Aaron A
April 22, 2015

I feel the same way since The Slip.

In discipline, "I need your discipline. I need your help. I need your discipline. You know once I start I just cant help myself"

Something like that anyways.

Seven Succurro
August 23, 2016

Jehovah = יהוה

Daniel
February 25, 2017

It's helpful to remember that Reznor was raised in an evangelical, fundamentalist Christian household which explains why so much of his material is engaged with religion and spirituality although mostly in a nihilistic context. In any case, fundamentalism did pretty much to create a very similar worldview in me so I relate to pretty much all of his stuff.

Shona
May 28, 2017

I think the reason people in our times so often run from Christianity rather than towards it is because we seem to think that believing in God means we should never feel any sadness or pain. Truthfully, even Jesus cried out, "My God, My God, Why Have You Forsaken Me?" But within the Christian world we tend to exclude those feelings and so people run in droves to secular sources to find identification. If Solomon could write Ecclesiastes then NIN can write "Hurt".

Bridget
July 26, 2017

My first thoughts on reading the lyrics to this song are : hope . Simply stated. I agree with the comments above that so many people run from the " church " , rather than towards it because of bad experiences they have had; either growing up in church or feeling judged by people in a church body or a Christian.

Unfortunately, and tragically, it is so common.
I do hope NIN and more people will come to see that each day and each person is different and also we are in this world together. I'm a " Christian ", but, I deal with dark sides of my mind and if I'm not careful- I can go down to unhealthy, choices, even the music

Kris Fowler
September 30, 2017

I deeply appreciate this article. Finally the forgone nihilistic feeling of Nine Inch Nails has been tempered by the mature mind of creative genius, Trent Reznor. I've found that "Closer", especially as performed in the 1994 Woodstock recording has something profoundly deeper to say that goes beyond the very human shock lyrics about mating. Because I feel the repeated phrase, "You get me closer to God" is sung with deliberate intention and honesty. Interestingly, "Closer" resonates with U2's "Moment of Surrender" though approached from vastly different perspectives.