"Something I Can Never Have" | |
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Song by Nine Inch Nails | |
from the album Pretty Hate Machine | |
Released | October 20, 1989 |
Genre | |
Length | 5:55 |
Label | TVT |
Songwriter(s) | Trent Reznor |
Producer(s) |
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"Something I Can Never Have" is the fifth track by industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails from the 1989 debut album, Pretty Hate Machine . According to Loren Coleman, the song deals with suicidal themes. [3]
A "deconstructed" version of the song was also included in the live album And All That Could Have Been . The accompanying live music video, with Jerome Dillon was also released. [4] A version of the song with an alternate ending was used in the 1994 film Natural Born Killers . [5] [6]
Trent Reznor co-produced the track in London with John Fryer, although Reznor "kind of backed away" from it. He felt that Fryer's production gave the track a "dreamy quality", as the piano is heavily filtered and features a large amount of reverb. The track also features elements of unused backing tracks by This Mortal Coil, a music collective that Fryer was part of; while these were initially included by accident, both Reznor and Fryer felt they fit well in the track. [7]
Following the song's main topic, Reznor struggled with depression during the five years following the release of The Downward Spiral in 1994; [8] his health worsened when he began abusing alcohol, cocaine, and other drugs, just to complete rehab in 2001. [8] He also had suicidal tendencies due to this issues. [9] In a 2005 interview he stated that he's still "pretty happy". [9]
Tom Breihan from Pitchfork Media gave a positive review to the song, stating that the song portrays "an absolute mastery" with "its haunted, minimal piano figure and a few hushed synth tones slowly, letting in sputtering static, faraway door-slam drums, and quiet little counter-melodies." [2] When the song was re-released in 2006, Rob Mitchum referred to it as a "'Goodbye Blue Sky' rip-off". [10] In 2020, Kerrang and Billboard ranked the song number seven and number five, respectively, on their lists of the greatest Nine Inch Nails songs. [11] [12]
In July 2014, Tori Amos covered the song on her Unrepentant Geraldines Tour. [13] A version of the song was used in the fifth episode of the HBO series Westworld in 2016. [14] The song would also go on to be covered by Clan of Xymox on their cover album “Kindered Spirits”.