Photo by John Crawford

These days, the Nine Inch Nails brand seems to be in bed with everyone from H&M, LiveNation to Disney, but if the music — even at its arguably most commercially-pop since “The Perfect Drug” or “Only” — is as tantalizing to those seeking a fix of an electronic pulse as it is on “As Alive As You Need To Be”, then may Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross continue to work the capitalist system in their monetary favor. It should be noted that this is also the first single from the band’s forthcoming NIN-branded soundtrack to Tron: Ares, though the listen could easily stand alone as its own story. Reznor and Ross program a sleek, state-of-the-art, dark future motherboard of EBM circuitry with just one feral rock star demand: “Give me something to believe in / All these hands have got a hold on me.” But will they bite the ones that feed them? Maybe not, as long as they’re dishing out the dollars to help keep the dream alive…

Nine Inch Nail’s TRON: Ares (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) will be released September 19th on Interscope Records.