"Closer" is a song written by Trent Reznor an featured on the 1994 Nine Inch Nails album The Downward Spiral. In mid-1994, the song was released as the second single from the album. Most versions of the single are titled "Closer to God," a rare example in music of a single's title differing from the title of its A-Side. ("Closer to God" is also the title of an alternate version of "Closer" featured on the single). This single is numbered as halo nine under Nine Inch Nails' system of halo numbers. In spite of the blunt and profane sexual content contained in the song's lyrics, (the chorus infamously begins with the couplet "I wanna fuck you like an animal/ I wanna feel you from the inside") "Closer" became Nine Inch Nails' biggest hit up to that time, cemented Reznor's status as an alternative rock superstar, and remains arguably his best-known song. Heavily censored versions of the song and its equally explicit and controversial music video (directed by Mark Romanek) received substantial airplay on radio and MTV.