I know it’s not the popular one, or the influential one, and I guess Trent wasn’t too happy with it at the time, but The Fragile has become my favourite NIN album. Maybe it’s just nostalgia, but there’s something about the flow of the album, recurrent musical themes, and just how well it’s written and produced.
It has been a while but I remember reading somewhere that his disappointment stemmed from the music scene turning toward bubble gum pop girl and boy bands at the time.
It’s my favorite too. I think it’s by far his best work and I think he did too so he was bummed about the lackluster reception it got.
It’s the last Nails album that I liked, but I felt it was too self-indulgent. I think it would have been a fantastic single album, but was a mediocre double. Also I just can’t forgive him for “starsuckers”… so fucking lame. 🙄
Agreed. The left CD was genius, the right CD was just filler. Starfuckers was puerile at best.
“starsuckers”
Weakest song on the album. It kind of adds to the album’s theme of things in his life, all the superstar drama, but I usually skip it.
Yeah, the theme of the song in itself is lame, but it’s doubly lame to change from “fuckers” to “suckers” because you want to get your lame song on the radio.
Hey come on now! That firework explosion rock out ending of Starfuckers really makes you feel like you’re at a Def Leppard concert!
Yeah you really get the feeling of going through someone’s mind, on that album. It’s a little uncomfortable but that’s part of the effect. The pacing on it is part of that. Sure, he could have pulled out 8 songs, focused on making 2-3 of them more hit-friendly, and sold more albums that way. But it’s more of a work of art this way, a representation of the ruminations of a troubled person.
