"The Hearts Filthy Lesson" (no apostrophe in "Hearts" [sic]) is a song by David Bowie, from his 1995 album Outside, and issued as a single ahead of the album. It showcased Bowie's new, industrial-influenced sound. Lyrically, the single connects with the rest of the album, with Bowie offering a lament to "tyrannical futurist" Ramona A. Stone, a theme continued in subsequent songs. The song is also meant to confront Bowie's own perceptions about the ritual creation and degradation of art.

Critical reception to the song was generally tepid, though it would be re-evaluated by many critics when heard in the context of the album soon afterwards. In spite of its defiantly noncommercial sound the song reached No. 35 in the UK and No. 41 in Canada. The single also broke Bowie's US chart drought (which stretched back to "Never Let Me Down" in 1987) by briefly peaking there at No. 92.

An immediate favourite at Bowie's live concerts, "The Hearts Filthy Lesson" had its cult status sealed when featured over the closing titles of David Fincher's 1995 film Se7en, a film which mirrored the video's grimy visuals.

The single contained an "Alt. Mix" remixed by Trent Reznor and Dave Ogilvie with Chris Vrenna.

The video featured a montage of art-style mutilations and gory objets d'art and was subsequently edited when shown on MTV. The clip was directed by Samuel Bayer, the man behind Nirvana's classic "Smells Like Teen Spirit" video. In interviews, Bowie commented on the "ritual art" aspects of Outside:

My input revolved around the idea of ritual art—what options were there open to that kind of quasi-sacrificial blood-obsessed sort of art form? And the idea of a neo-paganism developing—especially in America—with the advent of the new cults of tattooing and scarification and piercings and all that. I think people have a real need for some spiritual life and I think there's great spiritual starving going on. There's a hole that's been vacated by an authoritative religious body—the judaeo-Christian ethic doesn't seem to embrace all the things that people actually need to have dealt with in that way—and it's sort of been left to popular culture to soak up the leftover bits like violence and sex.

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Wikipedia