The Fragile |Nothing/Interscope, 1999, {halo 14}|

Somewhat Damaged, The Day The World Went Away, The Frail, The Wretched, We're In This Together, The Fragile, Just Like You Imagined, Even Deeper, Pilgrimage, No, you don't, The Great Below, The Way Out Is Through, Into The Void, Where Is Everybody?, The Mark has Been Made, Please, Starfuckers, inc., Complication, I'm looking forward to joining you finally, The Big Come Down, Underneath It All, Ripe (with decay)

A long awaited NIN record is out fortunately. It's the first studio album with the completely new songs since the time The Downward Spiral has been released.

After 5 years of a hiatus we got 2 CDs with 24 songs on them. There are a few instrumental soundscapes like [The Mark Has Been Made, Ripe (with Decay), Pilgrimage], which can stand brave as soundtracks for a movie. Harder beats included in songs like Please, Underneath It All, The Wretched, Starfuckers or No, You Don't. There are lots of industrial samples with a bit oriental vibe.

No worries about guitars, there is again Adrian Belew (King Crimson) with his typical riffs. Some of the songs sound soft like La Mer with a female voice and The Frail or The Fragile. It's easy to dance to Into The Void, which could fit to the NIN debut Pretty Hate Machine album.
The song I can recommend it's Just Like You Imagined, a very complex, very progressive song with a variety of sounds which can sum up both of the CDs content.

The minus is the artwork. NIN CD covers were symbolical and easy to remember with they typical artifacts. They say the more simple you create the more elegant it looks like but... A field with flowers or a humdrum bi-colour artwork doesn't work well for NIN. Ugly! On the whole it is the album you should listen to a few times because the music is not so easy to remember.

(Katarzyna 'NINa' Górnisiewicz. Must not be used for promotional or commercial purposes. See a Legal Note for the copyrights below)