submissions
| Nine Inch Nails – Ripe (With Decay) Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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This song could have been called The-End-But-Not-The-End... I agree with what others have said, it's a perfect, creepy closing to The Fragile. An epilogue where Trent lets us know it isn't finished.. there's more to be said. The very title of the song Ripe (With Decay) evokes death but also a new beginning. |
submissions
| Nine Inch Nails – The Big Come Down Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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This song hits hard. Highly discordant, relentless percussion, tortured vocals. This Big Come Down, finally getting what you want, which is the End. It could mean coming down off a drug, but it also carries the connotation of death as metaphor. If the narrator was "high" on life, drugs, identification with the material as a way of escaping true nature, this song is about coming down to harsh reality. The instrumental portion near the end reminds me of being in a hospital, of something being horribly wrong physically but being unable to escape it. |
submissions
| Nine Inch Nails – I'm Looking Forward to Joining You, Finally Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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Being in the cave, safe from people, events, places. The narrator tells the story of a male character, which may or may not be himself. Having been hurt, full of regret, the man goes from hitting bottom to an even deeper bottom "thought he lost everything then he lost a whole lot more", losing the remnants of innocence in the process. |
submissions
| Nine Inch Nails – Please Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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White, the color of purity, Red, the color of passion. This song definitely has some ****ing going on. Never being able to get enough of whatever it is, lust, drugs, any kind of addiction. It's no accident that "Starfuckers Inc." comes next in the album. Just like a weed "grows somewhere else instead" addiction can come at you in unexpected ways. Erasing the fear, disappearing, and the realization that the world was "all in my head" are all psychological progressions relating to the narrator's own ending, having been unable to fill the hole with relationships or drugs or money, "flesh and sin." |
submissions
| Nine Inch Nails – Where Is Everybody? Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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The slide guitar in this is just awesome. It totally opened up my impression of what NIN is and could be. I think this song deals with the wealth of human experiences going on all the time, and the narrator is asking what it all means and where is it headed while recognizing he is not a part of it "all the pieces don't fit but I really didn't give a sh**, I never wanted to be like you". The feeling of everything speeding up / not being able to keep up is one I can identify with when life gets unmanageable. |
submissions
| Nine Inch Nails – Into the Void Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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I picture public tran listening to this, of course it's a metaphor, like in C.S. Lewis' The Great Divide people in hell are all waiting at a station (they aren't allowed to stay) for a glimpse of heaven. It could also mean carrying on with life, the narrator tries to pull himself up by his own bootstraps, but keeps "slipping away." |
submissions
| Nine Inch Nails – The Great Below Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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This song deals with some very heavy topics and yet still manages to remain somehow comforting. It's a perfect close to the "first act" of the Fragile with the narrator/protagonist dramatically falling from grace. It carries deep existential overtones whether or not it refers to an actual suicide is unimportant. It's a moment of Jungian self-awareness, realization and acceptance. So much of Trent's work carries religious overtones, this beautiful, poetic song is no exception. I think "The Great Below" is a reference to the ocean, the great unknowing, the subconscious. |
submissions
| Nine Inch Nails – La Mer Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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The sea, openness, being without memory. This song is about embracing and accepting death, and knowing there is something greater out there. |
submissions
| Nine Inch Nails – No, You Don't Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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So much emotion in this track... mostly anger directed at the surficiality of most people and the vampiric nature of society. "You can keep on sucking till the blood won't flow" Even though a common mentality is that accumulating material wealth and goods sets one apart from the rest, in the end it doesn't mean anything. It's what's on the inside that counts. |
submissions
| Nine Inch Nails – Even Deeper Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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This song represents another psychic break to me, waking up in a "different place" and looking back on the path he has taken so far the narrator wonders how much of his original self is redeemable. If there is someone else in his life he sees that they could be together in a perfect world, and yet even this perfection makes him want to throw it away. "as clear as day this plan has long been underway hear them call I cannot stay the voice inviting me away" sounds like suicide but it could also mean crossing over to a new reality, all hope in the current reality having faded. I get chills listening to this. |
submissions
| Nine Inch Nails – The Fragile Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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Holy shit is all I can say. The first time I heard this I was blown away. It's a song about putting someone else's life ahead of your very own survival... a girl/significant other who behaves telepathically, reading the minds of others that merely pass by until the narrator finds her, knowing what she is going through but being beyond repair himself... thinking even though it's too late for him maybe he can save her. |
submissions
| Nine Inch Nails – We're in This Together Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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Coming out of a dark place to find love, companionship, hope. The narrator has finally found someone who shares his struggles, and at the same time is pulling them in to his own world. Feeling outnumbered, challenged from all angles, he turns to this new relationship as a way out, as the one meaningful thing in his life. |
submissions
| Nine Inch Nails – The Wretched Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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Feelings of disillusionment and disappointment coupled with enlightenment. "Now you know this is what it feels like" life experiences, drugs, are not always what they appear to be and it is only after going through them that you understand. The song is trance-like, with a driving rhythm evoking the hopelessness of the situation. |
submissions
| Nine Inch Nails – The Day the World Went Away Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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To me this song represents a psychic break. The "plastic face forced to portray all the insides left cold and grey" could be referring to the narrator's own self. Feeling that the social, outside world is false, the only real place remaining is on the inside feeding on fear and pain. In the end the false outward self collapses when the world goes away, leaving him in true isolation. |
submissions
| Nine Inch Nails – Somewhat Damaged Lyrics
| 15 years ago
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There are multiple levels to this song. On the one hand the narrator exhorts himself "make the choice to go away" as a rejection of his former beliefs, having "flew too high and burnt the wings" losing faith, realizing he is part of a system that is corrupt and has been damaged as a result. His life is unsalvageable, undredeemable, and decides that he doesn't care. Immediately after this a different voice/persona seems to chime in, wanting to hang on in isolation to something / anything meaningful that might save him, but still feeling betrayed. This sets up a conflict which is played out in the rest of the album. |
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