submissions

Nine Inch Nails – Beside You in Time Lyrics

20 years ago

This, for me, was maybe the song I identified most with. after having my heart broken this last time. I came to believe that I'd never meet the one person I was meant to share my life with. I would periodically allow myself to feel hope--"little pieces bleeding through", and lose little bits of my sanity and soul every time. I suppose I'd resigned myself to being "all alone this time around". Maybe I need to be alone to learn the lesson I'm here to learn in this life. That being said, I've found a measure of peace. I have simply realized that love(as Hallmark defines it) is completely random, like train wrecks and lotteries-- completely out of our ability to control or influence. Instead of trying to fill the hole in your life, be the one who fills the holes of others, with kindness. It's the only way out.

submissions

Nine Inch Nails – With Teeth Lyrics

20 years ago

The most direct of the "addiction" songs on this album, "With Teeth" was horrifying to listen to the first time-- especially since I was starting a nice little cocaine addiction right about when I first heard this on Muchmusic. This was definitely a wake-up call. I normally am a very shy man, not confident at all-- blow did a fine job of making me feel brilliant, confident, sexy, and horny all at once. It lasts for about three hours at a dose, or until you run out. Then it takes every fucked up thing you've ever felt about yourself, magnifies it by a factor of five thousand, and tries to drown you in it for about three days. For three hours or a binge at a time, I finally found the place where I belonged. It blurred the lines for me-- for years I'd been such a nice, polite, law-respecting fellow. I really felt I'd become something less than human because of cocaine. It just made my ever-present depression, need, and self-loathing even worse. If you learn anything from this, get away from it. Stay away from it. Blow will kill your body, but it'll kill your soul first. I know this because I just lived through it. Kindness to others is the only way out.

submissions

Nine Inch Nails – The Hand That Feeds Lyrics

20 years ago

In the one truly out-of-place song on the album, Mr. Reznor takes his obligatory jab at the Bush Administration and its' foreign policy. Essentially, it says "No blood for oil. Bush lied, people died. Revolt, and throw the fuckers out. I'm talking to YOU, folks in the Armed Forces." *sigh* Mr. Reznor's got to sell an album, folks. There's got to be at least one catchy, relevant, radio-frendly tune to be The Single. That being said, this could be as easily directed at Wahhabi Islamofascists, who won't "bite the hand that feeds" them the bullshit that it's okay to live in the Dark Ages, hating the rest of the world because it got on with life while the Arab World turned on itself, remaining, in the words of T.E. Lawrence, "a little people, a silly people, barbarous and cruel". All it would take the Arab World to become a part of the world is to stand up and take responsibility for their lives and their future. /rant

submissions

Nine Inch Nails – The Collector Lyrics

20 years ago

This poor bastard is the fellow everyone talks to when they're beat or down. He's a great listener, and he really cares. There's just one little problem-- this guy's feeling even lower than all his drama-ridden friends, and nobody even notices. Even if they tried to help, he wouldn't listen; after all, he's chosen to make a Hell of Heaven in his own mind. Talk about the loony confessing the insane! His friends' dramas are perpetual, and he's just the sort to worry about it all. It beats the hell out of paying attention to his own hurts, doing what he can to fix them. I know this because I just lived through this. Kindness to others is the only way out.

submissions

Nine Inch Nails – You Know What You Are? Lyrics

20 years ago

This, I think, is part of the realization that the answers you desperately hoped you could find in someone else can only be found within. This is the probably the hurtiest part-- right after the heartbreak, after you're told it'll never work, that you'll only ever be friends. You put on a brave, brave face, trying with all your heart to believe in it, but it's just a facade waiting to crumble. Honesty with yourself brings it down all the faster, and it *must* happen, or you lose your mind. I know this because I just lived through it. Kindness to others is the only way out.

submissions

Nine Inch Nails – All the Love in the World Lyrics

20 years ago

It's about a deeply depressed individual who is in love with someone who doesn't love him back. "All the jagged edges disappear" when she's around; the "colors are all brighter". When she breaks his heart, inevitably, he wonders in despair and fustration why she, or anyone, might "get all the love in the world"-- except for him. I know this because I just lived through this. Kindness to others is the only way out.

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