SATURDAY ALBUM TO GET FRAGILE TO
On the recommendation of a couple of my best enemies, I finally listened to Nine Inch Nails‘ The Fragile from start to finish.
If you’re a somewhat regular reader of this god-awful website, you surely know the respect and man-love both Axl & Vince seem to share for one Trent Reznor, and in absorbing their consistently laudatory analyses of Reznor’s music and savvy business decisions, I will admit I’ve been repeatedly intrigued along the way. But until now my experience with the Nails was pretty much limited to a couple of their singles, most notably this (which I was always a huge fan of).
And now, having heard what many repute as the best NIN album, I can safely hypothesize that Reznor is a severely masochistic, battle-scarred, honest artist who isn’t afraid to let the pain come through. The industrialicious musical style is not always my cup of Twinings tea, but there are certainly several solid grooves throughout, and the raw, candid nature of the lyrics offers a precious look inside a tortured soul who’s doing good with his suffering. I’m not surprised one bit that so many people have connected so deeply with homeboy’s cannon (even though Pitchfork inevitably ripped The Fragile a new one way back when).
A couple of my fave lines from the (Right) album:
“I tried to save myself, but my self keeps slipping away…”
“All I do….I can still feel you.”
No doubt many of us can relate.
Say hello again to a couple of old-school NIN videos after the jump…
Happy Saturday!!
-KW
