One record at a time: 278. Nine Inch Nails - The Fragile

There was no significant promotion or build up to the release of the fourth Nine Inch Nails album here in the UK, and I wasn't really aware of it until I saw it on the shelves of my local Virgin Megastore.

When I reached the till to complete my purchase, the guy behind the counter said, "Oh you get this free poster with that CD," and handed me a machine numbered 12"x12" print of the sleeve. I still have that "flat" (as I believe they were called in the industry) but I have no idea why it was given to me. It seems these flats were included in the promotional triple LP, so how it became separated from the vinyl and ended up in a retail store is a mystery.

The confused and slightly muted approach to the release of this album is cited as one reasons "The Fragile" did not sell nearly as well as its predecessor. However, my hunch is that this record failed to find an audience as it fell between two camps. Neither the rock audience attracted by "The Downward Spiral" nor the electronic industrial audience of "Pretty Hate Machine" would have been satisfied with the music on this album.

Here I am listening to the ruinously expensive 2017 definitive edition which is pressed on three 180g LPs and features remastered audio. The first time I listened to this album, the bizarre acoustic guitar riff of "Somewhat Damaged" instantly turned me off and I began to worry this was gong to be another guitar driven rock album. Yet as the beat and stuttering synth noises began, my worries eased somewhat. Whilst there aren't too many lyrical or melodic hooks on this song it makes for a good introduction. 

"The World Went Away" was released as a single in some territories but not here in the UK - which is just as well as this chugging guitar track is devoid of a rhythm and is of limited interest. Reznor's distinctive piano playing features on the short instrumental "The Frail" which segues into the atmospheric "The Wretched". This song is much more like the material on "Broken" that I enjoyed so much as is a highlight of the album for me.  

The single "We're In This Together" ushers in the start of the b-side with its acoustic drums and distorted guitars. The chorus of this song is undoubtedly driving and melodic but the verses are a little tedious. The title track is fair enough but as "Just Like You Imagined" begins I realise I've never really warmed to these songs due to the acoustic drums. The final track on the first disc "Even Deeper" does benefit from drum programming and some instrumentation that isn't entirely reliant on distorted guitars, so all is not lost.

"Pilgrimage" is an instrumental that repeats a leitmotif across different arrangements and instruments without really advancing much. "No, You Don't" is a fast paced and catchy song that seems to cross metal with soft synths and somehow make it work. It's much more successful than tracks like "The World Went Away" and would have made a great single.

The instrumental "La Mer" is distinctive piece that utilises a bassline we will hear later on the record but it runs out of steam well before its five minutes are up. The first song that harks back to a more electronic sound is "The Great Below" which ebbs and flows before succumbing to the inevitable acoustic drums.

For some strange reason I went to see a film called "Final Destination" in March 2000. Whilst watching the movie I realised the brilliant song that was playing was by Nine Inch Nails and must be on their latest album. Back then I had dismissed "The Fragile" as just "noise" and I missed this magnificent return to form. This is the best song on the album by a county mile. 

I like "Where Is Everybody?" simply because it uses synths and programmed beats as a nice change from most of what has gone before. "The Mark Has Been Made" is another atmospheric but ultimately disposable instrumental that points to Reznor's future career as a soundtrack composer. "Please" blends synths, electric bass an those horrible acoustic drums, but it just ends up being too noisy to discern any meaning from what is going on. "Starfuckers Inc." has some great rhythmical elements during the verses but the chorus descends into the bland guitar nonsense we are accustomed to by this point. 

There's even more senseless noise with "Complication" and the truly dreadful "The New Flesh". As I turn over to the final side I'm beginning to feel like I've broken the back of this record and the groove on "The Big Comedown" proves to be a good reward for sticking with it this long. The stuttering and noisy "Underneath It All" is fairly short but the final instrumental "Ripe" is pretty tortuous. 

My disinterest in this album has always been driven by the fact that it is too long and overblown. I have a playlist that strips things down to the six tracks I enjoy and intersperses them with a few of the more interesting (i.e. short) instrumentals as album filler. But even this short version doesn't get played much to be honest. 3/5

One record at a time: 277. Nine Inch Nails - Quake

Back in the nineties a friend of mine would extol the virtues of gaming on a PC and tell me how good games like Doom, Duke Nukem 3-D and Dark Forces were. I didn't really have much time for playing games at this time in my life so I didn't really pay much attention when the same friend began talking about a new game called Quake. In retrospect, I can see that this was a mistake as not only was Quake a seminal moment in gaming, but the soundtrack was created by one of my favourite groups of the time Nine Inch Nails.

