First of all, from a producer's standpoint, the inclusion and placement of this song is brilliant. Before the album came out, most people had heard "The Hand That Feeds," "Only," and "Every Day is Exactly the Same." They expected the album to contain mostly rock-influenced drum beats, fun breakdowns, driving synths, and so on... So by including this as the first song, it's a huge attention-grabber that is amazingly effective. Now. Onto the song meaning.
Obviously, as with pretty much all NIN songs, everyone's interpretation of the song is based on their own circumstances, in my opinion... (That said, this is a great album to feel sorry for yourself to, but that's beside the point.) So for me, it looks like this:
There's a girl. And he's got this weird obsession-attraction thing with her, but she hardly notices him. He's shut himself down to everything else but her... and she gives her love to someone else. A rival.
So he sinks down into this pit, where finally he can only think of her... and of the blasted rival, who doesn't even really deserve her love.
He addresses the rival: "Why do you get all the love in the world?" Rather, why does the rival get all the love in the world [that matters]?
Watching all the insects ... where they belong - The insects (everyone else in the world, that doesn't matter) know exactly what they're doing; they have no idea.
All the jagged edges disappear - Classic denial. When he can't get her to notice him, he tries to pretend he's okay with it. But we all know he's not.
And that great pickup at 3 minutes and some? That's the part where he realizes his anger about the whole thing, and realizes that it's okay to feel that. So by the end of the song, he's screaming, demanding. Not asking, like before.
Okay then.
First of all, from a producer's standpoint, the inclusion and placement of this song is brilliant. Before the album came out, most people had heard "The Hand That Feeds," "Only," and "Every Day is Exactly the Same." They expected the album to contain mostly rock-influenced drum beats, fun breakdowns, driving synths, and so on... So by including this as the first song, it's a huge attention-grabber that is amazingly effective. Now. Onto the song meaning.
Obviously, as with pretty much all NIN songs, everyone's interpretation of the song is based on their own circumstances, in my opinion... (That said, this is a great album to feel sorry for yourself to, but that's beside the point.) So for me, it looks like this:
There's a girl. And he's got this weird obsession-attraction thing with her, but she hardly notices him. He's shut himself down to everything else but her... and she gives her love to someone else. A rival.
So he sinks down into this pit, where finally he can only think of her... and of the blasted rival, who doesn't even really deserve her love.
He addresses the rival: "Why do you get all the love in the world?" Rather, why does the rival get all the love in the world [that matters]?
Watching all the insects ... where they belong - The insects (everyone else in the world, that doesn't matter) know exactly what they're doing; they have no idea.
All the jagged edges disappear - Classic denial. When he can't get her to notice him, he tries to pretend he's okay with it. But we all know he's not.
And that great pickup at 3 minutes and some? That's the part where he realizes his anger about the whole thing, and realizes that it's okay to feel that. So by the end of the song, he's screaming, demanding. Not asking, like before.
Ugh. That's just what I get out of it.
Great song.