Nine Inch Nails/Tear Jerker

Whenever this industrial rock band decides to make a melancholy, heartfelt instrumental song instead of the usual nihilistic rage -- it can tug on ones heart strings.


 * Special mention goes to the Still version of "Something I Can Never Have". Trent is actually crying by the last verse, and it becomes rapidly more clear what he's talking about in the song: while the Pretty Hate Machine version was a wangst anthem about failed romance, the Still version is about him reminiscing about his prior life and lamenting his fall into drug addiction. The "something I can never have" in that version is a normal life, free of personal problems, like he used to have.
 * Yet; he DID get out of drugs and alcohol, and managed to have a normal life with a wife; so right about now, I'd say Trent's got a moment of awesome, for beating out his earlier beliefs.
 * Pretty much all of Still is cry-yourself-to-sleep music, really.
 * "Hurt", especially in the context of the album -- particularly because Trent's vocals are haunting. It only doesn't reach much Tear Jerker potential due to Last Note Nightmare... Johnny Cash's cover is even worse, causing Trent to say the song wasn't his anymore.
 * Probably the most heart-wrenching is the instrumental "Leaving Hope": Written when Trent Reznor was "at his lowest", it's a simple piece that builds up layer upon layer of soaring, beautiful, uplifting music, that dies away... only to give way to a mesmerising chorus of voices. Breathtaking.
 * "Zero Sum," which, if you follow the Year Zero timeline, is about the end of the world.
 * "In This Twilight" also near the end of that album, fits in that regard as well, doubly so since this was the final song the band performed at their final show in Los Angeles.
 * "La Mer". It was written by Trent at the low point of his depression, but it's not angry or angsty- it's just a quiet, resigned near-instrumental with a woman reciting a poem in French in the background.
 * "A Warm Place", especially at the end -- when it starts fading into "Eraser" and you realize the brief glimpse of hope is over.
 * "Persistence of Loss"
 * Others songs with lyrics that fall under this include "The Day The World Went Away", "The Great Below" (and its sequel, "And All That Could Have Been"), and "Right Where It Belongs".