The audio for the soundtrack was included on the CD-ROM of the game but it wasn't made available as a stand-alone album until this vinyl was released in 2020. The music on this record consists of ten tracks of ambient soundscapes that Reznor himself describes as, "not music, it's textures and ambiences and whirling machine noises and stuff."

I think the completist side of me decided to buy this record, but neither the music fan in me or my bank balance have thanked me for it. So maybe it was actually a blessing that I didn't pay any attention to my friend talking about Quake back in the day as it delayed the disappointment of hearing the soundtrack by at least twenty four years. 1/5

One record at a time: 276. Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral

If Nine Inch Nails debut album put them on the map, then "The Downward Spiral" moved them into the mainstream. For whatever reason, this album seems to get all the love amongst fans and sold in its millions. Personally, I think this album is OK, but I really can't see what all the fuss is about.

I read somewhere that there is some form of story that pins these tracks together; but I find it impossible to discern any narrative here. One of the things that disappoints me about this album is its lyrics. Unlike previous records, these songs are neither subtle nor clever; everything seems crude and puerile. Whereas lyrics on previous albums would amuse or titillate, they simply induce an involuntary eye roll here. 

"Mr Self Destruct" is a strange track that switches between rapid-fire verses and a barely audible middle section. There's definitely some merit in this track, but it isn't an auspicious opening. It feels like all of the focussed anger from "Broken" has begun spilling out and landed in a sticky mess on the floor.

Things get back on track with "Piggy" which has enough ideas and crazy drumming to entertain. There's very little electronics going on in this song, but the traditional instruments on display are mangled and abused enough to make them sound interesting. When you have finished listening to this album it's likely this is the song you find yourself humming. "Heresy" gives our first sign of a more synth driven track but its lyrics are straight out of a teenage diary: "You God is dead and no one cares. If there is a hell, I'll see you there". Oh please.

I bought both CDs singles and the 9" vinyl of "March of the Pigs" when they were released but I wasn't really that impressed by any of them. For me this song is just too fast, too noisy and only offers a brief nod to melody. Whilst I have always assumed this song must somehow relate to the second track on the album, I could never figure out how.

"Closer" is a rather infamous song with less than subtle lyrics and a relentless beat. When it was first released as a single, the groove in this song really impressed me and gave me hope that Trent hadn't completely abandoned the use of synthesizers. Yet when I hear it today, the music isn't enough to save this song from its boorish and vulgar lyrics. Maybe I'm just getting too old.

"Ruiner" sounds OK but it has a bizarre Jimi Hendrix style guitar solo juxtaposed with a driving beat that just doesn't work for me. I'm really not a fan of the samples of screaming people that are used in "The Becoming" but the lyrics are much improved. One of the best songs on the record is "I Do Not Want This" which moves between delicate verses and a raging chorus. Next up is a short song called "Big Man With A Gun" which begins and ends without making much impression. "A Warm Place" is a dream-like instrumental that sounds like it belongs on the soundtrack to a film. There's an indistinguishable wall of noise in the form of "Eraser" before the slightly improved "Reptile" raises our hopes that we will encounter a melody before the end of the record. The title track is a lazy screaming rehash of the end theme from "Closer" that is drawn out for four whole minutes. Today, it's impossible to divorce the final track "Hurt" from the version recorded by Johnny Cash, but this original recording has a different feel that provides the perfect end to the album.

This 2017 definitive edition features remastered audio spread across two 180g records and is housed in a gatefold sleeve. The records are beautifully presented but, whilst there are some good points, the sound is just too rock for me. The synthesizers have been buried in the mix and everything sounds like an overtly masculine, axe wielding cliche. This might be Trent's biggest selling album and a fan favourite, but I'm not an admirer. 2/5

One record at a time: 275. Nine Inch Nails - Broken

I bought the CD of "Broken" by Nine Inch Nails the day it was released in 1992. When I got home and loaded the CD into my Sony MHC-1600 mini hi-fi, I assumed this album would be similar to the dark electronic music of debut "Pretty Hate Machine". Boy, was I in for a surprise.

