Customer Reviews

Things Falling Apart

5 star:		(46)
4 star:		(30)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Trent Reznor has been accompanying his major releases with remix CDs since 1992, and Things Falling Apart, the remix album of The Fragile, continues this tradition. Also continuing in that tradition, this disc seeks to reinterpret songs so they can be seen in a new light. It's clear that Trent has allowed his remixers to take risks with their source material, and, as expected, the results are mixed (no pun intended).

Several of the remixes are quite good, with a few of them being equal in quality to the tracks on The Fragile ("Slipping Away," "The Frail (version)"). However, the interpretations of "Star****ers, Inc." are not quite as successful, particularly Adrian Sherwood's mix (track 4). Sherwood has not done a bad job, it's just that it sounds like he tried to remix "Star****ers" so it would sound nice on a dance floor, which is not the point of NIN remixes. As a result, this track sticks out like a sore thumb.

Trent has also made the unusual choice of providing some original material: "The Great Collapse" is a "Fragile" outtake, "Metal" is a Gary Numan cover that is injected with Trent's mix of humanity and alienation, and "10 Miles High (version)," while not technically new (the original was on the vinyl edition of The Fragile), is not owned by many NIN fans. These songs are rather good, though whether they belong on a "remix" disc is up for debate.

But whatever its faults, TFA remains NIN's most accessable remix album to date. It is certainly worth checking out if you liked "The Fragile."

Just like to say the editor review disgusted me to the point of writing this. The fragile is quite possibly trents best NIN album and Starf*kers is NOT one of the strongest songs on it. Maybe if the editor stopped listening to the pop 100 singles and took time to listen to the album hed realize songs like La Mer, Into the Void, Underneath it All, and Somewhat Damaged are trent at his best. Things Falling apart is a decent remix of these songs but not as interesting as The Fragile from which these songs are based.

2 Stars for the casual NIN fan.
4 Stars for the hardcore fan, especially fans of "The Fragile."

Halo 16 "Things Fall Apart" (2000) consists of remixes from Nine Inch Nails third studio album "The Fragile" (1999, Halo 14). It's a bit hard to rate this EP. Its merit really depends on where you're coming from. If you don't own "The Fragile" or aren't a fan of it, you most likely are not going to be into this EP. You'll probably find it to be masturbatory and tedious. However, if you do like "The Fragile," "Things Fall Apart" makes for an excellent companion piece. It offers atmospheric, intriguing takes on selections from "The Fragile." The opening "Slipping Away" is an especially cool and haunting warped remix of the excellent "Into the Void." A version of Gary Numan's "Metal" (unrelated to "The Fragile") outshines the original and stands as one of Reznor's greatest covers. Probably the one drawback to this otherwise very cool EP is that there are three remixes of "Starf.cker Inc." It would have been better if only one remix were included, to make space for remixes of other songs instead. Still, it doesn't hinder the EP too much. It would also have been great if this EP included the original versions of "The New Flesh" and "10 Miles High," as they are otherwise hard to come by (only available on part I of "We're in this Together," Halo 15).

If you are just a causal fan, this will probably be a big disappointment. However if you are a Halo collector and a big NIN fan, this EP is highly recommended as it makes an excellent supplement to "The Fragile."

In a nutshell, if you liked Fragile and desire more dance-friendly rhythms, this is it. Sonically, this halo is vastly different from the harsh, industrial "Fixed." TFA is far more ambient but yet retains enough drum and bass beats to keep even less crazed-NIN fans interested. I would have given this disc 5 stars if not for the second two star***ers inc versions and metal. I was not particulaly impressed with those three tracks because I felt they don't add/expand to the quality of the originals as the other remixes do. Nevertheless, the beauty and musical intensity of the first three tracks is well worth the price alone.

First off I would like to say that "Rezner," as you put it, is actually spelled Reznor.

Second of all, you would either have to be deaf, stupid, or both to say that ..., Inc. is the best song on the Fragile. Obviously, you paid no attention to the other 22 tracks. The Fragile is a masterpiece, and I wouldn't argue if someone said it is the best 2-CD set ever.

