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'''''The Fragile''''' (also known as '''''[[Halo numbers|Halo 14]]'''''), released on September 21, 1999, is the fourth studio album by [[Nine Inch Nails]]. The album features a rich array of electronic beats, ambient noise, and heavy guitar. While it received critical acclaim from many, it did not receive the commercial success that its predecessor, ''[[The Downward Spiral (halo)|The Downward Spiral]],'' , did (attributed variously to the difference in musical climate, and insufficient promotion by [[Interscope Records]]).

Prior to its release, the single ''[[The Day The World Went Away (halo)|The Day The World Went Away]]'' came out on July 20; following ''The Fragile,'' , ''[[We're In This Together (halo)|We're In This Together]]'' was released in three parts on December 14. A collection featuring several [[Remixes|remixes]] and new material from ''The Fragile'' was released as ''[[Things Falling Apart]]'' on November 21, 2000.''The Fragile'' was produced by [[Alan Moulder]], though it was originally going to be produced by Rick Rubin.[https://web.archive.org/web/20230120173533/https://www.mtv.com/news/wmzp4p/star-producer-rick-rubin-signs-on-for-nine-inch-nails-album]

====Differences To The from the CD Versionversion====

* "The Wretched"," "We're in This Together"," "Even Deeper"," Pilgrimage"Pilgrimage," "The Mark Has Been Made"," and "I'm Looking Forward to Joining You, Finally" all do not crossfade as on the CD version, because these songs either end or begin their respective sides

The track list for the double cassette releases of ''The Fragile'' follow follows the CD track list, save for the insertion of "[[+Appendage]]" onto the end of "Please" on US and EU some other countries' copies. The first tape splits between "Just Like You Imagined" and "Even Deeper," while the second tape splits between either "Please (+ Appendage)" and "Starfuckers, Inc." (most US versions) or "Starfuckers, Inc." and "Complication" (non-.  "+Appendage" is included on the US , Canada, Mexico, and also some US versions)EU cassettes. ''The Fragile'' was "+Appendage" is listed, but not actually included, in the tracklisting of the cassettes from Thailand, Bulgaria, Turkey, Poland, and the final NIN release to be officially issued on cassetteUS BMG Music Service club. Subsequent albums have been issued on Other cassette in other countriesreleases from the Philippines, Malaysia, South Korea, and Russia, omit "+Appendage" entirely, though they are of questionable authenticityfrom both the tracklisting and the tape.

[[Image:FragileInst.jpg|thumb|''The Fragile Instrumental'' Artwork]]''The Fragile Instrumental'' was made available on June 30th, 2015 exclusively via [[Apple Music]]. It contained instrumentals of every track, with some also being alternate versions (see the [[Remixes#The_Fragile_Era|remixes]] page for details.) It also contained three previously unheard tracks: "[[The March]]" (instrumental), "[[Hello, Everything Is Not OK]]" (instrumental) (a demo of "10 Miles High"), and "[[Can I Stay Here?]]" (instrumental). It is also notable that it contains the first non-cassette version of "+Appendage". It was released along with ''[[With Teeth (halo)|With Teeth Instrumental]]''.

[[Trent Reznor]] on the different track sequencing for different formats:

Note that whilst The contents of CDs with more tentative sequences were leaked in 2025, showing near-final mixes to the finished album. Both of these CDs use the label "CD #1".[[Image:CD_-1_12_track.jpg|thumb|Leaked 12-track early sequence]][[Image:CD_-1_14_track.jpg|thumb|Leaked 14-track early sequence]]===="CD #1" 12-track version====#Somewhat Damaged #La Mer #Into the Void #The New Flesh#The Wretched#Anomaly#Even Deeper#Stained#Please #Rotation #The Fragile #The Great Below ===="CD #1" 14-track version====#Somewhat Damaged #La Mer #Into the Void #The Wretched #Even Deeper #The New Flesh #The Day the World Went Away#Complication #Please #Star Fuckers #Rotation #The Fragile #The Mark Has Been Made#Stained "[[Anomaly]]" has been confirmed to be is the working title of used for "The Way Out Is Through", the final titles for "[[Rotation]]" is the title used for "The Big Come Down", and "[[Stained]]" have not been revealed; is the title used for "Underneath It All" may be . The short instrumental at the final title end of "Where is Everybody?" is in a different place for each of these CD-Rs, instead being used for the transition from "Please" to "Rotation" ("The Big Come Down") for the latter12-track CD, based on its prominent lyrical use of and for the transition from "Rotation" to "The Fragile" for the word14-track CD. Most transitions between songs are heavily altered.

