Tool's new album doesn't street until tomorrow, but thanks to the wonders of modern technology that render release dates pretty much null and void, I torrented my copy ahead of time. Being that they are my favorite band and despite having to take some shit about liking them so much (but hey, I dish it out, too) I feel it's only appropriate that I share my thoughts on 10,000 Days.
Previous to the release of the single "Vicarious," the general consensus was that Tool wanted to get back to their heavier, perhaps a bit angrier roots. Now, I'm not one to dive too far into the realm of looking at a band from purely a "musical" point of view. While I think orchestration of a song is quite important, I don't feel I understand that side of the art as much as I'd like too since I am not a musician. My area of focus with any band is usually the lyrics (unless, of course, there are none). I want to know what people are saying. We'll get to that, but right now I'll make an attempt to devote at least a paragraph about the sound of this album.
They did bring back a bit if the old "heaviness" from Undertow, but not without using the sort of ambient and sometimes awkward rhythms of Lateralus as a vessel to do so. I couldn't help but break it down, in my head anyway, to this: Danny Carey and Maynard are both doing what they did on Lateralus, Jones seems to be reworking everything he's done on the other albums, and Chancellor appears to be looking to former bassist Paul D'amour (sp?) for early Tool inspiration. The first four tracks on the album are a blatant reference to the flow of Lateralus where there only seems to be about 4 or 5 actual "songs" on the whole album, with very intricate and moody segue tracks in between. For those of you that are fans of Maynard's voice, it sounds like he heard what everyone liked about his singing and stuck with it, so while we don't hear anything wildly new from him save for track 5's "The Pot", he causes us to sit back and say "Yes, THIS is Tool!"
The lyrics, of course, are careful references to whatever the band wishes to discuss with it's fans. The drug references are getting a bit more obvious, but aside from that I feel that they have once again set to music certain thoughts and feelings that I personally have had for quite sometime now, and I'm sure other people will find the same comfort in that, depending on your views of the current state of humanity. This is one of the main reasons why I enjoy this group; they somehow pull off being preachy while getting you to actually engage in thinking about what is going on in the world around us...that is, if you're one of the people who actually listens to what the music you hear is trying to say rather than just grooving on it.
"Vicarious" opens the album with a very Aenema attitude, and since it was the first single off the album, I'll focus on the lyrics here for a bit. (I'll also admit that it's the track that I've had the most time to digest due to having downloaded it roughly a week before I obtained the album.) We get a classic Tool reverse-projection on this opening track as Maynard describes his own realization that he's part of and participates in a society that distances itself from the horrors of the world via media and technology. When it comes to lyrics, the bands writing tends to deliver it's message one way or another. While it can be difficult to understand what Maynard is saying on a first listen because of his tendency to run words together and unnaturally extend single syllables for the sake of flow, there always seems to be a line that bursts through the rest of the track and gives us a fairly summed up idea of what they're talking about. On this one it was "I need to watch things die, from a distance" and might require some extrapolation to encompass the grander scope of the rest of the song, but it works.
We also get treated to what you might consider some spoken word on track 8's "Rosetta Stoned," though I'm still not sure if it's Maynard doing the talking or not. In fact, I doubt I'm going to be able to really grab on to the message in the lyrics unless someone comes up with a clear translation (the band has a habit of not really confirming their lyrics). Because of the distortion effect and the speed at which they are spoken, this is a difficult track to swallow on the first, second and even third listen.
I've always considered Lateralus the band's "cool down" album. Over-all, it was more about letting go of the old anger and embracing the raw experience of living vs. say, Aenema in which most of America is basically told "you need to get your shit together or fuck off, right now, because this is NOT why we're here." With 10,000 Days, they seem to be going back to being at least a little pissed off about what's going on, but not without reminding us that they are just as guilty of these problems as the rest of us, playing off the notion that the first step toward recovery is admitting that something is wrong.
In the end, the album is great and I'll probably make a lot of you sick to death of it shortly, but as you know, I don't really have very many "fleeting relationships" with the music I listen to. I still have to say that people who joined Tool when Lateralus dropped will probably get a bit more enjoyment out of this album than those who've been around since Opiate. However, the Lateralus fans are bound to be a bit thrown off by the aforementioned segue tracks, which tend to include a lot of the tribal/chant feel one tends to find in the hidden tracks on the older discs. I recommend to everyone at least a download and a listen, and if you like it, buy it if only for the addition of what promises to be some beautiful Alex Grey artwork (and, of course, to give back a little to a band that makes little demands of it's fans aside from "Think for yourself...")
