just-zeroes-and-ones: trevelyan006: ...

just-zeroes-and-ones:

trevelyan006:

http://www.mediafire.com/file/o8nlveeo3gv21au/The%20Fragile.zip

The Fragile by Nine Inch Nails is one of my favorite albums of all time; again, one of those things where I liked it, but it took me a while to really get the album. Compared to others, I’m a relatively new NIN fan, having been exposed to the other-wordly, multi-talented Trent Reznor after a 2005 edition of SPIN Magazine (right before With Teeth came out). It became a mission to get a hold of their other works and while I mourned missing the boat five/six years earlier, my life also changed: it’s better to be a late NIN fan than not a NIN fan at all.

Seriously. (And when I type “N-I-N,” I don’t think of “n-i-n,” I think “NIN.” Like a word.)

Because most people would watch or listen to NIN and either:

Pee their pants out of fright.

Be really confused or have absolutely no idea what’s going on.

Turn their electronic devices off.

Think it’s not really “music.”

Think “This is too heavy for me.”

Think “This isn’t heavy enough for me.”

It’s also entirely possible that all of the above can happen.

I can see where people mislabel NIN: in the age of MTV, they have incoherent videos that probably inspired the Saw series, Reznor relishes in disharmony and syncopation, he used to hang out with Marilyn Manson (all shades of odd-but smart), there’s noise out of glass and chants, and it’s not singing so much as it is growling or whispering.

I think a lot of people imagine NIN as much more violent and abrasive than they actually are, due to The Downward Spiral (fantastic album) and their live And All That Could Have Been (simply amazing), which really just got more attention because it was so outlandish compared to their other works. They’re stigmatized as some sort of hard rock group, which yes, they have some rougher songs than the norm… but Reznor’s works are given credit as being painstakingly detailed and (recognized more recently) he is a legitimate composer. I’ve often heard of them described akin to heavy rock, which doesn’t quite hit the mark: Reznor runs his tunes and harmonies on a tighter ship than the average band; and if you really listen to NIN’s heaviest works, you hear the thought and work and composition that goes into it. It’s not just lyric and tune as a standard song would have- it’s theme, content, lyric, melody/countermelody, harmony/disharmony, and I bet there’s Grammy “winners” who don’t know what half of those are. Going back to The Fragile, it’s an incredibly underrated album in terms of beauty and coherence; it’s somehow visual and stirring without images. There’s really no proper way to categorize or (better yet) genrify (yeah, I just did that) NIN because every time you do, Reznor calls “Blasphemy!” and plays you something like March of the Pigs or something like The Frail or something like Down In It or remixes a remix of Ruiner. He’ll write you the gorgeous La Mer while high and on the verge of suicide. Then he’ll write the score to The Social Network and you sit amazed, wondering how that can all be by the same person. His work is a thousand times more impressive than anything your favorite artist has ever imagined or produced- and he’s not working with six or seven different people.

I don’t think you can appreciate the work of NIN without appreciating Reznor, and you can’t fully appreciate Trent Reznor without knowing his background. I don’t want to get into all the details, but here’s the basics: he can probably play (or figure out how to make cohesive noise) with every instrument known to man. He’s been through a lot of shit. He takes things that don’t belong in the same sentence and makes them work. This guy is smart. I don’t think he envisions himself as a classic rockstar, or an entertainer, or a front-man (think of Dave Grohl, who clearly loves music and performing and entertaining); he just happens to be incredibly talented with a lot of ideas, lyrics, melodies, and whatnot in his noggin and likes to make music, not necessarily perform it. That can happen. How can such a person exist?

Honestly, Reznor can do anything he wants at this point. He can play spoons against a plastic crate and I would probably listen to it for days. The Fragile is over ten years old and its music has been used for The Avengers, Terminator: Salvation, and 300. A lot of people thought NIN was over; but I don’t think they realized that Reznor has only just begun to hit his stride- I think he has really found his place in being able to compose for visuals, the ability to send a message, without the pressure of being in the center of attention. I’m truly looking forward to the possible return of NIN and whatever David Fincher decides to bring him back for or whatever trailer Joss Whedon throws together.

Trent, keep doing what you do. There’s millions who will keep listening.

Last night I chose The Fragile as my favorite album that I had to write about

and this person just like

took all my feels and wrote them down perfectly

per

fect

ly

Yep. Perfect.

(via jollyeasyzebra)

23 notes | 3 months ago

Please. Greed. Feed.

23 notes