As the music played I couldn't quite work out what was going on. Was this heavy metal or rock music of some kind? Was this an E.P. or an album? Why were there ninety tracks of silence? Even the fold out packaging seemed deliberately obtuse and contained barbed remarks aimed at record executives. 

The 2017 definitive edition I am playing here opens with the quietly sinister "Pinion" which soon cedes to the aggression and seemingly limitless anger of "Wish". Whilst the imaginative synth textures and samples of "Pretty Hate Machine" are still evident, guitars are much more prominent and the 'extra real' drums add another layer to the frenzied cacophony. This track is everything I don't like in music; and I love it.

The opening guitar riff on "Last" is an immaculate slice of noise that induces an immediate, almost visceral reaction. Everything on this record oozes anger and Trent seems to scream lyrics like, "Still stings these shattered nerves, pigs we get what pigs deserve" with a depth of feeling I haven't really heard anywhere else. As we move through the various sections of the song you begin to appreciate the intricacy and detail that is underpinning the wall of noise. For me "Last" is the highlight of this record and sits comfortably in the top ten of best Nine Inch Nails tracks.

"Help Me I an in Hell" is one of those short and menacing instrumentals that isn't too exciting when heard in isolation but definitely adds to the overall atmosphere of the record. The promotional single "Happiness in Slavery" comes next with its distorted vocals and frenetic guitars which are counterbalanced by some great synth elements. Any notion that Trent's anger may be receding is soon dismissed when the chorus of "Gave Up" drills into our cranium. Whilst I like this song, it isn't one of my favourites as there is less use of electronics in the mix. 

After the four songs and two interludes we've reached the end of side one and the mini album/EP. The original CD went on to play ninety tracks of silence before 'hidden' cover versions of Adam and the Ant's "Physical" and Pigface's "Suck" erupted. On this vinyl edition, the extra tracks are contained on a separate 7" single so there's no doubt the intention was to present these tracks as being distinct from the original content. Both additional tracks are well realised, but the chugging monotony of "Physical" has the edge for me. 4/5

One record at a time: 274. Nine Inch Nails - Pretty Hate Machine

One day in November 1991, as I stood in the queue for the till at HMV, the guy in front of me said to his friend, "I really like that song at number 35 called "Sin'". It's really electronic". Upon hearing this I decided to leave the queue to investigate further. I'd never heard of Nine Inch Nails, but the sleek black digipak and gloss printed artwork of the single intrigued me. So, "Sin" came home with me and I've been a fan of Trent Reznor ever since.

Here I am going to be playing the 2010 remastered double vinyl of Trent's debut album which includes the b-side "Get Down Make Love". I also own the Halo I-IV box set from 2015 which includes a single disc version of the original master of the album. 

Having only heard one track when I bought the CD back in 1991, I wasn't sure what to expect from the rest of the album. However, opening track "Head Like a Hole" soon allayed any fears that "Sin" might have just been a flash in the pan. There's something about the lyrics on this song that have always fascinated me and the couplet "Bow down before the one you serve, You're going to get what you deserve" always appealed to my teenage angst. I can still remember finding the 10" and 12" singles of this in Our Price and being captivated by the artwork and different remixes they contained.

After the guitars and aggressive noise of the first track, we segue into the sparse metallic rhythms of "Terrible Lie". As the song progresses we hear various synth patches and samples that are cleverly woven around Trent's suitably angry vocal by producer Flood. The next song is actually a remix called "Down In It (Skin)" that builds on Trent's much sparser demo that was originally scheduled to be included on the album. Whilst "Sanctified" is probably the most dated track on this record it is such an atmospheric composition that it is able to transcend its slightly anachronistic execution. 

Things slow down for "Something I Can Never Have" which is a brooding piece driven by piano and Trent's amazing lyrics. My only slight gripe with this song is that there isn't quite enough going on to justify a six minute run time, but it is still an amazing piece of work. There's a slightly mischievous air to "Kinda I Want To" but it remains unclear what the protagonist wants to do or to whom. I read recently that Trent remains unsatisfied with this song and it is one of his least favourite creations. Next up is the excellent "Sin" but the version on the album is a better mix than the Adrian Sherwood version on the CD single.