I may rewrite this review once I've got some credible source on lyrics, since, again, that's what I tend to focus on with my music.
For those of you who've heard it already, tell me what you think. I'm curious to see if others are as satisfied with this album as I am.
Previous to the release of the single "Vicarious," the general consensus was that Tool wanted to get back to their heavier, perhaps a bit angrier roots. Now, I'm not one to dive too far into the realm of looking at a band from purely a "musical" point of view. While I think orchestration of a song is quite important, I don't feel I understand that side of the art as much as I'd like too since I am not a musician. My area of focus with any band is usually the lyrics (unless, of course, there are none). I want to know what people are saying. We'll get to that, but right now I'll make an attempt to devote at least a paragraph about the sound of this album.
They did bring back a bit if the old "heaviness" from Undertow, but not without using the sort of ambient and sometimes awkward rhythms of Lateralus as a vessel to do so. I couldn't help but break it down, in my head anyway, to this: Danny Carey and Maynard are both doing what they did on Lateralus, Jones seems to be reworking everything he's done on the other albums, and Chancellor appears to be looking to former bassist Paul D'amour (sp?) for early Tool inspiration. The first four tracks on the album are a blatant reference to the flow of Lateralus where there only seems to be about 4 or 5 actual "songs" on the whole album, with very intricate and moody segue tracks in between. For those of you that are fans of Maynard's voice, it sounds like he heard what everyone liked about his singing and stuck with it, so while we don't hear anything wildly new from him save for track 5's "The Pot", he causes us to sit back and say "Yes, THIS is Tool!"
The lyrics, of course, are careful references to whatever the band wishes to discuss with it's fans. The drug references are getting a bit more obvious, but aside from that I feel that they have once again set to music certain thoughts and feelings that I personally have had for quite sometime now, and I'm sure other people will find the same comfort in that, depending on your views of the current state of humanity. This is one of the main reasons why I enjoy this group; they somehow pull off being preachy while getting you to actually engage in thinking about what is going on in the world around us...that is, if you're one of the people who actually listens to what the music you hear is trying to say rather than just grooving on it.
"Vicarious" opens the album with a very Aenema attitude, and since it was the first single off the album, I'll focus on the lyrics here for a bit. (I'll also admit that it's the track that I've had the most time to digest due to having downloaded it roughly a week before I obtained the album.) We get a classic Tool reverse-projection on this opening track as Maynard describes his own realization that he's part of and participates in a society that distances itself from the horrors of the world via media and technology. When it comes to lyrics, the bands writing tends to deliver it's message one way or another. While it can be difficult to understand what Maynard is saying on a first listen because of his tendency to run words together and unnaturally extend single syllables for the sake of flow, there always seems to be a line that bursts through the rest of the track and gives us a fairly summed up idea of what they're talking about. On this one it was "I need to watch things die, from a distance" and might require some extrapolation to encompass the grander scope of the rest of the song, but it works.
We also get treated to what you might consider some spoken word on track 8's "Rosetta Stoned," though I'm still not sure if it's Maynard doing the talking or not. In fact, I doubt I'm going to be able to really grab on to the message in the lyrics unless someone comes up with a clear translation (the band has a habit of not really confirming their lyrics). Because of the distortion effect and the speed at which they are spoken, this is a difficult track to swallow on the first, second and even third listen.
I've always considered Lateralus the band's "cool down" album. Over-all, it was more about letting go of the old anger and embracing the raw experience of living vs. say, Aenema in which most of America is basically told "you need to get your shit together or fuck off, right now, because this is NOT why we're here." With 10,000 Days, they seem to be going back to being at least a little pissed off about what's going on, but not without reminding us that they are just as guilty of these problems as the rest of us, playing off the notion that the first step toward recovery is admitting that something is wrong.
In the end, the album is great and I'll probably make a lot of you sick to death of it shortly, but as you know, I don't really have very many "fleeting relationships" with the music I listen to. I still have to say that people who joined Tool when Lateralus dropped will probably get a bit more enjoyment out of this album than those who've been around since Opiate. However, the Lateralus fans are bound to be a bit thrown off by the aforementioned segue tracks, which tend to include a lot of the tribal/chant feel one tends to find in the hidden tracks on the older discs. I recommend to everyone at least a download and a listen, and if you like it, buy it if only for the addition of what promises to be some beautiful Alex Grey artwork (and, of course, to give back a little to a band that makes little demands of it's fans aside from "Think for yourself...")
I may rewrite this review once I've got some credible source on lyrics, since, again, that's what I tend to focus on with my music.
For those of you who've heard it already, tell me what you think. I'm curious to see if others are as satisfied with this album as I am.