Things Falling Apart

Halo 16 - Things Falling Apart

Things Falling Apart (also known as Halo 16) by Nine Inch Nails, released on November 21, 2000, is described as a collection of "various manipulations of songs recorded from The Fragile sessions." An official website was set up for its release. A two-track promotional version of Into The Void was released in the US and was incorrectly labeled as Halo 16.

Track Listing

About the release

CD Release

1. "Slipping Away" - 6:11
2. "The Great Collapse" - 4:42
3. "The Wretched" (Version) - 5:52
4. "Starfuckers, Inc." (Version) - 5:11
5. "The Frail" (Version) - 2:47
6. "Starfuckers, Inc." (Version) - 6:06
7. "Where Is Everybody?" (Version) - 5:07
8. "Metal" - 7:05
9. "10 Miles High" (Version) - 5:11
10. "Starfuckers, Inc." (Version) - 5:09

Vinyl Release

     A1  "Slipping Away" – 6:11
     A2  "The Great Collapse" – 4:42
     B1  "The Wretched (version)" – 5:52
     B2  "Starfuckers, Inc. (version)" – 5:11
     C1  "The Frail (version)" – 2:47
     C2  "Starfuckers, Inc. (version)" – 6:06
     C3  "10 Miles High (version)" – 5:11
     D1  "Metal" – 7:05
     D2  "Where Is Everybody? (version)" – 5:07
     D3  "Starfuckers, Inc. (version)" – 5:09

Artwork

In a February 2020 Reddit AMA session[1], Rob Sheridan elaborated on the process of creating the artwork and how it informed his creativity going forward:

The first album art I was ever tasked with making was for NIN's Things Falling Apart. It was a companion album to The Fragile, which David Carson did the art for. Carson was a design hero of mine, so of course playing in his style was exhilarating but also very intimidating for a very young, very new designer. A lot of Carson's imagery was accidental snapshots of every day things that he'd capture with disposable cameras and polaroids, and the out-of-focus nature of them turned simple things into abstract art (the red texture on the cover of The Fragile is an out-of-focus snapshot of the inside of a shell, for example). To start capturing some of my own for TFA, I experimented with a macro lens for the first time, and later bought one to make imagery with. It sounds like basic art school shit now because you can get a macro lens for your phone for like $30, but it was very expensive niche equipment back then. Through that lens, and taking what I'd learned from Carson, I started to see art and texture in everything I looked at. Needing new imagery for a project and just looking around wherever I am and finding tiny details in it has never steered me wrong ever since.

Album Credits

CD Release

• All songs written by Trent Reznor except 4, 6, 8, 10
• 4, 6, 10 written by Trent Reznor and Charlie Clouser
• 8 written by Gary Numan
  

Manipulated by:

• 1, 2, 8 Trent Reznor and Alan Moulder
• 3, 9 Keith Hillebrandt
• 4 Adrian Sherwood for 140dB

additional production: Adrian Sherwood and Mark Stewart engineered by Alan Branch

• 5 Benelli

production: Joshua Eustis, Turk Dietrich violin: Steve Hakel cello: Marc Paradis

• 6 Dave Ogilvie
• 7 Danny Lohner featuring Telefon Tel Aviv

production: Danny Lohner, Joshua Eustis, Charles Cooper Joshua Eustis and Charles Cooper appear courtesy of Hefty Records (www.heftyrecords.com)

• 10 Charlie Clouser
  

• Management: John A. Malm, Jr. for Conservative
• Publicity: Susan Celia Swan for Nothing
• International: Simon Baeyertz for Nothing
• Design and photography: Rob Sheridan
• Special thanks: Jeff Anderson and Steve Bottomley

Promotional Trailer Credits

• Director: Bill Casanova
• Assistant DP: Alex Vlacos
• Producer: Chris Risner
• Editor: Rob Sheridan
• Format: 16mm
• Broadcast version: 30 seconds
• Full version (web only): 60 seconds

External Links

• thingsfallingapart.com (archived at Portrait of Decay)
• Things Falling Apart TV spot
• Things Falling Apart at nincatalog.com
• Things Falling Apart at Amazon
• Things Falling Apart at eBay

Discography

Previous release - "We're In This Together" Halo number: 16 Next release - "And All That Could Have Been and Still"