‘The Good Soldier,’ Nine Inch Nails – Songs About Soldiers

"How can this be real? / I can barely feel anymore," Trent Reznor sings on this 'Year Zero' cut, trying his best to capture the numbness known only to those who've actually seen active combat. NIN could have made this a much angrier song -- the album on the whole is critical of the U.S. government and set in a dystopian future -- but 'The Good Soldier' has a relatively soft, muted synth-rock sound. You can imagine a shell-shocked grunt marching along to the tune's mid-tempo beat, and the swimming keyboards create a feeling of disjointedness or floating through space. "This is not where I should be," Reznor concludes. "I am trying to believe." Sometimes, that's the best you can do.

Listen to Nine Inch Nails' 'The Good Soldier'