The lyrics
you let me violate you, you let me desecrate you
you let me penetrate you, you let me complicate you
help me I broke apart my insides, help me I've got no soul to sell
help me the only thing that works for me, help me get away from myself
I want to fuck you like an animal
I want to feel you from the inside
I want to fuck you like an animal
my whole existence is flawed
you get me closer to god
you can have my isolation, you can have the hate that it brings
you can have my absence of faith, you can have my everything
help me (you) tear down my reason, help me it's your sex I can smell
help me you make me perfect, help me become somebody else
I want to fuck you like an animal
I want to feel you from the inside
I want to fuck you like an animal
my whole existence is flawed
you get me closer to god
through every forest, above the trees
within my stomach, scraped off my knees
I drink the honey inside your hive
you are the reason I stay alive
(Pre 5-12-98)
Eric Weisbard of The Village Voice writes that the downward spiral is "a themed set of songs about a horribly alienated protagonist who tries sex, religion, drugs, and whatnot, takes his life, then sings a song and a half from the beyond" . There are two figures in this drama -- I and You -- although to what extent these figures are unified characters is hard to gather. Although I is the narrator and controls what is said, that figure must depend upon You (personified in the music) for the ability to gain access to speech. The tension that results is the musical and narrative structure, both aggressive and passive, projective and abjected. The narrator weaves his own personal search for redemption across denunciations of god, religion, politics, phallic power, sexuality, and violence, all of which seem coupled with an insistent desire to break
beyond the boundaries which restrict bodies, ideologies, and subjectivities. These themes, while evoked lyrically, are mirrored musically in the continual blurring of "natural" and "artificial" sounds, suggesting a technological setting that figures the body of the narrator at odds with the very industrial sounds which surround him.
The best example of this is the song "Closer." The music begins with 20 seconds of synthesized heartbeats; then the principle rhythmic theme (centered around the bass note of C) emerges simultaneous with the vocals, as if to surround them. Reznor sings, "you let me violate you / you let me desecrate you," which seems aggressive, yet
positions You as the agent in control of I's actions. Soon after, Reznor sings, "help me I broke apart my insides," which suggests both a desire to connect with the outside world and an overwhelming fear that I is losing its "self," is merging with everything else. The need to affirm subjectivity is crucial, most expressed in the brutal lines, "I want to fuck you like an animal / I want to feel you from the inside," which reverse I's status from passive to aggressive because it violently configures You as other. What is more, there is a decided musical shift at the word "animal." The primary rhythm is supplanted by a more
aggressive, grinding bass which, while maintaining the common theme, drops it down a fifth (to an F), in order to reflect the agentival shift from You to I that the line connotes. While the assertion to "fuck you like an animal" suggests an empowered "self," the following line, "I want to feel you from the in side," implies a certain tension in this shift, for it posits You as container of the very thing which will empower I and subsequently resolve the musical conflict. This tension is further delineated when the narrator says, "My whole existence is flawed," reinforcing the inability of that violent act to fully reveal the "inside" of You, followed by the line, "you get me closer to god," at which point the music returns to its initial theme, although now the music rises, in a transcendental-like move, in a move that corresponds musically to the verbal articulation of "god."
To specifically use sexuality as the agent for the acquisition of power in the chorus closely aligns the narrative with psychoanalytic theory, where the Oedipal desire to unify one's "self" is manifest in the drive to incorporate the other within one's own body, thereby "fixing" the "lack" the other's presence reveals. This is most clearly expressed in the line "you get me closer to god," where the word "god" acts as an objet a, an "encounter with the real" which stands in for an idealized and totalized "whole" that cannot be expressed in "the network of signifiers" that construct language (Lacan 52). Lacan, in fact, notes that, "The gods belong to the field of the real", suggesting that one could read I's god as a metaphor for an inexpressible field of immanence -- a place longed for yet never attained within representational boundaries. Rather than configuring a movement beyond the limitations of language, I is locked into a spiraling fluctuation between the words "animal" and "god," between the desire to express one's own subjectivity by aggressively asserting physical dominance over another and the desire to break beyond the limitations imposed upon the subject by the physical.
