10 Rock Albums That Peak With The Final Song
5. The Downward Spiral - Nine Inch Nails
How the hell did a concept album about a man being driven to madness by his deteriorating mental health become a top ten in the US?
Because Trent Reznor is a genius and the 90s were a very sad place, that's why.
A sophomore album should help establish an artist in the musical landscape and that's exactly what happened when Nine Inch Nails put out The Downward Spiral in 1994. The outfit went from cult favourites to mainstream icons almost overnight and this song was a huge part of the reason why.
Hurt is a pretty unbelievable song. Made intentionally atonal by Reznor, the singer's breathy vocals sit uncomfortably on top of the chilling background sounds. You can see why this guy went into film scoring - he absolutely nails the atmosphere of this song.
It might be a bit cliched at this point and you might say that it's only held in such high regard because of the Johnny Cash version, but Hurt is a truly phenomenal piece of songwriting.
The rest of the album is good, there's no doubt there, but how could anything else come close to this masterpiece?