Tool's most recent effort came out in 2001, but after only a few listens with it I moved away from Tool for a few reasons: 1) their live show freaked me out; 2) Tom Tolbert professed his love for them on national TV and I hate Tom Tolbert; 3) I became less interested in modern hard rock for reasons that I have still yet to figure out. At the urging of Geoff, I decided to go ahead and revisit Lateralus. I was met by a wonderful piece of hard, progressive rock that is pretty damn good. Track 7 - "Parabola" - is by far my favorite track on the CD, but tracks 3 ("The Patient") and 5 ("Schism", the single) are quite fine songs as well. I spent a few days listening to this CD and I have to say it was time well-spent.
My main issue with Tool is that everyone seems to think they are freakin' geniuses. I liked their songs, I think their message is OK, but I never was under the impression that they are geniuses in the same vein of a Faulkner or something. However, after listening to the album a few times I ran into this link that is an analysis, hastily written out, of Lateralus. Then I found a few "alternative" playlists for the album - alternative track orderings that apparently transition wonderfully. Now while this is not on par with Pink Floyd lining up an album to work alongside "The Wizard of Oz" for the full length of the movie, this is still an impressive feat - writing an album with a very specific track listing and having it work with an alternative order to the tracks to the point where one of the alternative orderings is the order of the released CD. Follow me?
It's not Faulkner-esque, but it is pretty cool.
Anyways, regardless of all this intellectual masturbation, this CD is pretty damn good. "Parabola" should not be missed, for sure. Check it out.
Score: 7/10
My main issue with Tool is that everyone seems to think they are freakin' geniuses. I liked their songs, I think their message is OK, but I never was under the impression that they are geniuses in the same vein of a Faulkner or something. However, after listening to the album a few times I ran into this link that is an analysis, hastily written out, of Lateralus. Then I found a few "alternative" playlists for the album - alternative track orderings that apparently transition wonderfully. Now while this is not on par with Pink Floyd lining up an album to work alongside "The Wizard of Oz" for the full length of the movie, this is still an impressive feat - writing an album with a very specific track listing and having it work with an alternative order to the tracks to the point where one of the alternative orderings is the order of the released CD. Follow me?
It's not Faulkner-esque, but it is pretty cool.
Anyways, regardless of all this intellectual masturbation, this CD is pretty damn good. "Parabola" should not be missed, for sure. Check it out.
Score: 7/10