The desire to articulate pain, moreover, emerges musically in the tension between violently asserting oneself and the inability to move to a space beyond this assertion. When the word god institutes a move back to the initial bass note of C, the aggressive "animalistic" movement is thwarted by a return to an initial movement before the pain of the narrator is fully expressed.
This cycle of expression and repression repeats itself, albeit with slight variations, in the second verse and chorus; yet at the second god, as the music returns to the initial movement, the lyrics abruptly end. There follows an extended musical section where the themes of aggression and epression are enacted by driving the music into higher and higher registers, only to fall back within a continual circulation around the major theme. While the vocals do return at one point, along with a hint of the "animalistic" chorus, they are buried beneath a large mass of technological force, suggesting the overriding power which technology holds in this narrative, for it is only through the electronic music that the body itself can find its significance. Nevertheless, even the music cannot finally "break through" its own structure, and sputters to a conclusion.
-Michael Heumann of the english department at the University of California-Riverside
(Pre 5-12-98)
The interpretation of this song I believe reveals a story of a corruptee and a corrupter. "Corruption" in this sense meaning a harmful or addictive experience.
This experience may be some perverse form of sex, as implied by the song. (no offense is intended to people who may be uncannily sexually orientated).
The first few lines, "you let me violate you, you let me desecrate you, you let me penetrate you, you let me complicate you", we will orientate to having "person 1" as the source. This is the corruptee. At first, the corruptee (with the plain backdrop music) is pretty much clean. They are about to take their first step into a new experience, and they have underestimated its power or the control the other has or will have over them. Person 1 is excited and/or nervous, and may be saying (or inferring) this to seem knowledgable or experienced in such acts. Maybe they are naive enough to think they are the corrupter, "complicating" the actual corrupter, or simply believe that they are showing "person (or thing) 2" a new experience that is above their normal level of experience. However, it is more likely that this is a heightening of the previous arguement, hiding the fact that this is new and person 1 is nervous by now stating to an even greater extent that this is not new, or that they are not anxious.
Now, in "help me, i broke apart my insides, help me I've got no soul to sell", person 1 could be inferring that in their mind they are breaking down the anxiety and nervousness that is rising within them, and they find that they are successful or believe that they are successful. It is also possible that they realize how contrary this is to everything they believe or have thought, and in the guilt they realize that they have caused themselves to be devoid of any reason to deserve respect or honour towards itself again, of being soulless. Guilt stricken. Then in "only thing that works for me, help me get away from myself" person 1 says screw it all, and pushes forth.
Then the lines "I want to fuck you like an animal", person 2 takes control. Maybe glimpsing the partial realization that person 1 has arrived to, and seizing contol of the situation. The music's complicity rises, the corrupter is speaking. The one who is corrupted speaks with the complicity that is inherent in such a mind. The song continues on with "I want to feel you from the inside, fuck you like animal", then "my existence is flawed". This latter line could be a humorous realization from person 2s perspective, possibly remembering themselves way back when, when they where person 1. Or that they take humour in the fact that they are flawed, and the comparison to what they used to be, or this is an insight into the mentallity of those who fill the role of such corrupters. And during the height of the pleasure "you bring me closer to god" are attention fades from person 2, as it focuses on the act once more and person 1's pyschology is now coming to a fuller realization.
For the rest, person 1 loves it, throws old values to wind, etc. etc., use your imagination.
-mikos of seraded.
(Pre 5-12-98)
I think this is a straight forward song without any deeper sentence, it means only what it says. It's still a great song, but there's no sense trying to find a deeper meaning in "I want to fuck you like an animal".
