Nine Inch Nails
Top 5 Playlist
Recently, I had the excuse to share my favorite band, Nine Inch Nails, with someone. Ole had asked to hear more about what I liked, and this was the time to share. She asked to hear more about Nine Inch Nails.
If we have met in recent years, it will be news to you that Nine Inch Nails is my favorite band. If you’ve known me before, say, 2017, you are laughing at how obvious it is.
I have seen this band live 10 different times, once in Italy. I have flown up to Sacramento, CA to see them one night with a group of friends, fly back, sleep for 2 hours, and then drive off with a different group of friends to see them in Las Vegas, NV. When Trent said, “our last show of this tour is tomorrow,” I said, “I’ll be there.”
Is it fanboy material? Clearly. But I don’t listen to them or the same music I used to. This is normal, I suppose, but I don’t need NIN like how I used to. I’ve healed from the thing their and others’ music helped me comprehend. At least, I’ve healed enough.
In celebration of sharing important things, and Ole’s generous question, here are the top five songs I’d still recommend from Nine Inch Nails:
My take on each:
- First song that got me hooked. This was the high school me saying, “finally, someone gets it.”
- Absolute favorite NIN song — it’s broody and sexy
- This song is a solid example of why I like the lyricism of NIN. The refrain: “are you sure this is what you want?” is harrowing at the wrongest of times (you don’t have to listen to the whole song. The song repeats the last lines unto decay as its own metaphor)
- This song is dope and was an awesome moment in the first tour I saw. It’s a great song but the live experience was just so cool while they built out the beat of the song (Yes, I was at that show.)
- Just Like You Imagined was possibly the first healthy-hype song I found. It just sounds like you’re conquering something awesome, and so I would often listen to this just before leaving on hiking trips as a kid, in part to say farewell to technology and also to help me leave because that was wildly anxiety driving
Should “Closer” be here? Yes. Look. It has to be here. This song is famous for its own gnarly, lyrical reasons, but musically, it just cranks. It’s also really limiting of what NIN can do, so I’m not recommending it, but I’m also not saying don’t listen to it (Warning: I once saw a comedian contrast it with “I Want to Hold Your Hand” from The Beatles as an example of how we’ve lost our way).
More soon,
Trevor