Interestingly, the same photo also shows another CD-R featuring "Please Part 2" (presumably renamed to "Appendage" for ''The Fragile'' cassette version) and "The New Flesh"."

In a question and answer session with NIN fans, Reznor hinted at the reissue of ''The Fragile'' for early 2010, a statement repeated via the [httphttps://web.archive.org/web/20140823184052/https://twitter.com/nineinchnails/status/4157519090 official twitter account], calling it an "ultimate reissue." [[Rob Sheridan]] has since mentioned that the project is delayed due to packaging decisions, and as yet there is no new release date. [[Alan Moulder]] has completed a 5.1 surround sound mix for the reissue.[http://recforums.prosoundweb.com/index.php/mv/msg/32698/502417/0/#msg_502417] In a nin.com post about the 2020 Dolby Atmos version of ''[[The Social Network Soundtrack]]'', Reznor hinted at a possible Dolby Atmos version of ''The Fragile'' in the future.

This edition of the vinyl also comes with a digital download card and a booklet containing photos and an essay about the sequencing of the album, written by Bob Ezrin.

==TouringSupport Tour==

The album was supported by a tour that visited North America, Europe, Australia and Japan. The chaos of earlier tours was beginning to subside and the shows were somewhat more focused on production and precise performance. During the North American portion of the tour, three tall rectangular screens were lowered mid-set for showing pieces of film. Despite the fact that Trent Reznor was in the throes of addiction during this tour, it was well-received by fans and critics alike. The [[Fragility 2.0]] tour was filmed and released as ''[[And All That Could Have Been (halo)|And All That Could Have Been]]'' on 2-disc DVD (both Dolby Digital and DTS versions) and VHS in 2002. It was also released as a live CD, at one point combined with a second disc of re-constructed material and new songs called ''[[Still]].''.

==LiveRepresentation==

In terms of narrative, the album is an unofficial continuation of ''[[The Downward Spiral (halo)|The Downward Spiral]].'' . Reznor compares the lyrical content of the two albums:

This is a A lengthy interpretation of the album's story written in 2000[https://web.archive. Read it at:* org/web/20011012134207/http://www.theninhotline.net/archives/articles/otherinterpretation.shtmlinterpretation of the album's story] was written in 2000 and published at [[The NIN Hotline]].

* The lyric "[[Nothing Can Stop Me Now|nothing can stop me now]]" appears in "La Mer" and "We're In This Together", albeit translated into French Creole on the former and altered to "none of them can stop us now" on the latter. The same phrase was previously used in "[[Piggy]]", "[[Ruiner]]" , and "[[Big Man With A Gun]]" and would recur later in "[[Sunspots]]".

* The lyric "could have been" is prominently used in "The Wretched", "The Great Below" , and "And All That Could Have Been".

In one interview, Alan Moulder stated that the album started out with 173 different pieces or musical ideas, and the cover of [[Gary Numan]]'s "[[Metal]]" had been completed when the album sessions began.[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9CrXjiTnwN8] He also stated in a different interview that 120 songs were recorded[https://www.soundonsound.com/people/alan-moulder-recording-nine-inch-nails-smashing-pumpkins], so it is likely that some of the 173 pieces were merely seeds of inspiration that were never developed into anything usable.The orginal large amount of song ideas was evidently whittled down before they even reached the demo stage, as Reznor stated in a 2000 interview that he demoed 47 songs, which he then chose from when deciding which ones to write lyrics for.[https://www.theninhotline.com/archives/articles/manager/display_article.php?id=935]

Early on in the process, Reznor listened extensively to the hip-hop albums ''Dr. Octagonecologyst'' by Dr. Octagon (aka Kool Keith) and ''Midnight Marauders'' by A Tribe Called Quest.[https://www.loudersound.com/features/alan-moulder-on-the-record-that-reminds-him-of-making-the-fragile][https://www.theninhotline.com/archives/textarch/article/feb00rage.html] During a podcast with [[Skinny Puppy]]'s cEvin Key, [[Danny Lohner]] revealed that Reznor was inspired by Tom Waits' ''Bone Machine'' when making ''The Fragile'', and that "Somewhat Damaged" was written and originally demoed around the time of "[[The Perfect Drug (song)|The Perfect Drug]]".[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r8AJHQGtnsI] ''Bone Machine'''s use of Harry Partch-style found object percussion influenced the unique percussion on certain parts of the album.

