"Sin" is the third single by American artist

Nine Inch Nails Nine Inch Nails, commonly abbreviated as NIN and stylized as NIИ, is an American industrial rock band formed in Cleveland in 1988. Singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer Trent Reznor was the only permanent member of the band ...

from the album '' Pretty Hate Machine''. Released in October 1990, the song peaked at number 35 in the UK Singles Chart. "Sin" has been commonly a staple of Nine Inch Nails live performances for many years; setlist.fm lists it as the band's ninth most played live song. Its versions on the single differentiate heavily from the album cut, with more an EBM sound with distorted vocals and alternate instrumentation that became the foundation for its many live renditions, as opposed to the

synth-pop Synth-pop (short for synthesizer pop; also called techno-pop; ) is a subgenre of new wave music that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s ...

style featured on ''Pretty Hate Machine''.

Single

Stylized as 5in, it is the fourth official Nine Inch Nails release and final single for '' Pretty Hate Machine'', containing three variations of the track and Nine Inch Nails' first cover song. The spine of the US version refers to the single as "Sin ''Long, Dub & Short''". The lyric "Stale incense, old sweat, and lies..." directly quotes the short story "In the Hills, the Cities" by Clive Barker, from ''

Books of Blood ''Books of Blood'' is a series of six horror fiction anthologies collecting original stories written by British author, playwright, and filmmaker Clive Barker in 1984 and 1985. Known primarily for writing stage plays beforehand, Barker gained a ...

''. All three versions were produced by Keith LeBlanc and Adrian Sherwood of Tackhead. "

Get Down, Make Love ''News of the World'' is the sixth studio album by the British Rock music, rock band Queen (band), Queen, released on 28 October 1977 by EMI Records in the United Kingdom and by Elektra Records in the United States. ''News of the World'' was t ...

" is a cover of the Queen song originally released on ''

News of the World The ''News of the World'' was a weekly national Tabloid journalism#Red tops, red top Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid newspaper published every Sunday in the United Kingdom from 1843 to 2011. It was at one time the world's highest-selling En ...

''. This version of "Get Down, Make Love" samples

Dan O'Herlihy Daniel Peter O'Herlihy (May 1, 1919 – February 17, 2005) was an Irish actor of film, television, and radio. With a distinguished appearance and rich, resonant speaking voice, O'Herlihy's best known-roles included his Oscar-nominated portraya ...

from '' The Cabinet of Caligari'', as well as a brief snippet of " We Will Rock You" in the final seconds. It was co-produced by Al Jourgensen of Ministry under the alias of Hypo Luxa and was later released again as a bonus track on the 2010 remaster of ''Pretty Hate Machine''. The single was included in the Record Store Day– Black Friday exclusive box set, ''

Halo I–IV ''Halo I–IV'' is a box set by American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails, released exclusively for the Black Friday Record Store Day on 27 November 2015. The box set contains the 1989 original version of the band's debut studio album, '' ...

''.

Music video

A music video, directed by Brett Turnbull and produced by Sarah Bayliss was released, using the "(short)" remix of the song. It features two girls dancing with each other at the beginning, cutting to a black-and-white footage of a woman, naked except for what looks like straps to spelunking gear and a halogen lamp, walking a wrist-bound Trent Reznor with a bag over his head through what looks like an industrial warehouse complex and eventually to strap him into an Aerotrim where she spins him throughout the video. These scenes are intercut with two young gay lovers, a man and woman wearing ritualistic dressings and dancing, as well as visuals of a pierced

phallus A phallus is a penis (especially when erect), an object that resembles a penis, or a mimetic image of an erect penis. In art history a figure with an erect penis is described as ithyphallic. Any object that symbolically—or, more precisel ...

and

clitoris The clitoris ( or ) is a female sex organ present in mammals, ostriches and a limited number of other animals. In humans, the visible portion – the glans – is at the front junction of the labia minora (inner lips), above the ope ...

, all reflecting the song's dark, sexual aspects. Though the video never aired, an edited version appears on '' Closure''. The original video later became available through TVT's website.

Track listing

US version

UK version

References

{{Authority control 1990 singles 1989 songs Nine Inch Nails songs TVT Records singles Songs written by Trent Reznor Song recordings produced by Keith LeBlanc Song recordings produced by Adrian Sherwood Island Records singles Get Down, Make Love (Nine Inch Nails song)