History TearJerker / NineInchNails

** TearJerker/JohnnyCash's cover is even worse, if only because it was being sung by a main in the twilight of his years, reflecting on his real life failures. Trent himself said that the song wasn't his any more.

** Yet; [[EarnYourHappyEnding 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]].

* "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 LastNoteNightmare... TearJerker/JohnnyCash's cover is even worse, causing Trent to say the song wasn't his anymore.
** Those fucking lyrics....

* Even Trent's soundtrack works have a few of them. Most notably "A Minute to Breathe", good Lord. It was the first thing Trent had put out since Hesitation Marks....and it became one of his most emotional songs that he ever wrote, on par with "Leaving Hope".

* "Lights In the Sky". Just Trent and his piano, with lyrics like "Watching you drown, I'll follow you down, and I am right here beside you". Also doubles as a CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming, with its mixture of resignation and determination to stand by another's side even as the world ends ([[WildMassGuessing there are theories]] that this song and some others on ''The Slip'' continue or add to the ''Music/YearZero'' plotline in some way...).

** The slam cut from "Big Man With a Gun" to "A Warm Place" can be rather gut-wrenching as well when you understand what just happened in the context of the ConceptAlbum- the character went insane and raped someone, then has retreated into his mind, the only place where he can find any sort of peace (and even that peace doesn't last, as seen above).
* "Persistence of Loss"
* Others songs with lyrics that fall under this include "The Day The World Went Away"(especial the "Quiet Mix".) , "The Great Below" (and its sequel, "And All That Could Have Been"), and "Right Where It Belongs"(V2 is even sadder, and more striped down).

-->And this is not my face, and this is not my life, and there is not a single thing here I can recognise. And this is all a dream, and none of you are real. I'd give anything. I'd give anything.

* "All That Could Have Been" simply for the line "In My nothing, You were everything to Me".

* :"1" and "2 Ghost I".

--> ''my empire of dust''

--> ''If you could have it all'',

--> ''I will let you down..''

--> ''a million miles away..''

--> ''I would find a way..''

** This Troper like to think of it as "The Persistence of Loss" Part 2 do to it sharing the same melody as the last song,in which sometimes I thinking they are the same song.

--> ''If you could have it all,

** 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.

* "Zero Sum," which, if you follow the Year Zero timeline, is about the end of the world.
** Since we're talking about Year Zero, [[http://www.hourofarrival.net/ Hour of Arrival,]] a letter from a government worker to his soon-to-be-born child (from the ARG), certainly qualifies.

* "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.

* "Lights In the Sky". Just Trent and his piano, with lyrics like "Watching you drown, I'll follow you down, and I am right here beside you". Also doubles as a CrowningMomentOfHeartwarming, with its mixture of resignation and determination to stand by another's side even as the world ends ([[WildMassGuessing there are theories]] that this song and some others on ''The Slip'' continue or add to the ''Year Zero'' plotline in some way...).

* Others songs with lyrics that fall under this include "The Day The World Went Away"(especial the "Quiet Mix".) , "The Great Below" (and its sequel, "And All That Could Have Been"), and "Right Where It Belongs".

** The slam cut from "Big Man With a Gun" to "A Warm Place" can be rather gut-wrenching as well when you understand what just happened in the context of the ConceptAlbum- the character went insane and raped someone, then has retreated into his mind, the only place where he can find any sort of peace.

-->It’s so stupid, Danny Jane. We get scared and our hearts dry up. Don’t be scared. Please
-->God let me get home safe tomorrow and I swear I will quit my stupid government job and
-->do nothing but fill you up with courage. I will take spiders out of the house for you, and
-->buy you roller skates, and teach you how to catch crickets with your bare hands.

** Since we're talking about Year Zero, [[http://www.hourofarrival.net/ Hour of Arrival,]] a letter from a government worker to his soon-to-be-born child, certainly qualifies.

* "Zero Sum," which, if you follow the Year Zero timeline, is about the end of the world.

* "A Warm Place", especially at the end -- when it starts fading into [[HighOctaneNightmareFuel "Eraser"]] and you realize the brief glimpse of hope is over.

* 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".

* "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.

* Many songs, but 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.

* Both the Music/JohnnyCash cover of "Hurt", and Trent's original.