Yes, agreed! It's not about sex at all. It's not about fucking in the sexual sense. The way I've always interpreted it is as inner monolog about one's internal demons/issues. It is sexy because vices are seductive which makes them difficult to get away from.

The downward spiral is kind of like a narrative of a person unraveling thru all of the stages of depression. Closer is kind of at the midpoint of the story, where the frustration and anger towards life finally succumbs to hopelessness and emptiness. I think closer is the pivotal point in the narrative where “desperation” is introduced, like you said. Tired of feeling worthless and empty, desperate to feel good about anything. We as humans, tend to fill our void in life with affection and relationships, not necessarily in a sexual manner. But Of course at the end of TDS , it’s obvious whatever short-lived relationship exists ends up crashing and burning, making the protagonist feel worse than ever. Thus, feeling like there is no other option but to end it all... I always felt like the song “A Warm Place,” to me, was like that brief euphoria a person gets right at the moment they decide to kill themselves, knowing their worries are finally over and their grief is finally over. It’s kinda like a joyful moment, which is why the song is morose but uplifting at the same time . Just a few other quick song analysis’s: I Do Not Want This: making one final attempt to reach out for help but but finding that people either just don’t care or don’t understand. Big man with a Gun: I think is just simply the obvious fact of formulating a plan to end it and choosing a gun as the weapon. Reptile : to me, reminds me of a time in my life when a S.O betrayed me, and even tho I knew she was sleeping around and losing interest in our relationship, I desperately clung to her in a very toxic unhealthy, self-destructive way because I felt like I couldn’t live without her. The last two songs I think are obvious, just the moment of no turning back. The screams in the song TDS are literally how I feel inside when the mental anguish takes over and Suicide seems like the only way out. Hurt is kinda like the final goodbye to life and loved ones.. Anyways, those are just my interpretations. It’s different for everyone. Sorry for dumping this on your comment and if anyone actually reads all this bs, thank you. And tell me what you think.

@JordanMy take is that it's about self destruction and/or self sabotage, whatever form that might take. One's personal demons, whatever firm that takes, enacting on themselves from the inside. That's why it's great songwriting because it's personal to the songwriter as well as able to be relatable to the listener as well. I've just always been annoyed by listeners who take the lyrics literally.

​@Skyler White I enjoyed your profound insight! Your comments are spot-on and were very helpful to me. Thank you.

I completly agree , since i first heard the song. I engaged in the Lyrics. But it never seemed to be the kind of sexy other people who knew it seemed to view it as. This song is desperate. Desperate for feeling free. A deep sadness and discomfort lays in it. The singer seems to want to achieve a state of relieve with those longingly, violent, thirsty and 'sexy' acts, their describing and ask for.

Interesting as it depends on how you arrived at nin, I came through bands like Depeche mode who did play with sexuality a lot. It's almost a reaction to admitting you're gay to before coming out to the world. The late 80s was a very different time, excesses and recession.

Yes! I understood this when I first heard it at 17.

Exactly... the chorus is not a declaration of what he “wants” to do; it’s a lamentation about what he’d rather not do.

That fucked up depth is what actually makes it so hot! Lol

@@jordanf.4876 I don’t know about that. I think it’s an admission of what he wants to do to her, but his reasoning is what’s important. His reasoning for wanting to do these things is because he hates himself, and having disgusting (in the best way I imagine) dirty raunchy sex is a perfect escape for him to lose himself and forget about his self loathing. But I still read it as the things he wants to do. He’s doing it for entirely selfish reasons, so maybe in a roundabout it way it’s things he’d rather not do as in if he truly loved himself maybe he wouldn’t do these things, but seeing as he does hate himself it still comes across as an admission of his sexual desires.

fourty. eight. "fucking". minutes.

Ive seen you on that NIN fan page! I guess that’s all I gotta say haha

Yeah I see new ixi, I see the song, I see the length, I say YES inside!!!

