Fragile (Dead or Alive album)

Fragile
Studio album by Dead or Alive
Released September 27, 2000
Recorded 1996–2000
Genre Dance, Hi-NRG, nu-disco
Label Avex Trax (Japan)
Producer Dead or Alive
Dead or Alive chronology

Nukleopatra
(1995)		 Fragile
(2000)		 Unbreakable
(2001)
Singles from Fragile
  1. "Hit and Run Lover"
    Released: 2000

Fragile is the seventh and final album released by British band Dead or Alive in 2000. Like their album Fan the Flame (Part 1), this album has only seen a release in Japan from Japanese big independent record company Avex Trax, where the band is very popular. Containing a total of thirteen tracks, the album contains some new material as well as re-recordings and remixes of past hits. Also included is a remake of U2's "Even Better Than the Real Thing", which had previously appeared on a U2 tribute album.

In 2001 Dead or Alive released Unbreakable, a remix album containing still more versions of songs from Fragile.

Their first and only single from the album, "Hit and Run Lover", was an instant hit in Japan. It is considered to be Dead or Alive's last major hit in Japan, as it reached number 2 on the Japanese Oricon Chart.

Album title

"Because during the first few weeks of that, that's what I felt. Because suddenly...I'd be getting ready to go to the studio, and I'd be asleep on the sofa, like a narcoleptic. I would get to the studio, and we'd be programming stuff. And then I'd be asleep and be woken up at 11 o'clock at night to go home. And I thought 'Is this stress induced, or is this genuine fatigue?' And it was fatigue. And gradually through doing certain things, the energy levels built and built and built. Not to the hysteria point. To very rational energy levels. The work started at certain times and it stopped at certain times.

And that was definitely why the album was titled 'Fragile'. Also, because due to legal reasons, having to re-record from scratch six of our old hits, which is a perfectly feasible marketing ploy for a new record label...Having to re-record those six tracks, not as the Greatest Hits, as new songs. Because I own the goddam[n] song. The record company think they do, but that's morally wrong. They don't own the song.

So we had to re-record them from scratch. And that was a fragile process. Because there's only so many times I can bear to try to add something to "Something in My House" or "Lover Come Back" or "Spin Me Round". I can't really add any more.

And one of the greatest challenges we had was one of the requested covers was, self covers, was "Brand New Lover". And I listened to "Brand New Lover" twelve inch three times, and I said to Steve, "There's absolutely no way we can better this. Just leave it alone. It can't go on the album, it can't be bettered." Because I consider that to be one of our finest works, you know."
— Pete Burns

Track listing

  1. "Hit and Run Lover" – 4:42
  2. "Turn Around & Count 2 Ten" – 5:17 *
  3. "Something in My House" – 4:01 *
  4. "Even Better Than the Real Thing 2000" – 3:07
  5. "I Paralyze" – 5:55
  6. "Isn't It a Pity?" – 4:45
  7. "You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)" – 6:02 *
  8. "Just What I Always Wanted" – 5:16
  9. "My Heart Goes Bang" – 5:05 *
  10. "Lover Come Back to Me" – 5:36 *
  11. "I Promised Myself" – 4:32
  12. "Blue Christmas 2000" – 3:39 *
  13. "Hit and Run Lover" (Bonus Hit Remix) – 4:41

( * ) 2000 remix version (not original)

Chart performance

Chart (2000) Peak
position
Oricon Japanese Albums Chart 45

Personnel