Halo 14
The Fragile
The Fragile is Nine Inch Nails' expansive double album of erosion, repair, and recurrence. Guitars, piano, electronics, orchestral color, and ambient space move across its Left and Right halves as themes disappear and return in altered forms.
Created by Trent Reznor with Alan Moulder and a wide circle of collaborators, the record resists the direct trajectory of The Downward Spiral. Its density rewards repeated listening, with instrumental motifs carrying as much narrative weight as lyrics.
- Label
- Nothing / Interscope Records
- Formats
- Double CD, cassette, triple vinyl, digital
Release Guide
Release Details
- Release type
- Studio album
- Artist
- Nine Inch Nails
- Primary catalog
- Halo 14 / 0694904731
- Contents
- 25 tracks
Track Listing 1999 original track listing
- Somewhat Damaged
- The Day the World Went Away
- The Frail
- The Wretched
- We’re in This Together
- The Fragile
- Just Like You Imagined
- Even Deeper
- Pilgrimage
- No, You Don’t
- La Mer
- The Great Below
- The Way Out Is Through
- Into the Void
- Where Is Everybody?
- The Mark Has Been Made
- 10 Miles High
- Please
- Starfuckers, Inc.
- Complication
- The New Flesh
- I’m Looking Forward to Joining You, Finally
- The Big Come Down
- Underneath It All
- Ripe
Credits & Production Principal release credits
- Written and performed by
- Trent Reznor
- Produced by
- Trent Reznor and Alan Moulder
- Additional production and performance
- The documented studio ensemble
- Visual direction
- David Carson and Rob Sheridan
- Release label
- Nothing / Interscope Records
Selected Editions & Variants Format-specific programs and archive editions
1999 / Double-CD and cassette program
The Left and Right programs form the principal compact-disc sequence.
1999 / Triple-vinyl program
The vinyl sequence adds 10 Miles High and The New Flesh and changes the running order across six sides.
2016 / Deviations archive
The Fragile: Deviations 1 presents an instrumental and alternate-session path as a separate Halo release.
2017 / Definitive Edition
The remastered triple-vinyl edition restores the expanded vinyl program within the Definitive Edition series.
About the Release Recording, artwork, and release history
Format changes the work
The compact-disc, cassette and vinyl editions do not share one identical program. Track presence and sequence belong to the individual format.
Visual system
Typography, photography, web presentation and packaging extend the album across physical and digital surfaces rather than functioning as one cover image.
Unreleased paths
A planned surround edition and an unrealized sheet-music object remain documented projects, not released Fragile editions.