9 Great Closing Tracks On Albums
3. Hurt - Nine Inch Nails [Nine Inch Nails]
Nine Inch Nail's The Downward Spiral is probably the ultimate downer album. It's a concept album of sorts, with the main character slowly nullifying his life until it ends with his remorseful death. Let me be clear, none of these songs should make your summer jam playlist, but it's a stunning album regardless.
The album's end is a great case of wounded beauty, as "Hurt" plots along with its atonal piano chords as Trent Reznor sings about hurting himself just to feel the pain. As the song continues, Reznor is heard almost crying as he sees what he has let himself become and promising that he would do it all over again if he could.
This scarred sadness made the song such a standout that Johnny Cash ended up covering it towards the end of his life. Now everyone knows Cash's version as the backdrop to Logan. But the one that started it all will always be Nine Inch Nails. It takes an extraordinary artist to take these incredibly disturbed scenarios and make them seem utterly beautiful. Lucky for us, Trent Reznor is no ordinary artist.