The Fragile's cover consists of what looks like a wall of soap. Not the everyday bar you buy just to scrub your carriage, but the fru-fru kind, the clear, reddish-brown soap your mom tells you not to use while you're in the shower. This wall of lard and lye extends about three-fourths of the way up the cover, where it suddenly turns into a thin patch of black-and-white 3-D art. Between these two sections is half of NIN's logo, and this is where the cover becomes special.
Abstract cover art is nothing new; neither are covers missing their band's name. But The Fragile takes both of these ideas a step further by only showing half of the band's name. It says that NIN's fans are so rabid, so obsessed that they don't need a full logo. That Nine Inch Nails are so good, their fans can decipher anything. It's an incredibly arrogant statement for a record cover, but that's what makes it great. Trent Reznor may project himself as a wounded puppy angry at the world, but his ego is definitely larger than a double record, which is exactly the poseur stance that makes any rock god a god. Nine Inch Nails' merits as a band may be debatable, but Trent's merits as a marketer... well, there's no argument.