"Only" is a song by American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails. It was released as the second

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 ...

from Nine Inch Nails' fourth album, ''

With Teeth ''With Teeth'' (stylized as '' ITH_TEETH') is the fourth studio album by American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails, released by Nothing Records and Interscope Records on May 3, 2005. The album was produced by Nine Inch Nails frontman Tren ...

''. "Only" reached number one on the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertise ...

'' Modern Rock chart, where it stayed for seven weeks. It is the second successful release that Nine Inch Nails has had in the UK, peaking at number 20. The song is regarded as a fan favorite and has been 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 adding Atticus Ross in 2016—controls its creative and musical ...

for several years, placed by setlist.fm as their 20th most played song live.

Background

Singer Trent Reznor said the song is about the music business clashing with his artistic desires.

Recording and release

"Only" was the last song completed for ''With Teeth''. Like the previous single, "

The Hand That Feeds "The Hand That Feeds" is a song by American industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails, released as the lead single from their fourth studio album, ''With Teeth'' (2005). The single is the highest-charting Nine Inch Nails song on all charts except for ...

", "Only" was only widely released in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

. European releases include a CD, a

DVD The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kind ...

, and a 9" vinyl. The only

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

release is a vinyl format—a remix record with mixes from

Richard X Richard Philips, better known by his stage name Richard X, is a British songwriter and music producer. Gaining attention as a pioneer of the bootleg craze, Richard X has earned success as a producer and remixer. He has helmed hit singles for arti ...

and

El-P Jaime Meline (born March 2, 1975), better known by the stage name El-P (shortened from his previous stage name El Producto), is an American rapper, songwriter, and record producer. Starting his career as a member of Company Flow, he has been a ...

. Like "The Hand That Feeds", "Only" was released as a GarageBand multitrack file, as well as for DigiDesign

Pro Tools Pro Tools is a digital audio workstation (DAW) developed and released by Avid Technology (formerly Digidesign) for Microsoft Windows and macOS. It is used for music creation and production, sound for picture (sound design, audio post-productio ...

Ableton Live Ableton Live is a digital audio workstation for macOS and Windows developed by the German company Ableton. In contrast to many other software sequencers, Ableton Live is designed to be an instrument for live performances as well as a tool ...

, and Sony

ACID Pro Acid Pro (often stylized ACID) is a professional digital audio workstation (DAW) software program currently developed by Magix Software. It was originally called Acid pH1 and published by Sonic Foundry, later by Sony Creative Software as Acid P ...

. A fan remix community page was set up on MySpace.

Music

"Only" has been labeled as

dance-rock Dance-rock is a dance-infused genre of rock music. It is a post-disco genre connected with pop rock and post-punk with fewer rhythm and blues influences. It originated in the early 1980s, following the decline in popularity of both punk and disc ...

, dance-punk, new wave revival and

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 ...

Music video

The music video for "Only", directed by David Fincher and relying almost entirely on CGI created by

Digital Domain Digital Domain is an American visual effects and digital production company based in Playa Vista, Los Angeles, California. The company is known for creating digital imagery for feature films, advertising and games from its locations in Californ ...

, shows various objects in an executive's office, such as Pin Art,

Newton's Cradle The Newton's cradle is a device that demonstrates the conservation of momentum and the conservation of energy with swinging spheres. When one sphere at the end is lifted and released, it strikes the stationary spheres, transmitting a force thro ...

and laptop

screen saver Screen Savers or screensaver or ''variation'', may refer to: * Screensaver, computer programs intended to preserve CRT monitors from "burn-in" ** GNOME ''Screensaver'', GNOME Project's screen blanking tool ** Google Pack ''Screensaver'', a termi ...

coming to life with the propulsion of the song and was released on July 12, 2005, at NIN.com. The main focus is

Trent Reznor Michael Trent Reznor (born May 17, 1965) is an American musician, singer, songwriter, record producer, and composer. He serves as the lead vocalist, multi-instrumentalist, and principal songwriter of the industrial rock band Nine Inch Nails, wh ...

's face in the pinscreen that sits on the desk, which is the only way he appears in the video. The only non-CGI components of the video are a person's hand (Fincher's, who owns the PowerBook in the video) and the cars in the background.

Track listing

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

References

{{Authority control Nine Inch Nails songs 2005 singles Dance-punk songs Dance-rock songs Music videos directed by David Fincher American new wave songs Song recordings produced by Alan Moulder Song recordings produced by Trent Reznor Songs written by Trent Reznor American synth-pop songs Solipsism