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Select Magazine
November 1999
Autor: Dorian Lynskey
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NINE INCH NAILS The Fragile Universal/Island Out 20 Sept **** First album since 1994‘s ‘The Downward Spiral‘. In the last five years Trent Reznor has produced Marilyn Manson‘s first three albums und soundtracks for Natural Born Killers und The Lost Highway. In 1997 Time magazin declared him one of the 25 most influential people in America. One US mag has trumpeted it as “hate-pop‘s ‘Pet Sounds“. Its predecessor sold live million copies. Reviewers have to attend closed-door playback sessions to foil bootleggers. At 23 tracks and 100 minutes, ‘The Fragile‘ is a big deal in every respect. Constructed with a gruelling perfectionism that makes even Leftfield seem sloppy, it‘s appropriately vast. Wedding ear-splitting firepower to an FM sensibility, first single, ‘We’re In This Together,‘ sounds like Bon Jovi gone apocalyptic, while the Kiss-sampling sledgehammer satire of ‘Starfuckers Inc’ claws back lost ground from one-time protégé Marilyn Manson, Reznor may not have Manson‘s showbiz flair, but he‘s far more capable at pushing the sonic envelope. ‘Pilgrimage‘ twists a marching band into avant-metal, and ‘La Mer‘ mutates pretty piano info waves of Mogwai-esque noise. But Mogwai don‘t sell a million copies. Despite its flaws (the sheer length, lyrics consisting solely of variations on “I’m fucked up“) ‘The Fragile‘ in an experimental record for people who don‘t buy experimental records, splicing power ballads with intricate textures and walls of white noise. In the current staid climate of mainstream American alt-rock that makes it a very big deal indeed. Dorian Lynskey |