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| versions=The Lovers<br>The Lovers (Live At Rehearsals)

}}'''"The Lovers"''' is the second track on the 2017 EP ''[[Add Violence]]''. Its lyrics seem to tie in closely with "[[Dear World,]]". The song features  ==Meaning==In an instrument called the Luminist Garden, which was also used on episode of the ''Song Exploder'' podcast[http://songexploder.net/nine-inch-nails], [[Gone Girl SoundtrackTrent Reznor]]and [[Atticus Ross]] explained that the song is about an alternate reality that explores what might have happened if Reznor had never left his old home of New Orleans and had never gotten clean and sober. It began as a sort of poem he had written in order to explore what he calls the "seduction of addiction" and stated that "it was me allowing myself permission to examine a period of my life that I had consciously chose not to think about very much, then immerse myself in it in a kinda 'What if the path I'm currently on wasn'.t really the right one, and I just went hard-left the other way?"

This is the only known original version. The song features an instrument called the Luminist Garden, which was also used on the ''[[Gone Girl Soundtrack]]''. In the aforementioned podcast, it's explained that the instrument was partially meant to evoke the sound of tapping fingers on a tabletop, as a reflection of the nervousness and anxiety inherent in addiction. ===The Lovers (Live At Rehearsals)===This version of the song was filmed and recorded during the July 2017 rehearsals for the [[I Can't Seem To Wake Up 2017]] tour. The spoken word portions of the song are far clearer here than on the original.

"The Lovers" made its live debut at the [[2017/07/19_Bakersfield,_CA|first show]] of the [[I Can't Seem To Wake Up 2017]] tour.

*[http://songexploder.net/nine-inch-nails Reznor and Ross discuss "The Lovers" for ''Song Exploder'']