Nine Inch Nails

The Fragile (Nothing)
by Martin Popoff

Of course, in the grand tradition of his cultural jockeymates GN’R, he had to make a double album. But unlike Axl and his Rods, this was to be no steady golden stream of nasty radio hits, The Fragile being one long, often mundane slog through butt-ugly versions of Trent’s four or five edgy, psychotic trademark maneuvers. Lyrically, the man’s frustratingly sparse, disturbing for five years ago, just sort of whining for a rich man sparkling in partytown at Y2K.

But there’s a certain bravery to the music, an intriguing mix between industrial and analogue, which in total forms a browned-out exhausted journey you suspect will take a little chip out of your optimism you won’t notice missing for years (lead track “Somewhat Damaged” is a smothering duncecap). Kudos for not rocking out, the spare moments acting as high relief when they do arrive, reminding us why we grudgingly give Filter the time of day. Of course, the lighter-flicking Diamond Dave fan in me (which is most of me) wants those churning power chords, but without the distorted screams, thanks. But I guess I can be mildly (very mildly) amused with what he’s done, which is a glossy but ironically intimate and very lonely cross between inaccessible Eno, Berlin Bowie, and stripped lyrics I would expect from Layne Staley, or worse, Creed.