Trent Reznor co-produced the track in
London with
John Fryer, although Reznor "kind of backed away" from it. He felt that Fryer's production gave the track a "dreamy quality", as the piano is heavily filtered and features a large amount of reverb. The track also features elements of unused backing tracks by
This Mortal Coil, a music collective that Fryer was part of; while these were initially included by accident, both Reznor and Fryer felt they fit well in the track. Following the song's main topic, Reznor struggled with
depression during the five years following the release of
The Downward Spiral in 1994; his health worsened when he began abusing
alcohol,
cocaine, and other drugs, before completing
rehab in 2001. == Reception ==