LOL at the fact I just gave this comment the 69th like.😉🤣 (Btw this is Melissa of Nin My Nothing, I just have Fragile tulips on my profile here.🌷🌷🌷)

Clearly the song is more complex and worthy of analysis than you're giving it credit for. Perhaps you should watch and learn.

Totally. But a slightly elevated hear rate. There's some stress chemicals flowing.

It's been a gift to me too 🖤

yeahhhh

♥️

What was the trigger?

@@iximusic Explain to me how someone can come up with something so complex and everchanging. Just the amount of different sound layers is incredible. It's like playing techno mix with 3 decks set in early '00s.

That's actually a very underrated quality of Sean Beavan and Alan Moulder.

@@VuotoPneumaNN 100%. The Fragile alone must have taken ages to mix.

Your dog is adorable!!!

Especially with how the layers are just, every frequency. It seems like the synths are so dirty with so many harmonics its impossible to mix it without losing something. But here we are! They did it.

The arrangement and mixing of this song working in concert are absolutely masterful. I’ve been writing and producing music professionally a long time now and it’s even more impressive to me now than it was all those years ago. Anytime I want a section to get dense but not cluttered I think about Closer. Every sound occupying a perfectly carved out space for it, like it was just waiting to be filled and you just hadn’t noticed it yet

🙏

Yes absolutely agree!! The quality is out of this world!

beautiful analysis!

That's a powerful visual, thanks a lot.

@@soaribb32 it's me from the future and thank you kind person.

Thank you!! ♥️

I always wondered if Trent may have listened to a John Farnham album from 1986. Probably not a fan of Australian pop, but inspiration comes from all sorts of places. My parents played this album, Whispering Jack a lot when I was a child, and inevitably, I always end up singing the lyrics of Love to Shine over the ending of Closer. kzfaq.info/get/bejne/d5algsqZzdHLf6s.html

@@peterthompson4084 Wow! Thanks for sharing :)

Now that's a youtube crossover that I wasn't ready for but actually makes a lot of sense :D

When she plays F Dorian section on the piano it sounds like a TOOL section. 🖤

I was about to comment on how cool that bit sounded

never would expect to see you here, Guy... welcome, though!

Hello Guy. Yeah, that synth from Perfect Drug is really creative like that too.

I agree,I have always heard it as a song about not having a good time inside your own head

Things are almost back to normal... The Cold, the Black, and the Infinite tour 2021... I better seeee you ALLLLL there! You are definitely not the ONLY one!

@@DrScott666 And new NIN material on its way. I'll be here for the listening party 🎉🎉🎉

I always thought Closer was about trying to fill the inky black void of self-loathing by grasping on to increasingly empty, fleeting and depraved attachments to lust. If you’ve been close to that mental space, you know exactly what Trent is talking about

@@sdwscience yeah...and those attachments only deepening and driving on that self loathing...its the same thing really just different words to describe it

Couldn’t agree more.

Yup. Ive only now really started becoming more aware of music breakdown in my 30s.

Agreed. Man I’d love to know if Trent has seen this video of hers and what he thought of her analysis.

Same here.

I've always thought the same. And the snare is like a valve(atrium/ventricle) releasing steam or blood.

@@MrFatshit6 yes, like a mechanical heart

It's the protagonist verses Mr. Self Destruct.

Right like he sings neutral 3rds and kind of slides around in between them and it's just hard for me to believe he's just being careless. He's not a careless musician. That is very interesting to hear from your perspective as a trained vocalist. I've really gotten so much more comfortable with microtonality because of him and have even started to enjoy singing that neutral 3rd. Now I just have to understand how it makes me FEEL! If I could ask Trent one question and get an answer, it would be about the 3rds. Anyway I'm glad I'm not alone ;)

@@iximusic I never appreciated microtonality in college but he just makes it so appealing. If you haven’t listened already, 12 Ghosts and 36 Ghosts focus heavily on quarter tones and it’s the creepiest and yet, somehow most comforting/familiar feeling. I think you’d love them! Maybe one day you’ll get to ask him about those thirds haha. A superficial observation of mine is just that he knows how important the third is to determining most keys and so, of course why not play with it and make the listener understand the discomfort and uncertainty he’s trying to portray. We live with uncertainty and discomfort so why not create a song that exemplifies that. And then when he really wants to make his point, he adds those thirds in. Just like you pointed out with the outro. It’s heard loud and clear and we finally feel home. But not for long ;)

@@victoriasteele5966 I've not spent much time with Ghosts - thanks for the recommendation! And I love your interpretation...that's what I want to believe :)

I think he succeeded. What a masterpiece!

