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An Ode to Concrete23

Original Post - 19 Nov 2023 - Michael H. Scott

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You may know Trent Reznor as that Nine Inch Nails (NIN) guy who in 1994 released the controversial single “Closer” from the album The Downward Spiral. Alternative rock stations still play the radio edit of the song, where the verb in the chorus line is dubbed out.

You may also know that Reznor had already achieved critical success prior to The Downward Spiral and that he’s still going strong. Reznor has released several NIN albums, created and contributed to various musical side projects, and scored a few movie soundtracks. Along with Atticus Ross, Reznor won an Oscar for Best Original Score in 2010 for The Social Network, then again in 2020 for Soul.

Underneath it all, many of Reznor’s NIN songs deal with intense human emotions. The song “Copy of a”, from 2013’s Hesitation Marks, describes the existential dilemma of not only humans, but also Concrete23. Below is the opening stanza.

I am just a copy of a copy of a copy

Everything I say has come before

Assembled into something, into something, into something

I don’t know for certain anymore

Sounds about right.