed in the lyrics of the album's last few songs before its incredibly dark instrumental finale "Ripe (With Decay)". As described by Trent:
92	-->"I wanted this album to sound like there was something inherently flawed in the situation, like someone struggling to put the pieces together. ''Downward Spiral'' was about peeling off layers and arriving at a naked, ugly end. This album starts at the end, then attempts to create order from chaos, but never reaches the goal. It’s probably a bleaker album because it arrives back where it starts--[with] the same emotion."
93	* DrivenToSuicide: Suicidal ideation is heavily implied in the lyrics to "La Mer", obscured only by the fact that it's in a foreign language. As it would turn out, the sentiment had real-life parallels, as Trent went on record ten years later stating that [[CreatorBreakdown he wrote it when he was just a hair's length away from taking his own life]].
94	-->"About 10 years ago or so, I locked myself away in a house on the ocean, and I tried to... I said I was trying to write music. Some of which wound up on ''The Fragile''. But what I was really doing was trying to kill myself. And the whole time I was away by myself, I managed to write one song, which is this song. So when I play it, I feel pretty weird about it, because it takes me back to a pretty dark and awful time in my life. It's weird to think how different things are now: I'm still alive, I haven't died yet. And I'm afraid to go back to that place because it feels kind of haunted to me, but I'm going to go back. I'm going to get married there."
95	* EpicRocking: Eight of the 23 tracks are over 5 minutes long, with two of these being over six minutes. The longest track, "We're In This Together", clocks in at 7:16.
96	* FadingIntoTheNextSong: Most of the album's songs segue into one another, with the only notable exception being between "The Great Below" and "The Way Out is Through", the tracks that set the two discs apart.
97	* GratuitousFrench: The lyrics of "La Mer" are in Creole French.
98	* HiddenTrack: A strange case with the CD version. The pregap between "The Mark Has Been Made" and "Please" features the first forty seconds or so of "10 Miles High" before transitioning to "Please". The full song in included on the vinyl edition, the remastered version of the album, and one of the "We're in This Together" singles.
99	* HopeSpot: "We're In This Together" and the TitleTrack see the protagonist finding some reprieve in the form of a relationship with a female, and seemingly discovering an opportunity to improve...only for the next song "Just Like You Imagined" to seemingly imply their dissolution, with the subsequent "Even Deeper" showing the protagonist falling back down from their high.
100	-->''When I think I can overcome,\
101	it runs even deeper.''
102	* IcarusAllusion: In "Somewhat Damaged:"
103	-->''Flew too high and burnt the wing''
104	* IdiosyncraticEpisodeNaming: The double-CD release of the album is split across "Left" and "Right" discs, reflecting their placement in the album's digipak packaging. The triple-LP and double-cassette releases, meanwhile, simply opt for standard numbering and lettering.
105	* {{Instrumental}}: "The Frail", "Pilgrimage", "The Mark Has Been Made", "Complication", "Ripe (With Decay)".
106	* JumpScare: "The Day the World Went Away" starts aggressive, has a quiet midsection, and then suddenly bursts right back into the noisiness for its climactic ending.
107	* LighterAndSofter: Zig-zagged. The album has far more quiet tracks and moments of beauty than ''The Downward Spiral'', but is still very dark.
108	* LimitedLyricsSong: "The Way Out Is Through" in particular, though the whole album qualifies. Trent had this to say about it:
109	-->''"''The Fragile'' was an album based a lot in fear, because I was afraid as fuck about what was happening to me ... That's why there aren't a lot of lyrics on that record. I couldn't fucking think. An unimaginable amount of effort went into that record in a very unfocused way."''
110	* LonelyPianoPiece: "The Frail" is a desolate, somber piano-led instrumental.
111	* LoudnessWar: The album marked a substantial increase in NIN's participation in this trope, particularly as compared to ''Music/TheDownwardSpiral''. It still has dynamics in the quiet parts, but when it gets loud, ''it gets loud''.
112	* MinisculeRocking: "The Frail" is far away the album's shortest track, and one of the shorter ones across the NIN discography, coming in at just under 2 minutes in length.
113	* MoodMotif: The riff that opens the very first track on the album, "Somewhat Damaged", later reappears in "La Mer" and "Into the Void", both times as a slightly different rendition both rhythmically and in key. These three are some of the darkest songs on the album.
114	* NewSoundAlbum: ''The Fragile'' features more industrial and experimental elements and is a little less heavy than ''The Downward Spiral''.
115	* ProgressiveInstrumentation: "Somewhat Damaged" begins with just an acoustic guitar, then comes in with synths and drums, then introduces the vocals, and then explodes with several layers of distorted electric guitar.
116	* QuestioningTitle: "Where Is Everybody?", "Was It Worth It?", and "Can I Stay Here?" (the latter two from ''Deviations 1'').
117	* RearrangeTheSong: "The Fragile" builds on the melody introduced in "The Frail" in a somewhat [[TriumphantReprise more upbeat context]].
118	* RecurringRiff:
119	** "The Frail" and the chorus of "The Fragile" share a melody.
120	** See MoodMotif above.
121	** "La Mer" and "Into the Void" also share similar percussion-based intros.
122	* RevisedEnding: The vinyl version of "Ripe" cuts everything after piano solo (including the ending referred to as "Decay") and instead reprises the main riff on a loop that slowly fades away.
123	* SanitySlippage: It's prominent throughout the whole album, but it arguably shows itself best in "Into The Void".
124	-->''Tried to save myself, but myself keeps slipping away...''
125	* ShoutOut: One lyric in "We're In This Together" ("You're the queen and I'm the king") is one to Music/DavidBowie's "Heroes" from the [[Music/HeroesDavidBowieAlbum album of the same name]]; Reznor credits Bowie as being one of his biggest influences.
126	* SiameseTwinSongs: "The Frail" and "The Wretched" are considered inseparable because "The Frail" is a LonelyPianoPiece that segues into "The Wretched", a track with a prominent piano riff. They are usually played live this way.
127	* SubduedSection: "The Day the World Went Away" has one sandwiched between two sections driven by loud, distorted guitar.
128	* SuicideBySea: One possible reading of both "La Mer" and "The Great Below", which appear back-to-back. It has been suggested that Trent's original plan was to have a female vocalist sing the climactic part of the song, but [[WhatCouldHaveBeen for whatever reason]], this didn't end up happening.
129	* TextlessAlbumCover: The band's logo is the only text appearing on the cover of the album, and even then half of it is cut off by the lower photo.
130	* TitleOnlyChorus: "Starfuckers, Inc."
131	* TitleTrack: "The Fragile". Although the exact title doesn't appear, the word "fragile" appears in the lyrics.
132	* {{Understatement}}: "Somewhat Damaged" is about a guy who's a ''lot'' more damaged than "somewhat".
133	----
134	->''And when the day arrives''\
135	''I'll become the sky''\
136	''And I'll become the sea''\
137	'' ''\
138	''And the sea will come to kiss me''\
139	''For I am going''\
140	''Home''\
141	'' ''\
142	''Nothing can stop me now.''

Context Music / TheFragile1999