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"The Perfect Drug" is a song by Nine Inch Nails written for the David Lynch film Lost Highway. It was released in 1997 on the Lost Highway soundtrack as well as a single from the score. Remixes of the song were released as an EP, "The Perfect Drug" Versions.
Trent Reznor has expressed dissatisfaction with the song, saying in a VIVA 2 Magazine interview, "At that time I was listening to a lot of Drum 'n' Bass and Jungle and stuff. And I think that's the most I've ever seen external influence come out in my own music. And it was a transition period, that's what I want to stress, it was time when I was feeling out what I wanted to do artistically and given the liberation of working within the context of a soundtrack, it's not like a major work. I always treated that as an area to be freer and try things. I'm glad it was in that context. There was never any consideration to include that on [The Fragile]. It really was an area where I was feeling out the landscape to see what I wanted to do."
It features prominent acoustic guitars playing a quick, ascending riff similar to the chorus of "The Wretched". It is backed by frantic and complex drum machine programming commonly associated with the drum 'n' bass genre, which opens up into simpler patterns for the pre-choruses. The drum sound in the pre-chorus is highly reminiscent of that on "Eraser". The chorus features heavy guitars backed by more frantic drums, while the bridge is composed mainly of percussion patterns and percussive synthesizers and guitar riffs, which build in intensity to give way to a slower, simpler, quieter coda which features what is likely a Mellotron.
"The Perfect Drug" was not played live until September 18, 2018 at Red Rocks, Colorado, though it was attempted during rehearsals for a few previous tours. It was widely speculated that the complex drum solo in the song was responsible for this, although it was probably not out of the range of drummers Josh Freese or Ilan Rubin. It is also possible that Reznor did not personally like the song very much, as he concedes that it was produced quickly for the Lost Highway soundtrack.
NIN fan Trollmanen was able to ask ex-drummer Josh Freese about the rehearsal process for the song: "The one question I asked him was about playing The Perfect Drug live, and how the rehearsal process went for that song and why it never worked out. The first thing he said, without hesitation was that the song itself isn't that difficult to play live on the drums. He said something about the programmed beats part was the only thing that was sort of complicated (it was a little hard to hear him at times, crappy connection), but that it worked live with him playing it. The drumming sounded good and everyone was happy with that. He said the problem with the song was the ending. The whole song was really rocking and pushing through, then you get to the ending and it just never seemed to work. He said they tried four or so different endings to the song. They tried it kinda mellow sounding, and that didn't work. They tried a really aggressive ending, and that didn't work either. They did a simple ending, same result. They just couldn't find an ending to the sound that seemed to do it justice. The thing was that the song sounded really good, but to get to the ending and just not sound good, it was kind of a let down. He said just seemed uninterested with it after a while and they just gave up on it."
Reznor answered a question about playing "The Perfect Drug" live directly during a 2017 Q&A in Chicago. He said: "We've tried it. The unsexy answer is it just doesn't sound that good live. And it's hard to sing, and it ends up making me angry, so we don't do it."
Mark Romanek, who also directed "Closer," directed the music video for "The Perfect Drug" in 1997. It was one of the most expensive videos at the time, costing over $850,000 to make. Building the two main sets (a refrigerated set and a rooftop set) and commissioning the giant hand sculpture were some of the larger expenses.
The concept of the video is widely interpreted as Trent Reznor portraying a man mourning the death of a child and detaching himself from reality through absinthe. Charlie Clouser, Danny Lohner, and Chris Vrenna appear in the video, most notably playing string instruments at the beginning of the video. The aesthetics were heavily influenced by the illustrations of 20th-century artist Edward Gorey (1925–2000), the most obvious reference coming from the girl sitting on the cushion in front of the painting.
The entire video was filmed with a blue tint with the exception of the drum breakdown, which uses flashing green light instead, representing Reznor losing himself in the absinthe.
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