Closer - NIN (what a great song, still...)

parel jam

Anyone else thinks this a damn good song after all these years...I am in the mood I want to sing this song real loud! Great tune!


Closer

You let me violate you, you let me desecrate you
You let me penetrate you, you let me complicate you
Help me I broke apart my insides, help me Ive got no
Soul to tell
Help me the only thing that works for me, help me get
Away from myself
I want to fuck you like an animal
I want to feel you from the inside
I want to fuck you like an animal
My whole existence is flawed
You get me closer to god
You can have my isolation, you can have the hate that
It brings
You can have my absence of faith, you can have my
Everything
Help me tear down my reason, help me its your sex i
Can smell
Help me you make me perfect, help me become somebody
Else
I want to fuck you like an animal
I want to feel you from the inside
I want to fuck you like an animal
My whole existence is flawed
You get me closer to god
Through every forest, above the trees
Within my stomach, scraped off my knees
I drink the honey inside your hive
You are the reason I stay alive

Binaural

A better word would be tragic.

AxlUlrich

was just listening to 'The Downward Spiral" and yeh..all these years and i still love it..my favorite part has always been how the song ends.
overall though...compared to the other tracks.."Closer" is one of me least favorite on the album.

parel jam

AxlUlrich wrote:

was just listening to 'The Downward Spiral" and yeh..all these years and i still love it..my favorite part has always been how the song ends.
overall though...compared to the other tracks.."Closer" is one of me least favorite on the album.

I really like the ending to...it sets me in trance...

lalalalaaaaaaaa

It's overplayed (like Alive), so I probably don't give it the credit it deserves sometimes, but it is a brilliant song. I love Reznor's lyrical style.

I think my favorite on that album is probably The Becoming though...keeps with the whole machine concept that worked so well for him. I love artists with a specific vision like that.

facepollution

Totally agree, to me, that song hasn't really aged at all, it could come out today and it would have sounded modern.

Pearl Jam and toast

facepollution wrote:

Totally agree, to me, that song hasn't really aged at all, it could come out today and it would have sounded modern.

Totally.

Also it might just be purely the most sexual song ever written. And I mean sexual with grace.

Binaural

Pearl Jam and toast wrote:

Totally.

Also it might just be purely the most sexual song ever written. And I mean sexual with grace.

I would dissagree. It seems to me that he is saying that he is so troubled the only way he feels slightly alive is through sex. Now that isn't nessaccerily a bad thing though the line "help me become somebody else" seems to suggest a darker dynamic to the whole song, and it is the way that he describes it, "fuck you like an animal", that's not graceful and it's not meant to be. Thats why I find this song to be tragic.
Also, I think both the song and NIN are incredible.

world

Pearl Jam and toast wrote:

Totally.

Also it might just be purely the most sexual song ever written. And I mean sexual with grace.

I disagree also. I really dont think Trent meant this song to have any "grace". To me it seems very violent and twisted. Also, I enjoy the song and the album.

Hitch-Hiker

I like the Super Mario remix.

lalalalaaaaaaaa

Pearl Jam and toast wrote:

Totally.

Also it might just be purely the most sexual song ever written. And I mean sexual with grace.

Others disagree, but it seems like whenever that song is played...girls get horny.

JaneNY

Binaural wrote:

I would dissagree. It seems to me that he is saying that he is so troubled the only way he feels slightly alive is through sex. Now that isn't nessaccerily a bad thing though the line "help me become somebody else" seems to suggest a darker dynamic to the whole song, and it is the way that he describes it, "fuck you like an animal", that's not graceful and it's not meant to be. Thats why I find this song to be tragic.
Also, I think both the song and NIN are incredible.

I agree with your interpretation. The song really has to be put into the context of the album. Closer is one more facet of the story of a guy who hates himself, is on a course that he can't change, despite sometimes wanting to, and sometimes trying to. Animalistic sex takes him slightly out of himself, makes him feel closer to the god that he already thinks is dead (Heresy). Closer is fascinating. It is sexual but its not. Its really a glimpse inside the guy's head. I don't think of the partner at all. The song could be all inside his head without any actual sex having taken place.

Don't you guys like how when they perform it live, they put in the instrumental from The Only Time?.

Pearl Jam and toast

I didn't mean the word "grace" like that, I meant it in that the song isn't just some horny shit rap song for example.

It's dark, twisted, really fucking creepy, but incredible and beautiful if you think about it in the right context.

PearlJamaholic

never really liked this song. my least favorite nin song from any album on my favorite nin album. i think a violet fluid instead of closer would have made the album so much better. really the chorus is pretty stupid something i could see motley crew or poison doing. the ending is cool though maybe it should have been a 1 minute instrumental or something. that keyboard/piano riff is good at the end.

catefrances

this is my fave NIN song and very high on my all time list.
i love that it's dirty. that it's dark and that it is violent.

sickwillie

Whenever I get sick of the album version of Closer, I listen to the Closer To God remix. In fact, reading this inspired me to give it a listen, and it sounded fucking (no pun intended) great.

That's the thing I really love about NIN... there are so many reinterpretations of the tracks available, you can make hundreds song combinations per album, and get a new listening experience every time.

ladygooddiva

this song is remembering me my old clubbing days;)

Penny453

this is a great song..but I wouldn't say it's the best one from the band..there are so many others to choose from.

pearljam0000

I enjoy Closer. However I like so many other NIN songs more than I like Closer. For example, Wish, We're in this together now, Everyday is exactly the same, Head like a hole.