-Dave Scott
(Pre 5-12-98)
Closer is the one song that allows every person to reach out and explore their sexual fantasies. It explains the kind of person that everyone would want to "fuck like an animal.""You let me violate you""You let me desecrate you""You let me penetrate you." Every person wants to take control of their lover and feel so high, that you are "Closer to God."
(Pre 5-12-98)
I agree with Shane. I think that this song is about wanting and/or having the kind of power that god is associated with only mentally and physically. And as far as lines such as "I want to fuck you like an animal", I agree they mean what they say, they speak for themselves. On the other hand I believe that it could be about wanting to be close (close meaning whatever you like it to) to someone so badly, that he literally brings it into his prayers as a request. Of course only Trent knows the specific meaning of the song, and it is different for everyone, I respect and agree with all opinions.
-Milk
(Pre 5-12-98)
I read the other interpretations and find them interesting with good points, but they don't quite fit my personal idea of what it's about. I feel the song is about a battle between humanity and sexuality. He feels he's less than human while with this person and fucking them, and he doesn't like that. But he still has this primal desire to do it.
It begins with a mechanical heartbeat, showing that Trent here is still a person, but somehow something less, something without thought, just a function. He then tells about sex in a way that makes it seem wrong (violate, desecrate, etc.), but makes it seem like wrongs that she wants (and he does, too). He then talks about being broken and having no soul, which means to me this sex has made him confused and empty. He is so confused and empty that he can't deal with the world or reality, and wants to escape ("get away from myself").
Then comes the ever famous (infamous?) chorus, which tells the listener that Trent is so depedant and messed up that all that makes him something anymore is sex. It still shows his reluctance when he calls himself an animal, going back to my "less than human" point. He later goes back to his hatred of the world ("you can have my isolation, you can have the hate that it brings") and overall lack of self.
My overall interpretation: he's trying to become a person again (not the pitiful sex-driven nothing), but he's not confident enough, so he's dependant on this person and the sex to strive to become something, anything, but in the end just making it worse.
(Pre 5-12-98)
I disagree that this song is totally about sex. Yes, it does have that choice chorus, but it has an underlying meaning. Sure, Trent does have some S/M ways, for example, the Happiness In Slavery video--enough said. But, to me, (I cannot stress enough that this is truly nothing but my own opinion, in no way am I trying to shove it down anyone's throat) this song is about power. The chorus implies the position is demeaning, and the person on top has the power, while the one on bottom is degraded and humiliated. I believe Trent is both, at one time or another, the top and bottom. Top, when Downward Spiral hit success, and Bottom when the record label manipulates him for more, draining him of feeling. Thanks for listening to my view...
(Pre 5-12-98)
To me, the song Closer is narrated by a man who thinks he is dirty, evil, scum, and the person he is singing to is an angel, a clean, lovely person, who, by fucking, he can bring down to his level, or move up to her level. Girls are turned on by this song because of the typical rape fantasy, and the fantasy of a man needing them.
-Celestelas
(Pre 5-12-98)
Closer is a song that focuses on taking you where ever you want to be at exactly that point in time. Yes, sex is a partial focus, but there is much more involoved with the lyerics. I think Mr. Heumann must have burst a blood vessel coming up with his interpretation. Crazy! This song is intense, but come on. Closer puts you in the driver seat and says, "here lead me, take me to my world where I am in charge. To put in shortly, closer is about power and taking what you want. Period.
Thanks for listening.
-Farther Down
(Pre 5-12-98)
I belive this is a song by Trent in which he is longing for control. When he finally achieves this he is the closest to heaven or god that he can get. I love the sexual aura this song emits, but it also emits waves of power and longing, its a fun, yet sad and frustrating song...wonderful as are all of his masterpieces are.