Is that the goosebumps reaction?

@@iximusic Precisely, though I appear to have goofed up the spelling. The word should be "frisson" since it's derived from French. Today I learned haha

From Acadiana here .....appreciate the word usage lol.

Yeah that is a pretty great performance! I think I learned how to play the piano part based on that performance

That entire set is amazing, worth finding on youtube

Love that one too!

I like Peter's work on Reptile.

It's coming! After TDS :)

Second the motion! Would love to see "The Perfect Drug" breakdown.

Agree 👍😘🇸🇪

Your wish has been fulfilled

I may be atypical, but my first thought when this series started was "I can't wait til she gets to A Warm Place".

@@charlesrense5199 a warm place is literally one of my favorite NIN songs. Idk why. Ever since I was a kid riding around listening to TDS in the car, I always loved a warm place. My all time favorite song when I was around this age (maybe 3 or 4) was the mark has been made. Still one of my favorite songs of all time. Probably because it didn’t have lyrics, so even at that age I was able to understand it on an intuitive level. I was too young for the lyrics to resonate (that came later) but the music just sucked me in. Trent is a fucking dope ass dude and a true original, with a keen and unique ear for composition in the landscape of (vaguely) modern music.

Wanted to like this comment until I saw it was already at 69 likes 🤷‍♂️

@@gfoor93 Buncha pervs! 🤣

Correct lol

Sex always only brings temporary relief.

I saw Closer as him believing he's like God when he makes others suffer. Since he only sees God as a ruiner, infector, and destroyer.

Yeah, I almost hate hearing this on the radio now, because I know they'll be cutting down the build, which grates on me no end after listening to the whole thing so many time.

Thank you, fellow musiciaNIN :) I find myself going to my college textbook a lot more than I used to now that I'm making these videos haha

the bridge/guitar solo in ruiner remains as probably my favourite Music Moment of all time

The Closer > Ruiner > The Becoming run remains one of the greatest 3 song runs of any album.

I agree. Good compression on sounds with short decay times.

That's a very VERY good description.

@@VuotoPneumaNN Cheers

Skillshare pls!

Yeah! Without talking to him this is all conjecture, but I imagine Trent is doing what feels right to him, but being deliberately descriptive and creating a narrative. I think he is quite discerning and there are no accidents. Something that was a "mistake" or an experiment is either intentionally kept or discarded. He's got such a great ear. He intimately knows when something is standard and when it's unusual. When something is familiar and when it's novel. And he plays with that. How much Western tonal music theory he knows, I'm unsure, but I think he's a master at translating feelings and physical states into music through TENSION and RELEASE, harmonically, and in so many other ways.

@@iximusic summed up perfectly 😀

post-nut clarity

Ah that means the world to me. I'm so glad to hear it. And maybe...I'll get to hear it (your music) someday? 🎶

I know what you mean, I've started playing around with trentones because of these analyses, it's marvelous.

Ah thank you for watching, really happy you enjoyed it so much!

It's very rewarding to be able to show another person why music moves you in a way that it clicks for them. One of the best things about being human in my opinion! Would you like to take some music theory lessons with me or do some feedback sessions with your music? lessons@iximusic.com

Thank you, I'm really happy you are getting so much out of these breakdowns. ♥️

Its like finality falling down

🙏

To piggyback off of another of your comments: stop making me cry! 🖤

Thank you Anthony, really glad this meant so much to you!

🙏 As someone who drinks on average 1 kombucha every day, I hope you come to Austin.