Sunspots

this song to me is about his past addictions and how it will always affect his life and how it could turn out to be very easy going back...She to me refers to his drug. "she turns me on, she makes me real" - the drug makes him feel alive. "dont have to appologize for the way i feel" - he doesn't care when he's done the drug, it makes him feel like nothing really matters and since it feels so good why apologize? he sings about revamping himself but expresses how easy it could be to fall back. this is trent's first sober album and through some songs he expresses the turn of addiction

wow... this has to be the second sexiest NIN song (after closer). "fuck in the fire and we'll spread all the ashes around"

HOT. wow, I love this song.

I dunno, I may be wrong, but I think this song is about lust; how phoney and superficial it seems but how attached you become to it. About both enjoying and despising it at the same time.

"Sunspots cast a glare in my eyes Sometimes I forget I'm alive"

• He's seen her and she takes his attention away from everything else. She's the only thing he sees.

"I feel it coming and I've gotta get out of its way I hear it calling and I come cause I can't disobey"

• He's being subconsciously summoned to her. He wants to avoid it because, perhaps, it's hurt him in the past, but he's having trouble resisting.

"I should not listen and I shouldn't believe But I do... yes, I do"

• Basically the same basic theme of knowing he shouldn't respond to it, but he wants to at the same time.

"She turns me on She makes me real I have to apologize For the way I feel"

• Seeing her makes him feel good. He can't help but feel this way and he wishes he didn't.

"My life, it seems, has taken a turn Why in the name of God would I ever want to return?"

• How lust seems to fool people and make them feel good. He doesn't want to return to life without her.

"Peel off our skin, we're gonna burn what we were to the ground Fuck in the fire, and we'll spread all the ashes around"

• Fantasizing? =P I dunno, this one I'm unsure about.

"I want to kill away the rest of what's left And I do... yes, I do"

• Eliminate everything except her from his life.

"And nothing can stop me now (stop me now) There is nothing to fear (fear) And everything I'd ever want (ever want) Is inside of here (of here)"

• He's sure of his feelings for her. She's everything he wants.

"Now I just stare into the sun And I see everything I've done I think I could have been someone But I can't stop what has begun"

• He can't get out of it. He's lusting and he can't stop, no matter how badly he wants to.

"When everything is said and done And there is no place left to run I think I used to be someone Now I just stare into the sun"

• He's realizing that he was a better person before he fell in "lust," but he still can't escape. He just keeps focused on her (the sun.)

At least that's my interpretation of it. I could be wrong, but that's what I get from it.

Kickass song; the screeching background sound during the second verse is addicting.

i have to say this album continually amazes me, day in and day out. i think this is some of Trent Reznor's best work... here's my take on this song...

seeing how this album seems to be geared towards current situations, ie: War in Iraq, Patriot Act; i feel this album has a very Orwellian "1984" feel to it. almost calling on people to stand up and take back their own freedom/rights. (hand that feeds, right where it belongs).

moreso than it being about society, i personally think this song is more about God. the "she" he is refering to, i think is God, creator, mother earth, however you want to see it, i know the word God can have a stigma attached sometimes, so don't get me wrong... and i'm not refering to the Christian GOD.

self-reflection, the destruction of your ego - "Peel off our skin, we're gonna burn what we were to the ground".

it sounds like he's talking about the path that he's taken in life, going against traditional views, defining life for himself, finding all the answers to life in himself - "And nothing can stop me now (stop me now) There is nothing to fear (fear) And everything I'd ever want (ever want) Is inside of here (of here)".

I think i'm the only one that notices this, but I think this song is about Galileo. He stared at the sun, studying sunspots for his entire life, which eventually caused blindness. for the line "Now I just stare into the sun and i see everything I've done, I think i could have been someone, but i can't stop what has begun. "now i just stare into the sun" Is obviously staring into the sun, which Galileo did a lot of. "And i see everything I've done" Meaning It has a hypnotic look to it(it makes his life flash before him) "I think I could have been someone" Refers to after he went blind(He wishes that he did not go blind;he feels he wasted his life.) "He can not stop what has begun" Meaning he cannot stop looking into the dun once he's begun. I think that the sexual part to the song is about how looking at the sunspots bring out a primal instinct;or sexual in this case. "When everything is said and done and there is no place left to run" refers to Galileo about to die on his death bed. "I think I used to be someone but now i stare into the sun" meaning Galileo felt like he didn';t have a name for himself anymore, but just keeps staring.

All in all I think that this song has a literal meaning to it and that NIN is intellectual enough to make a song about Galileo.

sunspots = spotlights

he became a working drone just in the way my cubicle eyes are glazed over by the monior.

Possibly could be about trents old alcohol addiction that he had just got over - with teeth was the first album he did sober.

The best song on With Teeth imho.

actually, not only in this song, but everytime Trent uses the word "she" in a song, he's always refering to drugs, never to girls. we can see a lot of this in songs like "sanctified" (the first song in which he used this female reference to talk about drugs), "reptile" and etc.

I think this song is about death. the sun is his life that is now burning out and dying