As bad as their original review of Fragile is, the 0.4 for TFA is even worse lmao https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums...falling-apart/
As bad as their original review of Fragile is, the 0.4 for TFA is even worse lmao https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums...falling-apart/
I'm so fucking mad right now.The 53 minute-long album kicks (read: dozes) off with "Slipping Away (Into the Void Manipulation)" by Reznor and Brit mixer/engineer Alan Moulder. Does this sound familiar?: a plodding, Neanderthal beat; a dated guitar; a violin; searing but sanitized fuzz. Then, everything stops so Trent can scream his first line: "I keep slipping away." After throwing in those same blips he's employed since the beginning of time, the song becomes predictably muddled and furious.
i dunno, guys ... tfa is pretty fucking bad ...
really??? i love things falling apart. the first 2 tracks are amazing and the gary numan cover is great. the remix of where is everybody by telefon tel aviv is my favorite track, i really like the starfuckers versions as well.
Last edited by snichols; 01-10-2018 at 05:50 PM.
Things Falling Apart was for many years my favourite NIN album, and to this day it remains my favourite remix album from any band.
Fight me.
to be fair i don't really love remix albums. and i loathe "starfuckers". also i had listened to that version of "metal" that was all over p2p sites at the time and thought the finished, official song was so sleepy and subdued.
meh. to each their own.
I also love it. The TFTA remix is one of my favorite nin songs of all time. And good god, you've got slipping away and the great collapse and that incredible version of the frail.
The starfuckers remixes are annoying, which is really sad: I'm a junglist and they should have been better; they could have been great.
All in all, though, I fucking love that record.
TFA has some cool stuff but 3 of the 10 songs being Starfuckers remixes is pointless....
I will give pitchfork props for their 9.5 PHM rating, This dude actually knew what he was talking about with this review
https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums...-hate-machine/
+1 for TFA. It’s the only “remix” album I’ve liked from any band. And it gave us the Metal cover. It’s not without some faults however (too many Starfuckers songs).
Was in my early 20’s at the time it came out and heard some of these songs playing at downtown clubs. As a NIN dork that tickled my funny bone.
EDIT: didn’t care for the Further Down album- songs were kind of boring in a too-arsty way.
Last edited by Krazy; 01-10-2018 at 06:44 PM.
i get that further down is kinda boring at times, but check out track 4 heresy (version) and track 8 Ruiner (version) from the V2 euro version.
Fixed and Further Down The Spiral always felt (to some extent) like Trent was trying to punish the listener. It's interesting on the first couple listens, but the angst-y, "listen to how much we can fuck up these tracks" vibe wears a bit thin after that. There's some good stuff on those albums of course, but overall, Things Falling Apart and Year Zero Remixed feel more cohesive as a whole to me.
1 of those "remixes" was a total re-recording of the song (Part One) so its basically a whole different song...The Euro version with Heresy/Ruiner (Versions) is the far superior album so its easier to take...but we actually agree on something. Too many remixes of Mr. Self Destruct on FDTS anyway
Multiple Starfuckers remixes aside, TFA is still the best remix album.
Which one was that?
It's still my least favorite remix album as there were too many "Starfuckers Inc." remixes as I was more into the remixes for "The Frail", "Where is Everybody?", "The Great Collapse", and "Metal". I love Fixed, Further Down the Spiral, and Y34RZ3R0R31X3D as I think of them as the definitive remix records.
First NIN record I've bought after getting The Fragile and AATCHB, 2003-ish. Waay before I've got to their older stuff. Loved it from first to last note.
Five, actually. Don't forget The Beauty of Being Numb's first section.
And there were three remixes of Eraser on FDTS, too. Four if you count TBOBN's second section.
I actually love FDTS, but the repeated point some people have that there are too many Starfuckers, Inc remixes is ludicrous.
Re: TFA: I'm still baffled about the choice of songs that made the cut. I mean, why include 60 versions of Starfuckers but leave off the versions of La Mer, TNF, TDTWWA, TF, NYD that have since surfaced or appeared as b-sides on some of the singles? With all this material there is a far superior version of this remix album somewhere in there...
I've read a million years ago that Halo 16 was gonna be a Starfuckes single/EP at some point, hence the multiple remixes.
re: other remixes - IMO those nin.com mixes (The Fragile and NYD in particular) are inferior to everything from TFA. Well, La Mer is a nice one but still far from being 'far superior'.
If anything, they should've add The New Flesh mixes (that were playing on the background on TFA website, ffs).
At least it could have been (heh) more cohesive. The songs on there range from '97 (if not late '96) to 2000. Sonically it's all over the place with Fragileesque songs meeting "colder" techno/electronic productions. There are outtakes, unreleased songs and remixes. Therefore it feels more like a weird compilation and not like a remix album, let alone an album that can stand on its own feet, imo. I'm not even sure Trent knew what he wanted it to be.
The Hillebrandt mixes of 'The Fragile' and 'No You Don't that came out on the NIN site in 99 should have been put on TFA as well. They were sick. I also still say 'Slipping Away' is one of the best NIN remixes ever....
Last edited by Helpmeiaminhell (is now in hell); 01-11-2018 at 01:31 PM.
I know it wouldn't have fit at all, but I would've been cool with the "Sex Dwarf" cover on FDTS.
FDTS had too many "Mr. Self Destruct" remixes and TFA had too many "Starfuckers, Inc." remixes, other than that and the pointlessness of both the quiet version of "Hurt" and the "alternate" version of "10 Miles High", I dig both those remix albums.
Also, is Olaf Whathisname's remix of "Me, I'm Not" the worst NIN remix, or is that just me?
I actually felt it was the most cohesive remix album of them all. The cold electronica is the perfect counterpart to the mostly warm organic elements that make up The Fragile. Just like that record, it's also broken, but instead of analogue imperfections, the audio glitches and stutters digitally.
Asides from the Dreijer Me,I'mNot remix that I'm also not into, YZR is really underrated.
TFA is great, but would have been amazing as:
- Slipping Away
- The Great Collapse
- The Wretched (Version)
- No, You Don't (Version)
- The Frail (Version)
- Even Deeper (Love Dub)
- Where is Everybody? (Version)
- 10 Miles High (Version)
- La Mer (Version)
- Metal
- The Fragile (Deconstructed)
In this digital age of music, it's not hard to simply make your own tracklist and just chuck it on your device. That said, I'd rather listen to the album as it was intended. Charlie Clouser's final Starfuckers, Inc remix is an awesomely destructive closer. If I were to change one thing about TFA, it would be to exchange the 'remix' of 10 Miles High (which really needed more work, as it was almost identical to the one on Halo 15) with Hillebrandt's version of The Fragile.
Disagree. Much of that album is mulch. The first three tracks, The Warning, (maybe Meet Your Master), and then the last three tracks are good. Saul's Survivalism is also good but that was already on the single, so it's redundant here.
That Capital G remix is appalling. Laswell's Vessel is basically the same as the album mix, and everything else is mediocre at best. Plus, it's really disappointing that there was no Reznor remix.
Me, I'm Not would have been okay if it were maybe four or five minutes long. It's an okay idea, just extended to such a degree that it's almost unlistenable to.
The worst thing about YZR is that there were so many talented artists on remix.nin.com producing amazing remixes and they were all almost completely ignored.