I always listen to covers with particular interest. A good cover doesn’t compete with the original, but presents it in a different light. Reimagining a well-known song is a risky experiment: it demands courage from the artist and a precise understanding of the source material. And when it comes to a classic on the level of Nine Inch Nails, the bar is raised to the utmost height. That is why the new work by the Chicago industrial project I Ya Toyah makes such a strong impression. Taking on “Closer,” I Ya Toyah moves the original into a different coordinate system: the desire for physical closeness is replaced here by a hunger for attention.
I Ya Toyah takes the familiar darkness and turns it to face the listener: toward the screen, the feed, the like counter. The original “Closer” by Trent Reznor is one of Nine Inch Nails’ calling cards. The song came out in 1994 on the album The Downward Spiral and has since accumulated many interpretations. Where the original spoke of physical desire, a different, far more modern thirst sounds: to be noticed, approved, evaluated. The wish to “get closer” turns into a chase for the perfect rating. You’ll agree, it’s recognizable to the point of discomfort.
While keeping the industrial-rock density of the original, I Ya Toyah surrounds the track with more modern, glossy, cold electronic textures. The bass keeps the pulse, the synthesizers press down, and the vocal is sometimes calm, sometimes breaks into a raw nerve. In I Ya Toyah’s hands the cover turns out more personal: she sings not from the perspective of desire, but from the perspective of a person who has ended up on the other side of someone else’s gaze. She produced it together with Johnny Kay, who also handled the mixing; mastering was done by Howie Weinberg. The music video takes the idea to the limit. I Ya Toyah is locked in a sterile white space where every movement is recorded and evaluated with points. The higher the required rating becomes, the less of her remains in the frame.
“Closer” completes I Ya Toyah’s trilogy of 2026. After “FEELINGS,” a call to preserve humanity, and “APOLOGY,” which examined ego and permissiveness, this song speaks about the most fragile part of the equation: identity. All three tracks are united by one question: what remains of a personality when others constantly try to control it, through fear, guilt, or someone else’s approval?
I Ya Toyah is a one-person project: she writes and records the music herself and handles the lighting at concerts, combining industrial, pop, electronic, darkwave, and alternative rock. I Ya Toyah in Polish means “It’s just me” and “I am who I am,” and this is her working principle. In “Closer,” this autonomy is heard especially distinctly. Nine Inch Nails once asked how close we are ready to get to another person. I Ya Toyah asks whether we have forgotten who we ourselves are along the way. I recommend turning it up loud and putting your phone aside for a minute.
