“Mr. Self Destruct” by Nine Inch Nails

"Mr. Self Destruct" is the first thing you hear on The Downward Spiral, and it sets the terms for everything after it: ugly, furious, and busy sketching in the backstory of the album's protagonist. Trent Reznor wrote it alone and recorded it at Le Pig in 1993, co-producing with Flood, and the credits are nearly all his, from lead vocal to guitar, bass and keyboards. Adrian Belew adds guitar, and Alan Moulder mixed it.

The title tips its hat to Soft Cell, whose 1984 album This Last Night in Sodom opens with a song of the same name. Critics warmed to it, Reznor borrowed its name for a tour, and it kept mutating: five remixes landed on Further Down the Spiral in 1995, and in 1996 he let David Fincher use a remix in a Levi's TV commercial.

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