[[Image:Fragileartsource1.jpg|thumb|David Carson's images showing inside of seashell, and original source image for the abum album cover]]

A look through [[David Carson]]'s book ''Fotografiks'' reveals that the top section of the album cover is from a photo of Öxarárfoss waterfall in Iceland and the bottom section is from a closeup photo of the inside of some kind of seashell. The flowers on the back cover are widely assumed to be a variety of Indian Paintbrush. He explained further in an image on his website:

*[[Adrian Belew]] - Guitars ("Just Like You Imagined"," "The Great Below"," "Where Is Everybody?")

*[[wp:Mike Garson|Mike Garson]] - Piano (on "Just Like You Imagined"," "The Way Out Is Through" and , "Ripe (With Decay)")

*Danny Lohner - Drum Programming, Ambiance, Synthesizers, Guitar on "Somewhat Damaged", "Just Like You Imagined"," "The Great Below"," "Complication"

*[[Brian Pollack ]] - Engineer

*Merchandising: David "Khan" Johnson for [[Object]]

*Thank you very much: Cemal Adiguezel, Gretchen Anderson, Simon Baeyertz, Roy Bennett, Nancy Berry, Michael Blum, Steve Bottomley, [[David Bowie]], Steve "Coco" Brandon, Tim Buckley, Karen Ciccone, Paul Connolly, Melissa Daigle, Daisy May, Renee Dodson, Duane Fogg, Ernie Fortunato, Ken Friedman, Gerry Gerrard, Erin Gilligan, Robert Hales, Toni Halliday, Page Hamilton, Mike Harris, Dan Hill, Doug Idleman, Stuart Issleib, Leslie Kaufman, Martin Kierszenbaum, Sam Kirby, Paris Langford, John Lewis, Tim Lightfoot, Tiffany Luning, Clint Mansell, Denise Milfort, Tina Montalbano, Mike Montero, Chuck Ortner, Dean Parker, [[Mark Pellington]], Lynn Pompey, Gina Pontius, [[Kim Prevost]], [[Porter Ricks]], Rodney Robertson, Lu Rojas, [[Mark Romanek]], [[Rick Rubin]], Barry Sanders, Trish Schultz, Nick Scott, Winston Simone, Jeff Slippen, Nick Stern, Rick Szekelyi, Tony Thompson, Tomato, Bob Uzzo, Ed Vigueira, Larry Weinstein, Nigel Wiesehan, Angele Ylisastigui, Dawn Zillich, Sioux Zimmerman, Aqua Marine, Brennan's, Clavia, DigiDesign, Jason Lamb and Dod, eMagic, Sean Wilhelmson and EMU Systems, Rob Timmons and Fernandez, Geoff Farr and GSF Agency, Id Software, Jens Gellhaar, K-Paul's, Brad Strickland and Korg/Parker, Tim Godwin and Line 6, Greg Perry, DK Sweet and Mackie, Musician's Friend (New Orleans), Bill Noll at Neoview, N.O. Music Exchange, Nola, Opcode, Pedalman, Solid State Logic, Sound Chek (New Orleans), Waves, Werlein's Music

*[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tInEeD81eJk 0Hywi7FtEo4 "ninetynine" TV Commercial aired in 1998]*[httphttps://vimeo.com/65825592 TV Commercial directed by David Carson]*[http://nineinchnails.tumblr.com/post/51818928436/software-screenshots-from-the-recording-of-the ''The Fragile'' software screenshots from nin.com]*[http://nineinchnails.tumblr.com/post/51370793367/the-fragile-production-journals-published-on-the ''The Fragile'' production journals from nin.com]

*[httphttps://nincatalogweb.comarchive.org/the-fragileweb/20031211150843/ ''The Fragile'' at nincatalog.com]*[http://www.disinfo.com/archive/pages/article/id1983/pg1/index.html Disinfo.com: ''A listener's guide to 'The Fragile''']

*[http://itunes.applenincatalog.com/us/playlist/the-fragile-instrumental/idpl.c1edd8f6d21446efa04f1423f522e2af ''The Fragile Instrumental'' at Apple Musicnincatalog.com]