Song and EP (halo nine) by Nine Inch Nails released in 1994 on Nothing/Interscope Records. The EP is primarily made up of remixes of Nine Inch Nails' (in)famous hit "Closer" off The Downward Spiral (released earlier the same year). The song "Closer to God" is, unlike the other versions of "Closer" on this release, not a remix of the original song but another song entirely that's based on the original, as evidenced by the new sounds and vocals present in "Closer to God" that couldn't have been remixed pieces from "Closer," regardless of how much sound warping was done.
"Closer to God" conveys the meaning NIИ's Trent Reznor seems to have been trying to get across with "Closer" (which, outside the context of The Downward Spiral, probably seemed like an almost disco-esque song about doing it doggy style with a chorus including the lines "I want to fuck you like an animal" and "I want to feel you from the inside," particularly to anyone that didn't pay much attention to the non-choral lyrics): Maddening obsession. The line "I want to be you" which, among appearing in other places in the song, is repeated over and over, fading out at the end of the song, really hammers home the obsessive nature of the song. Several of the remixes that appear on this release were used in a 1996 film called The Fan about the obsessive fan of a star baseball player.
The "Closer" remixes on this release compliment this theme well as they all have a distinctly dark flavour to them. A cover of Soft Cell's "Memorabilia" (which goes along somewhat with the sexual obsession theme of the EP), a remix of "Heresy," and an instrumental piece created by Adrian Sherwood (who produced some Nine Inch Nails material on Pretty Hate Machine) called "March of the Fuckheads" (which is not, contrary to what the name might imply, a remix of "March of the Pigs") are also included on this release. Personally, I think "March of the Fuckheads" is boring, far too repetitive, and a waste of a fun song title... but that's just me.
As with the March of the Pigs EP and the We're In This Together singles, the UK version of Closer to God is split onto two discs sold separately. One of the discs is titled Further Away (the name of one of the "Closer" remixes) and the other Closer to God. I don't know (and have been unable to find out) why this was done. For a few years the American version of Closer to God was out of print (similar to Fixed). A few years after its release, however, Nothing Records began distributing copies to record stores again.
Track lists:
Closer to God (US and Australian version, total running time: 52 minutes, 38 seconds)
- Closer to God (5:05)
Written by Trent Reznor, Sean Beavan, and Brian Pollack.
- Closer (precursor) (7:15)
Remixed by Coil and Danny Hyde.
- Closer (deviation) (6:15)
Remixed by Jack Dangers (of Meat Beat Manifesto fame) and Craig Silvey.
- Heresy (blind) (5:32)
Remixed by Dave Ogilvie (of Skinny Puppy fame), Anthony Valcic, and Joe Bisara.
- Memorabilia (7:21)
Written by David Ball and Marc Almond. Cover by Trent Reznor, Robin Finck, Sean Beavan, Chris Vrenna (now of Tweaker fame), Brian Pollack, John Van Eaton, Sugar and his friend.
- Closer (internal) (4:15)
Remixed by Bill Kennedy, Scott Humphrey, John "Geetus" Aguto, Paul Decarli, and Eric Claudiex.
- March of the Fuckheads (4:43)
Written by Adrian Sherwood.
- Closer (further away) (5:45)
Remixed by Bill Kennedy, Scott Humphrey, John "Geetus" Aguto, Paul Decarli, and Eric Claudiex.
- Closer (6:26)
Written by Trent Reznor. Produced by Flood. Mixed by Alan Moulder.
Further Away (disc one of UK version, total running time: 29 minutes, 56 seconds)
- Closer (6:26)
- Closer (deviation) (6:15)
- Closer (further away) (5:45)
- Closer (precursor) (7:15)
- Closer (internal) (4:15)
Closer to God (disc two of UK version, total running time: 22 minutes, 41 seconds)
- Closer to God (5:05)
- Heresy (blind) (5:32)
- Memorabilia (7:21)
- March of the Fuckheads (4:43)