Reznor returns to familiar territory with
new album
By Jason Kosareff
Daily Forty-Niner
We waited five years for this?
Trent Reznor, lead singer of the Nine Inch
Nails, has ventured into very familiar territory to create a new double
album, "The Fragile," that is basically a derivative of his last release,
"The Downward Spiral."
The fact that the new album picks up right
where "The Downward Spiral" left off is not such a bad thing, considering
how good that album was. However, it does imply a lack of originality.
"The Fragile" meets every quota of gloominess,
alienation and angst that a NIN fan would expect. It is basically the cliche
variety of darkness and misery that is to be expected in a commercial pop
culture product.
The best aspect of the album is Reznor's
technical mastery. In the press release for the album Reznor states,ìwe
were able to get some really interesting sounds using the studio as the
main instrument.î
Most of the songs are a racket of cacophonous
loops, mainly guitar, played over broken rhythms and haunting keyboard
melodies. About the only departure from NIN's last album is the heavy use
of guitar. Reznor described the album as "mostly guitar."
For an industrial band, it's funny that
NIN uses stringed instruments (ukulele, slide guitar, orchestral instruments)
better than most guitar-driven rock bands. There are seemingly countless
different styles of playing on the album.
Lyrically, Reznor manages some rather pretty
songs, with the main theme being abjection, of course. At other times the
lyrics get rather generic, as if they were pulled straight from the diary
of a depressed, white suburbanite high school kid posing as the tortured
romantic poet.
Usually, the bland lyrics fall into songs
with the most redundant loops and riffs of pounding heavy metal guitars.
Songs like "Starf__kers, Inc." are forgettable, filler material on a very
long recording.
The album does have a few gems that redeem
it from goth absurdum: "The Day the World Went Away" fades nicely into
a haunting piano piece called "The Frail."
"We're In This Together Now" also stands
out and made a good choice for a single. The lyrics of this song, and others
such as the title track, "The Fragile," contrast with the abjection Reznor
mostly writes about. Reznor reveals a more genuine side of himself on these
tracks instead of demonizing himself in the act of incanting boring-nihilistic
lyrics.
If the over all effect of the album is
to produce feelings of anguish, frustration, fear and loathing, then the
song ìThe Fragileî really captures that better than any of the others.
The song is about the frustration of watching
someone going to pieces and being powerless to help. It redeems Reznor
in a way, because the song is about trying when most of his others are
about simply not caring.
Reznor describes the theme of the album
as that of things falling apart and systems breaking down. There is consistent
contradiction between discordant, grinding noise and melodic pieces of
polished music that run throughout the entire album. The overall effect
is a complex and intriguing album.
Perhaps the albums only flaw is in the
redundancy it carries when viewed within the context of NINís entire discography.
The five-year-long wait for "The Fragile" let's a NIN fan anticipate a
groundbreaking new sound from one of rockís most highly acclaimed musicians.
But, the album falls a little short of that. |
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