"Sin" is the third

single Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

by American industrial band

Nine Inch Nails Nine Inch Nails, commonly abbreviated as NIN (stylized as NIИ), is an American industrial rock band formed in Cleveland, Ohio in 1988. Its members are the singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist and producer Trent Reznor and his frequent col ...

from the album ''

Pretty Hate Machine ''Pretty Hate Machine'' is the debut studio album by the American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails, released by TVT Records on October 20, 1989. Frontman Trent Reznor sang and performed most of the instruments, also producing the album along ...

''. 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 Nine Inch Nails, an American industrial rock band fronted by Trent Reznor, has toured all over the world since its creation in 1988. While Reznor—the only official member until the addition of Atticus Ross in 2016—controls its creative and m ...

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 music genre that first became prominent in the late 1970s and features the synthesizer as the dominant musical instrument. It was prefigured in the 1960s and early 1970s b ...

style featured on ''Pretty Hate Machine''.

Single

Stylized as "5in", it is the fourth official Nine Inch Nails release and final single for ''

'', 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 Clive Barker (born 5 October 1952) is an English writer, filmmaker, and visual artist. He came to prominence in the 1980s with a series of short stories collectively named the ''Books of Blood'', which established him as a leading horror author ...

, from ''

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

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

Tackhead Tackhead (styled TACK>>HEAD, sometimes known as Fats Comet) is an industrial hip-hop group that was most active during the 1980s and early 1990s, and briefly reformed in 2004 for a tour. Their music occupies the territory where funk, dub, ind ...

. The design of the single was created by

The Designers Republic The Designers Republic is a British graphic design studio based in Sheffield, England, founded in 1986 by Ian Anderson and Nick Phillips (graphic designer), Nick Phillips. They are best known for electronic music logos, album artwork, and an ...

, a British studio known for their unique electronic-oriented aesthetics. Other musical artists associated with the group included

Aphex Twin Richard David James (born 18 August 1971), known professionally as Aphex Twin, is a British musician, composer and DJ active in electronic music since 1988. His idiosyncratic work has drawn on many styles, including techno, ambient music, ambi ...

and

Pop Will Eat Itself Pop Will Eat Itself are an English alternative rock band formed in 1986 in Stourbridge in the West Midlands of England with members from Birmingham, Coventry and the Black Country. Initially known as a grebo act, they changed style to incorpo ...

, among others. As well as standard 7", 12", CD, etc formats, the three tracks on ''Sin'' were released as a novelty 9" record, described by Andrew Perry in '' Select'' as, "Think of Frankie's "

Relax Relax or RELAX may refer to: Albums * ''Relax'' (album), by Das Racist, 2011 * ''Relax'', by Blank & Jones, 2003 * ''Relax'', by Los Piratas, 2003 Songs * "Relax" (Deetah song), 1998 * "Relax" (Frankie Goes to Hollywood song), 1983 * "Relax ...

", add some angst and multiply by 27." "

Get Down, Make Love ''News of the World'' is the sixth studio album by the British rock 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 the band's second album to b ...

" is a cover of the

Queen Queen most commonly refers to: * Queen regnant, a female monarch of a kingdom * Queen consort, the wife of a reigning king * Queen (band), a British rock band Queen or QUEEN may also refer to: Monarchy * Queen dowager, the widow of a king * Q ...

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 ...

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

Dan O'Herlihy Daniel Peter O'Herlihy (1 May 1919 – 17 February 2005) was an Irish actor. His best-known roles included his Oscar-nominated portrayal of the title character in Luis Buñuel's ''Robinson Crusoe'' (1954), Brigadier General Warren A. Black in ...

from ''

The Cabinet of Caligari ''The Cabinet of Caligari'' (also known as ''The Cabinet of Doctor Caligari'') is a 1962 American horror film directed by Roger Kay, starring Glynis Johns, Dan O'Herlihy, and Richard Davalos, and released by 20th Century Fox. Although the f ...

'', as well as a brief snippet of "

We Will Rock You "We Will Rock You" is a song by the British rock band Queen from their 1977 album '' News of the World'', written by guitarist Brian May. ''Rolling Stone'' ranked it number 330 of " The 500 Greatest Songs of All Time" in 2004, and the RIAA it p ...

" in the final seconds. It was co-produced by

Al Jourgensen Alain David Jourgensen (born Alejandro Ramírez Casas; October 9, 1958) is a Cuban-American singer, musician and music producer. Closely related with the independent record label Wax Trax! Records, his musical career spans four decades. He is t ...

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 Record Store Day is a semi-annual event established in 2008 to "celebrate the culture of the independently owned record store". Held on one Saturday (typically the third) every April and every Black Friday in November, the day brings together f ...

– 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, ''Pr ...

''.

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 Caving, also known as spelunking (United States and Canada) and potholing (United Kingdom and Ireland), is the recreational pastime of exploring wild cave systems (as distinguished from show caves). In contrast, speleology is the scientific st ...

gear and a halogen lamp, walking a wrist-bound

Trent Reznor Michael Trent Reznor (born May 17, 1965) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and composer. He came to prominence as the founder, lead singer, multi-instrumentalist, and primary songwriter of the industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails. T ...

with a bag over his head through what looks like an industrial warehouse complex and eventually to strap him into an

Aerotrim An aerotrim (also known as Multi-Axis Trainer or MAT) is a 3-axis gimbal large enough to contain a human being, used for cardiovascular workout and equilibrioception (balance) training in pilots and astronauts. Aerotrims saw use in gyms during ...

where she spins him throughout the video. These scenes are intercut with two young

gay ''Gay'' is a term that primarily refers to a homosexual person or the trait of being homosexual. The term originally meant 'carefree', 'cheerful', or 'bright and showy'. While scant usage referring to male homosexuality dates to the late ...

lovers, a man and woman wearing ritualistic dressings and dancing, as well as visuals of a pierced

phallus A phallus (: phalli or phalluses) 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 symbo ...

and

clitoris In amniotes, the clitoris ( or ; : clitorises or clitorides) is a female sex organ. In humans, it is the vulva's most erogenous zone, erogenous area and generally the primary anatomical source of female Human sexuality, sexual pleasure. Th ...

, 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)