“The Perfect Drug” – Nine Inch Nails
(Words/music: Nine Inch Nails, available on Lost Highway: Original Soundtrack, Interscope 1997)

I don’t have an extensive knowledge of Trent Reznor’s catalog, but I find the moments where he obsesses about the details in his songs.  If the angry, aggressive Nine Inch Nails songs were the first to catch my attention, Reznor’s depth kept me from writing him off.  Specifically, he doesn’t earn enough credit for the attention he pays to the quiet and slow moments he crafts.  For a while, Reznor’s name rarely was more than a sentence away from the word “industrial,” and even if he breathed more life into that genre than almost anyone else, it sells short the range of emotions he evokes in his music.

Even though it’s more rooted in electronics than other NIN songs, “The Perfect Drug” works because it relies on extremes.  When I close my eyes and visualize the song (and don’t see images from that Mark Romanek video – remember when videos had gaudy budgets? No wonder CDs cost $18.99), I imagine some kind of mutant organism constantly changing states.  Shortly after introducing those weirdly plucked strings in the opening, Reznor starts tinkering with the different sounds.  Whether it’s rolling out a programmed drum beat, adding faintly sung high harmonies in the back of the mix, or rotating through a series of keyboard and guitar sounds, Reznor lets the verses shift subtly every few measures.  The big changes – the ones that turn the most heads – rely upon the drum beat.  The changes in the beat, whether shifting to half time, quickly changing volume, or dropping out entirely, feel like immediate, hairpin turns.  Like a quick turn on the road, these shifts disorient the listener.  Finally, the track seems to fizzle out, only to return for a slow coda.  Up until this point, the shifts between the verse and chorus (and the frenetic drum break in the fourth minute) felt distinct in part due to their dynamic variance.  However, it’s this slow, piano and live-drum driven outro, where Reznor shows his full range.  Just like a rollercoaster saves the steepest drop for the ending (and looking at the spectral analysis, it kind of looks like one), Reznor takes the song all the way off the cliff at the end, giving a minute to reflect back on the chaotic ride he navigates us through.

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