Ripe

Album:The Fragile (Right)

Length:5:14

Tempo:{{{BPM}}} BPM

Versions:Ripe
Ripe (With Decay) (6:34)

Live:N/A

"Ripe" is the final track, an atmospheric instrumental, on The Fragile vinyl. "Ripe (With Decay)" is the final track on The Fragile CD and cassette, with an extra part at the end.

The song "Ripe" is a very moody, dark finale to The Fragile. The cassette and CD versions of the song featured an added part at the end, which further set the tone of the song. Most of the instruments in the song are either out of tune, or the actual music is incomplete, such as the piano in the background track of the song. Trent Reznor himself spoke on this, saying that The Fragile was supposed to be a continuation of The Downward Spiral, with the protagonist going from happy to depressed on the first side (Left), then finding new hope on (Right) only to lose it again.

He also stated that due to the nature of the album, he wanted it to sound flawed, imperfect so to say. For this reason, most of the songs on the album are performed by guitars, except for the obvious such as "Into The Void," and "The Frail," because stringed instruments are naturally imperfect, i.e., they come out of tune, they don't always make the same sound, etc..., and Reznor wanted to incorporate the imperfection of these instruments to represent the imperfections of life.

The song itself goes from a very beautiful, methodical melody, gradually descending into chaos with several instruments playing wildly and out of harmony with each other, before all the sounds stop at once. Then as an added bonus, the cassette and CD versions contain an extra part after this, consisting of dark, moody bass and synth, with Reznor humming in the background. The guitar picks back up and the music becomes chaotic again for a moment, just to stop as abruptly as it started, almost saying that he gave it one last try and failed again.

Ripe

Contents

Song Credits

Appearances

Halos

Versions

Ripe

Ripe (With Decay)

Live