(Pre 5-12-98)
I do not agree with any of those who believe that the song is one of sexual fantasies. I think it is a song where he is a broken man and is ashamed or digusted of himself and feels that becoming this other person will make it better. He finds the other party to be some sort of savior or safe place to be hence the, "You get me closer to god". Also I believe that the person that wrote the song is either trying to unload his burden on the "you" of the song or trying to show how dirty he is by giving the "you" of the song everything he thinks is wrong, not necessarily with him, just all together. Ie: "You can have my isolation, you can have the hate that it brings, you can have my absence of faith, you can have my everything". He is, it seems, almost trying to hide inside of this person whom he thinks is so pure to get away from the bad in his life. It implies something of this nature when he coninuously metions, " I want to fuck you like an animal, I want to feel you from the inside". Almost begging. It is a vey sad song not even close to being sexually oriented.
(Pre 5-12-98)
Closer is a song that focuses on taking you where ever you want to be at exactly that point in time. Yes, sex is a partial focus, but there is much more involoved with the lyerics. I think Mr. Heumann must have burst a blood vessel coming up with his interpretation. Crazy! This song is intense, but come on. Closer puts you in the driver seat and says, "here lead me, take me to my world where I am in charge. To put in shortly, closer is about power and taking what you want. Period.
Thanks for listening.
-Farther Down
(Pre 5-12-98)
I was thinking about a part of the lyrics to closer when he states you get me closer to god when in the song heresy he says god is dead, is he trying to say you were trying or not trying to push him to suicide?
(Pre 5-12-98)
I completely agree with shane's interpretation.
The song is very straight-forward, and some people are trying to make
it more than it really is. They're trying to use Mr.Reznor as their
puppet, and use him to broadcast their own ideas.
(Pre 5-12-98)
He seems to feel empty and alone, and he want's to get away from this life. He does this by endulging in the sexual pleasures of the woman he speaks. By doing this, for a brief while, he can relieve himself from his trageties. Thereby becoming "closer to god". He says "you can have my isolation..." stating the emptieness he feels, and by using her in this way, he becomes "perfect, and somebody else."
(5-26-98)
You know, at first glance, this song is the easiest song to interpret on the downward spiral, but once one realizes that this album is one continual story, it makes Closer become the hardest song to successfully put into context. I somewhat agree with some of the other interpretations, but here's my crack at it. The narrator of the song has been in a relationship with this woman for some time before the album starts. There are three voices in this song, as in most of the album. All three of these voices are sides of the narrator. I see the human part which wishes for something more; the part of him which wants to corrupt this person, the part of him which yearns to become the machine, the something higher which has power. The second is an exasperated voice, one which just wants to stay himself with this woman; this part doesn't want to become the machine, this part of him just wants to give his nothing to his lover. The final voice is accompanied by loud, industrial riffs and a dark sound quality. This voice is the machine, or at least the small part of it which resides in him. The woman in the song is simply a means of comparison for the different parts of the narrator's mind which are struggling for supremecy. Anyone who has been in a relationship (including love) which had the potential to turn sexual knows exactly how this feels. Part of you wants to simply love this person, you don't want to taint them with yourself, you want this person to fill in the holes in your own life.
"help me, i broke apart my insides, help me, i've got no soul to sell
help me, the only thing that works for me, help me get away from myself"
The other dark part just wants to corrupt this person as much as he is. He doesn't care about love, compassion, or any other moral emotion, he just wants to "fuck 'her' like an animal." In this position of sexual control, he gets "closer to god." But not in a spiritual sense, his position of control becomes godlike. There are no second thoughts, he is the one, he is calling the shots, he is in control. And in the final, mechanical words of the song:
through every forest, above the trees
within my stomach, scraped off my knees
I drink the honey inside your hive
you are the reason I stay alive
he realizes that without someone to exert it on, power is worthless. He needs the lesser in order to be the greater. The rest of the album continues these thoughts, especially after the becoming. For the dark side to this song, listen to reptile. A lot of change has transpired in the period of time between these two.
Go to Closer Relations. Return to Ninterpretations.