Lights In The Sky is a song by Nine Inch Nails that arrangement wise, is extremely stripped back. It’s extremely minimalist with its instrumentation, however it’s a deeply emotional song that I feel couldn’t work with any other instrumental set up. While somewhat cliched, the solo nature of just a piano and sole vocal creates a very isolated and depressing atmosphere across the track. Similarly, this instrumentation and arrangement, while not unheard of, was rarer within the bands discography as they had established themselves as an industrial rock/electronic act.
The piano chords pulsing throughout the verse are played at a low register, and accompanied by a vocal in a similar low register. this seems to reflect the verse’s lyrical themes, mentioning loss and finding ways in which the singer is ‘getting by’ afterwards. This arrangement of just a piano and vocal and the lower register of both immediately capture an apathetic, depressed tone which perfectly sync with the lyrical theme’s of the song, feeling beaten down already. When we reach the first chorus, a higher piano counter-melody enters, to me symbolising either a potential hope in the character, or perhaps the ‘lights in the sky’ mentioned in the lyrics. The piano continues its lower register quarter note pulses, except rather than the chords ascending at the beginning of each phrase like the verse, they descend here, mirroring the lyrics of ‘watching you drown, i’ll follow you down’.
Again, the song repeats the verse and chorus again with the piano and vocal capturing this low and Beaton down atmosphere. During the second and last chorus there’s a change, as we finally have another instrument. A violin or flute-like synth plays a high pitch pedal note lightly, jarring against the descending chords, until the last bar of the passage, playing a descending harmony. I feel this was chosen in terms of arrangement and instrumentation as it fills out the higher range of the track for the final chorus, but also could symbolise the ease of missing help or a ‘light in the sky,’ as its mixed very low in the track and is easy to miss on the first few listens.
While not arrangement based, I feel that the production is also crucial to creating this worn down atmosphere, with the vocal and piano feeling almost meshed into one, with little clarity.
In conclusion, the instrumentation and arrangement feels like the perfect artistic choice for the song, mirroring the lyrical themes of isolation and capturing a down-beat depressing tone. I feel that the song wouldn’t be able to carry the same emotional weight with any other instrumentation or arrangement.