Third... If you're so disappointed in ... being on Things Falling Apart 3 times, you apparently don't know that that is Trent's style. On every single he releases he includes several different versions of songs.

Fourth, If you think that the limitations of his music are starting to show you are as ... as I thought because they have constantly progressed in their quality and professionalism, and they are starting to show that they have no limits

Recently had the comical misfortune of reading a review posted here while listening to this EP. Mathew Cooke - I'd like to hear your latest work of genius. Mr. Reznor is a hard-working man, and the fact that he still fills, feels out, explores and expands the spot in society he carved out for himself a decade ago, says a lot for him as an artist. Although I haven't got Reznor's authorization on this, it seems that there are great themes he wishes to explore at length, and thus each album is more of an update than a desperate dash at something altogether different. I, for one, enjoy his work, look forward to these updates whenever they may come along. If you (amazon shopper) also have a deep love and respect for the melancholly dane of 1990's music, as he pushes on for new insights in the year 2000, you'll find this album to be both worthy and enjoyable.

Lets face it, Nine Inch Nails has put out some pretty amazing albums over the years. The Downlward Spiral was, and still is, an example of a new thinking brought to music on epic proportions. Even Broken, to a point, exhibited the kind of sound that "went to 11" when everyone else was still at 8 or so. But Broken had Fixed, an album that was the first I had ever heard that challenged the listener to the point of discomfort, that you couldn't listen to casually for fear of letting your guard down and being attacked. And Downward Spiral had Further Down the Spiral, where the songs only retained the name of their predecessor, and not much else; the result is one of the best "remix" albums around, without fail. So now theres Things Fall Apart. Great name, great cover art, great music? Well, good music at least. The Frail (version) and 10 Miles High (version) are nods to the previous remix efforts - songs that exist as their own and have no relience on the existence of others. But Slipping Away sounds only like what the original song should have been and breaks no new ground. Overall, it seem that the general remix technique was to take the song, add some pans and fades and apply a great deal of digital noise over the top a a slightly stripped core. Not a bad formula, but a formula nonetheless. If you're looking for the interest and progressiveness of the other two remix albums, keep listening to those; they are still the best work Reznor has released.

Although I don't recommend this to you if you don't like "Starf***ers, Inc" or remixes in general, this is pretty good anyway. There is quite a bit of it that is throwaway, but I'd take this any day over an album of no new songs and all ripoffs.

Not brilliant like 'Fixed' or as well-done electronica as 'Further Down the Spiral', this is good on its own right. It doesn't leave all the singles behind, as there's "Slipping Away", a nice variation on "Into the Void" from 'The Fragile'. You also get nice strings-for-piano tracks like the one for "The Frail".

One natural problem is that "The Frail" and "Starf***ers, Inc" are the two worst songs on 'The Fragile', so that's kind of a shame because otherwise it could have been better. And there's THREE remixes of "Starf***ers, Inc." On the other hand, you get to finally hear the only-import-available "10 Miles High", as well as the cool instrumentals in "The Great Collapse", even if dated.

To me the real highlight of the whole things is his seven-minute rendition of Gary Numan's "Metal". No flaws in it, with an even cooler last two minutes. This impressed me from the first time that I listened to it and is worth the price of the album alone.

After the phenomenal commercial and artistical success of "The fragile", Reznor returns with this 10-track remix EP, and quite honestly it is one of his more palatable ventures into pop-inclined electronica. Whereas earlier remix albums like "Fixed" and "Further down the spiral" totally distorted the original content of the songs, the pieces on "TFA" feel like reflections and supplements; according to Reznor, nearly all sounds on "The fragile" were created by 'traditional' instruments like drums and guitars and then filtered through extensive post-production, and "TFA" does a good job of setting the whole thing in a framework of crunching electronic beats/loops and dark atmospherics. Some of the remixes are vaguely reminiscent of Autechre's/Aphex Twin's mid-'90s output, others are somewhat closer to industrial rock but still retain their humanity due to Reznor's compelling voice and some amazing nods to chamber music and ambient. Sure, the record doesn't tread enough new ground to be a great leap forward and won't start any NIN fans self-combusting; the songs are more accessible and atmospheric than those of previous albums just as they are less innovative and exciting, although I feel that, had NIN never released "The fragile" and augmented "TFA" with a few more tracks, some people would prefer "TFA" over the long-winded double-disc affair. At least the first three and the last three songs on "TFA" have hooks and melodies which make them eminently listenable.

