THINGS FALLING APART

"Things Falling Apart" is another remix album from Nine Inch Nails, this time with the tracks being sourced from the album "The Fragile". Eight of the ten tracks are remixes from that album with one track being an original song and one being a Gary Numan cover. Reznor and Alan Moulder remixed 3 of the tracks here with the others being remixed by other artists. With Reznor having a lot of luck with remix albums after "The Downward Spiral", it only made sense to do a remix album of "The Fragile", thus this album became a companion album to that one. However, the critics really did not give this remix album a good chance as it was thoroughly panned by them.

Starting off with "Slipping Away", the first remix refers to the song "Into the Void" both musically and rhythmically. The lyrics are broken into "I keep slipping away" and "Tried to change myself" in various forms and the music builds off of percussion and guitar loops with a thumping beat and layers that become more distorted as the track continues and moves into the next track "The Great Collapse". These first two tracks are remixed and reconfigured by Reznor and Alan Moulder. The Great Collapse is a quieter track and is actually an original that was supposed to be used on "The Fragile" album. It builds off of synth loops and a piano riff. There are repeated lyrics sung by an unnamed female vocalist. The lyrics are a repeated line that sounds like it might have come from "The Wretched", but it is not a remix of that as commonly believed. After the female vocals come in, you also hear Reznor yelling the same line in the background.

The next track is a remix of "The Wretched" mixed by Keith Hillebrandt. This one has a bass drone and a heavy beat with Reznor singing the lyrics in a whispery voice. It later breaks down to bass and acoustic guitar only while Reznor repeats "Now you know/This is what it feels like", then it all eventually starts to build again to the end. The next track is the first of three remixes of "Starf*ckers, Inc.", this remix done by Adrian Sherwood. The track features various sound effects and even samples from KISS' "Shout it Out Loud" from the album "Alive II". A remix of "The Frail" comes next. It uses distorted effects and stings and the melody is played on a violin instead of a piano. It remains mostly quiet and dark.

Another version of "Starf*ckers, Inc." follows, this time manipulated by Dave Ogilve. This one is a brighter dance oriented version with an industrial beat and feel, and contains most of the lyrics, including the "You're So Vain" lyrics. "Where is Everybody?" is a remix of the original mixed by Danny Lohner. This is a nice minimal track that has processed and cut up vocals. It remains quite atmospheric and adds in glitch beats later in the track. The next track is "Metal", and is a remix of a Gary Numan track taken from the album "The Pleasure Principle" and manipulated by Reznor and Moulder. The last part of the track has a long instrumental that pulls out sections of other Numan songs.

"10 Miles High" is another remix done by Keith Hillebrandt. The introduction is shorter than the original and the guitar solo is put on the end of the song instead of the middle, but it remains pretty faithful to the original otherwise. The album ends with the third remix of "Starf*ckers, Inc.", this time remixed by Charlie Clouser. It starts out quite subdued but develops into an industrial version of the track with very few of the lyrics left in the mix.

Even though the critics panned this remix album, it really isn't that bad. Most of the tracks come from what they consider a weaker album (The Fragile), and, after so many different remix albums, the critics were not too easy on it. Personally, I think it's a pretty good album for a remix album, and the music is quite varied, which is not always the case with remixes. Even with 3 versions of one song, they are different enough that it is almost like you don't even notice. Anyway, I consider it one of the stronger NIN remix albums, so I don't see any problem giving it 4 stars.