The transitions of "That's What I Get" don't work for me and the song sounds a bit of a mess until we hit the raucous, and repetitive coda. "The Only Time" is probably my least favourite track on the album but it does feature the immortal line: "the devil wants to f**k me in the back of his car" that used to cause so much amusement to my teenage friends. One of my favourite tracks is the closing song "Ringfinger". Things initially sound almost like a synth-pop anthem (all be it a rather sinister one) before the twisted chorus turns things on their head. After about four minutes there's an injection of pace that ensures the main album goes out on a high of rattling synths, distorted guitars and samples. The 2010 version then plays Trent's cover version of "Get Down Make Love" that was originally the b-side to "Sin". Personally I'm not totally enamoured with this track and regard it as superfluous to the main album. 4/5

One record at a time: 273. New Order - Republic

Here I am playing a 2015 repressing of New Order's sixth studio album "Republic". This record has great sound reproduction but is let down by the terrible graphic design and the frustrating nature of the music. Things start promisingly enough with the classic track "Regret" which somehow straddles the genres of rock and pop whilst delivering an infectious melody. "World (The Price of Love)" is much better than I remember it being, but the Korg T3 piano and breakbeats sound pretty old fashioned today.

Things go downhill with "Ruined in a Day" which is a bit lacklustre and uses a drum loop that sounds totally out of place on a New Order record. The Sly & Robbie dub mixes included on the single must surely win the prize for worst remixes of 1993 (which is quite an achievement when you consider the DJ Pierre remixes of Pet Shop Boys "I Wouldn't Normally Do This Kind of Thing" were also released in that year). "Spooky" is a more upbeat track but it will never be amongst the band's best. "Everyone Everywhere" sounds more akin to old school New Order and its rhythmical complexity marks it out as superior to large chunks of the first side of this record.

"Young Offender" sounds like an early nineties dance anthem trying to burst out of a pop song - a phenomenon that is curiously enjoyable. "Liar" has a great rhythmical intro but it turns into a weird nineties pop song that I could easily hear a talentless boy band singing. There is another stab at dance music with "Chemical" but it sounds confused and antiquated. In fact, some of the songs on this album are so poorly executed it's easy to forget that they were produced by the illustrious Stephen Hague.

As another annoying breakbeat introduces "Times Change" you could be forgiven for thinking things can't get much worse. Yet, when Bernard starts rapping I find myself lifting the needle and skipping to the next track. Having endured a few decidedly iffy moments my tolerance is at an all time low and the final two tracks don't make much impression on me. In terms of vinyl, this is where New Order and I part ways. I dislike "Get Ready" and I don't enjoy "Waiting for the Siren's Call" or "Music Complete" enough to justify the cost. 2/5

One record at a time: 272. New Order - Technique

"Technique" was first released in 1989 and has gone on to become regarded as both a fan favourite and a classic of the decade. Here I am playing my copy which is a 180g repressing from 2009 that sounds nearly flawless to my ears.

"Fine Time" is an amazing dance track and was a brave choice for a single back in 1988 as it doesn't employ a traditional song structure and is largely instrumental. Put quite simply, this is a classic of the New Order canon and essential listening for anyone with a interest in electronic dance music.

"All the Way" is a more traditional rock number but has a strong melody and just enough synth for me to enjoy it. "Love Less" is another enjoyable guitar based track that reminds me of Cocteau Twins with its high chorused bass and floaty melody.

We move back to electronic music with the orchestra hits and Roland D-50 of "Round & Round". This track is another prime slice of late eighties electronic music where the dance floor was inspiring and rejuvenating pop. Whilst I am probably more accustomed to the tighter and punchier single version of this song, the mix on the album is still excellent. I've always liked the strange programming of the percussion and the agogô pattern almost sounds like it was lifted straight from Pet Shop Boys (it wasn't). The final song on this side is "Guilty Partner" which takes off a bit in the chorus but is otherwise a standard rock album track.

One of my favourite songs on here is "Run". This is surprising as it isn't a electronic song but driven by an acoustic guitar and prominent bass work from Peter Hook. The backing vocals and guitar work are excellent and when the Melloton like strings come in towards then end, things take off again in the most brilliant way. "Mr Disco" prophesies the sound of Bernard's  "Electronic" project and is the equal of anything he would go on to produce with Mr Marr. The excellent "Vanishing Point" rumbles into life with a mix of heavy synth bass, TR-909 snares and Roland D-50 Fantasia. This is another one of the high points of the album for me and I used to love hearing this song when it was used on the TV show "Making Out". The album ends with "Dream Attack" which is rescued by its synth bass but is otherwise unremarkable. A great album but would need less guitar and rock tracks to achieve a higher score from me. 4/5