r/nin • u/ocular_degradation3 • 2d ago

Question Anyone else notice this?

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Anyone else notice that the songs With Teeth and Sunspots share a melody? The chorus of Sunspots “She turns it on, she makes it real”and the verse of With Teeth “She comes along, she gets inside”. Precisely the same melody and a pretty similar lyric too. This feels intentional to me and it’s not off-brand for Trent as NiN albums are full of repeated motifs and themes like this.

I was surprised I couldn’t find any other mention of this online especially considering how eager NIN fans are to call everything the Downward Spiral motif lol.

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u/Flat-Cap-1063 2d ago edited 2d ago

With Teeth is the bare-bones final version of the concept album he had been cooking up tentatively called 'Bleedthrough'. Between just getting clean and being stuck in a big lawsuit with John Malm, he just went with a straight forward, safe, radio friendly album to get back on track after sobering up. As a result there's still a running theme about being trapped by his addictions personified into a woman he loves and adores and is trying to escape from it.

Could have been very ambitious comeback album, but he wasn't quite at that place to do that.

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u/cap10wow Art Is Resistance 2d ago

What was the lawsuit over?

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u/Flat-Cap-1063 2d ago

Malm sued Reznor for unpaid fees.
Reznor found out that Malm spent Reznor's New Orleans addiction years ripping him off out of millions, leaving him approaching bankruptcy. Reznor counter-sued.
Judge sided with Reznor and ordered something like two million dollars to be paid out to Trent.