"Slipping away" begins the album with a distinctly spooky feel, featuring sighing string arrangements and slightly growling guitars over a strong mid-tempo rhythm, and the way Reznor brings the song to a climax is simply brilliant. Many of the remixes here seem to have an added edge, particularly the uncanny "The great collapse", containing an understated two-chord piano line and various intriguing splinters of other instruments behind a strong central beat and occasional sequencer burblings. "The wretched" and "Where is.." with Reznor's talk-singing are not so interesting, but have an unmistakable sense of how to frame his voice with alternately quiet and confrontational arrangements. One of this album's highlights is the short mix of "The frail", a neo-classical piece which provides a convenient break in the listening program. Unfortunately, the album is somewhat flawed by these three "Starfuckers Inc." remixes. With too many layers of childish sound effects, Sherwood's and Ogilvie's versions of this song do not only miss any musical sensibility, they also feel out of place among the other songs. One has to be careful when painting with too many colors not to end up with a shoddy picture, and exactly this does happen here. Now, there's the 7-minute cover version of Gary Numan's "Metal", it's twice as long as the original song. "Metal" originally appeared on Numan's 1979 album "The pleasure principle", and as far as I know, it was never released as a single. In my opinion, it's not a classic and not among Numan's most memorable songs ("Cars", "We are glass", "Are friends electric?"). Reznor transfers the song's heavy sequencer/synth patterns into a more industrial setting and adds a fairly lengthy acoustic guitar outro for a slightly disturbing but still quite relaxing atmosphere. If you are interested in Numan covers, you should probably check out the tribute album "Random", a double-disc set with cover versions from the likes of The Orb, Moloko, and Blur. After the aggressive "10 miles high", things calm down again: Clouser's mix of "Starf-----s Inc." begins very beautifully with static ambient sounds and pulsating beats which are somewhat reminiscent of Brian Eno's famous ambient works. After this sublime opening section, we are exposed to the same aimless and boring industrial hotchpotch as on the other two "Starf-----s Inc." mixes.

On reading this review you may have noticed the constant references to different sounds and other electronica artists, and indeed, "TFA" has its roots in industrial rock and synth pop, but it adds so many elements from other styles that the listener's mind isn't left to wander. Apart from the redundant "Starf-----s Inc." versions, this is really an album I can recommend without reservation, especially for the newly interested.

"Things Falling Apart" is the remix album that followed "The Fragile", and is remixes of material from that record. After the high standard set by "Further Down the Spiral", I had lofty expectations, and that could be effecting my opinion of this one, I largely found that this album falls short of its predecessor in all ways.

It could be the choice of material-- largely sticking to the song forms, I think the remixers missed an opportunity to really place with something atmospheric and create something unique-- I mean, did we really need three versions of "Starf***ers, Inc"? I find the original to be subpar, and remixing a weak song isn't going to produce a strong one, regardless of the efforts Sherwood, Oglivie, and Clouser put into their remixes. Ditto for Hillibrandt's take on "The Wretched"-- its not one of the stronger pieces on the record. And where's the remixes of "We're In This Together" or instrumentals like "Just Like You Imagined" or "Complication"? This material has a depth and detail to it that suggest it could well receive a remix.

Now mind you, its not all bad on here, Reznor and Moulder's reconstruction, "The Great Collapse" (pulling in samples from at least a couple songs and layering them on top of a good beat) is very listenable, Benelli's remix of "The Frail" as a string piece may surpass the original in terms of delicate beauty, and the cover of Gary Numan's "Metal" is fantastic. But overall, this is somewhat of a weak effort.