1984 (Rick Wakeman album) After leaving Yes in early 1980, Wakeman resumed his solo career and reformed his band, the English Rock Ensemble, and completed a European tour. For his next project, Wakeman secured a recording deal with Charisma Records which granted him an advance and without a deadline to complete an album. Wakeman estimated the album took around two-and-a-half years to produce from conception to completion. It stemmed from his longtime wish of working with other musicians, blend electronic keyboards with an orchestra and choir, and to write an album based on the future rather than historical concepts. He chose to make a
The Fragile (Nine Inch Nails album) and writes that "The Fragile" uses funk bass lines, North African minor-key modalities, and the treatment of tonality by Symbolist composers like Debussy. The album also features several distorted guitar parts which Powers suggests that fans can enjoy. Rob Sheffield observes a "prog-rock vibe" akin to Pink Floyd's 1979 album "The Wall" and feels that "The Fragile" is similarly "a double album that vents ... alienation and misery into paranoid studio hallucinations, each track crammed with overdubs until there's no breathing room". Described by Reznor as a sequel to "The Downward Spiral"—an album with a plot detailing the destruction of