Not a hit during its release, “Closer” was promoted as if it was one and still continues to grow in popularity.
I know what you’re thinking. Half of you are saying, “How can this ubiquitous crowning achievement of one of the best bands of the ’90s not end up higher than #21?” The other half are irritated that it made the list at all. It was made specifically to be The Downward Spiral’s runaway hit, and it sounds like it. The “shock rock” explicitness and use of the word “fuck”—it’s not that it’s overly profane, it’s that it seems more designed to make you feel uncomfortable than to actually say anything meaningful.
The Downward Spiral sessions were similarly intense, but in a way that often felt obvious, unnecessary, and a little cheesy. Trent rented and renovated the mansion at 10050 Cielo Drive—the site of the 1969 Charles Manson murders of Sharon Tate and others. If you’ve ever listened to “Mr. Self Destruct” and thought, “This sounds like it was recorded in some guy’s closet,” that’s because it probably was. Turning a murder site into a recording studio (named “LE PIG”) seems more like a gimmick for press releases than an actual good idea.
The sessions were long, nightmarish, and obsessive. Trent used layers of analog synths, distorted samples, and field recordings to create a meticulously crafted wall of sound. He welcomed experimental suggestions from producers Flood, Alan Moulder, Chris Vrenna, and others—but only if they aligned with his singular vision. Work on the record was described as “psychologically punishing.”
The first part of “Closer” that Trent recorded was the beat, based on a drum sample from Iggy Pop’s 1977 track “Nightclubbing.” It sounds nothing like that track. He kept the tempo but replaced the drum sounds. The snare is white noise gated through a filter, triggered by a snare hit. The bass drum likely came from an analog drum machine—probably a Roland 808 or 909—boosted with distortion and a hefty amount of low EQ. The result feels organic, as though the drums were performed live. The snare was probably recorded to trigger the white noise, and the kick hits were nudged slightly out of time to make them feel more alive. The effect sounds like a heartbeat captured by a sonogram—if that heartbeat belonged to a xenomorph.
The synth layers are intricate and dense. In interviews, Trent said he wished Skinny Puppy and Ministry would write actual songs—with structure, hooks, and defined choruses. He took the soundscapes of those industrial acts and fused them with the songwriting instincts of mid-era Depeche Mode. The song slowly builds toward its centerpiece hook at timestamp 4:48, when a syncopated rhythm circles around a single note. That section sounds a lot like the instrumentation on Depeche Mode’s “Stripped” from 1986. Strangely, Closer utilizes the idea more effectively than most—injecting a bravura-sized dose of ego that feels more Billy Idol than New Order.
Trent Reznor claimed he never saw “Closer” as the album’s breakout hit. He said, “It was supposed to be a throwaway track, but it ended up being the most accessible thing I’d ever done. I never thought people would latch onto it the way they did. It made me uncomfortable.”
If he didn’t think the song had commercial appeal, why spend so much time and money on the music video? It remains the most famous work by director Mark Romanek, one of the most prolific music video directors of the medium’s dominant era. He’s directed countless videos, from Taylor Swift’s “Shake It Off” to Jay-Z’s “99 Problems” to Beyoncé’s Lemonade to Eels’ “Novocaine for the Soul.” I remember Rolling Stone’s critics’ poll calling Beck’s “Devils Haircut” the best video of 1996—that was him, too. The “Closer” video is flashy and gimmicky, blending vintage silent film techniques with the disturbing visual language of Stanley Kubrick and David Cronenberg. Nothing truly graphic is shown, but Romanek often blurs or distorts the image just enough to let your imagination do the rest.
The video is famously provocative—but it’s calculated. Like turning the house where Sharon Tate was murdered into a studio, the goal was to disturb just enough to make the promotion irresistible without crossing the line into outright censorship. I’m looking at you, The Prodigy.
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