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Who has it already? What do you think? Mine shipped from Amazon the other day but I was quite disappointed to find that it didn't get delivered today. Posts: 6246 | Registered: Aug 2004
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I'm not a huge Tool fan, but they play them on the radio fairly often. Good band, though I don't think they are exceptionally awesome.
Posts: 21898 | Registered: Nov 2004
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My boyfriend and I just got back from Best Buy a little while ago and listened to it. OMG, it's fabulous. Track 7, OMG.
Posts: 1225 | Registered: Feb 2002
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I dig it. I'm not a huge fan of Tool, though I have Aenima and Lateralus and think they're pretty decent. I enjoyed 10,000 Days right off the bat, which isn't something I can say about their other stuff. I'll have to listen to it a few more times before I can comment further.
quote:Track 7, OMG.
Yeah, it's kinda freaky. Even cooler is that track 8 is most likely the silent dude's epic story.
Posts: 1855 | Registered: Mar 2003
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I picked it up yesterday over lunch. I like it so far, though I'm starting to wish that their guitarist could learn to write riffs in something other than pentatonic modes. Other than that I'm having a hard time finding fault with it. I really like Vicarious (track 1), among others.
Posts: 10886 | Registered: Feb 2000
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The title 10,000 days is representative of the 27 years that Maynard's (the singer) mother suffered with paralysis resulting from a stroke.
I am enjoying the album so far. It hasn't blown me away like Lateralus did when it came out, but it is a very solid album. The drumming is stellar as always, same goes for the basslines. Maynard's voice is once again an additional instrument. The guitar playing is solid with some very aggressive riffs in several of the tracks.
There are 2 songs over the 11 minute mark and only 2 under 5 minutes. It may be a little indulgent but Tool pulls it off beautifully.
Posts: 1336 | Registered: Mar 2002
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good album. hasn't truly settled in yet, but so far i'm a big fan of Wings pts 1 and 2, as well as Right in Two. at first i was worried that it would be too much like Lateralus after i heard Vicarious, but it's sufficiently different sounding. oh, and the artwork for this album is amazing. the stereoscopic lenses it comes with are great - best artwork i've seen for an album
with this, the new Pearl Jam album, and new Radiohead bootlegs from the Thom and Jonny concert Monday night, it's been an awesome week for music
Posts: 326 | Registered: Apr 2005
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Mine is still not here! Silly USPS! I heard the first track Vicarious last week, and it sounds wonderful. I just love the intensity of Maynard's singing.
SteveRogers: Tool is one of the very best bands in existence today! Definitely check them out!
solo: only 2 songs over 11 minutes? And 2 that are actually under 5 minutes? That's really short for Tool! But I've never found them to be self-indulgent. Even in their longest songs, the time flies by and I'm just sad to hear the song end. One night I got stuck listening to that live version of Pushit, which is something like 15 minutes long. Each time it finished, I just had to hear it one more time, one more time. Several hours went by that way before I noticed.
twinky: pentatonic modes feel toolish to me, though. I'm not sure if it would sound right if they started doing mixolydian or something, you know? They never seem musically repetitive to me, though. Do they you? Each song seems to me to be its own little world.
Posts: 6246 | Registered: Aug 2004
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quote:They never seem musically repetitive to me, though. Do they you?
Yes, at times. What bugs me is that Adam Jones can write some really interesting stuff, like the dissonant guitar un-solo in the background late in Pushit, but too often he just resorts to basic pentatonic riffs. Tool sometimes sound to me like they're stuck in a D pentatonic rut (with some variations on D minor thrown in).
Some of my favourite Tool songs (Parabol/Parabola, Pushit, Ticks & Leeches) aren't in D, change keys more than once, or are melodically interesting in other ways.
Posts: 10886 | Registered: Feb 2000
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I meant in the store. Not online. The Wal-Mart here sucks. They stopped carrying The Jerk, the 26th Anniversary DVD, awhile back. And that's totally bogus.
Posts: 6026 | Registered: Dec 2004
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I live in the middle of nowhere, so Best Buy is kind of far away. If I go to one in the Big City, I'll pick Lateralus up.
Posts: 6026 | Registered: Dec 2004
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You do not need a credit card for Amazon.com. Back in the old days I'd just use a money order.
Posts: 9942 | Registered: Mar 2003
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quote:Originally posted by twinky: I picked it up yesterday over lunch. I like it so far, though I'm starting to wish that their guitarist could learn to write riffs in something other than pentatonic modes.
This is a comfort zone I wish virtually all rock bands would stray from- Radiohead is one that handles mode mixture correctly, and well. The Beatles could do it, and they didn't even read music, so it isn't THAT hard.
Posts: 9912 | Registered: Nov 2005
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I have that problem to some extent in my own compositions -- that is, I tend to stay both in the same key and the same mode for the duration of a single piece. Of course, I've never taken any guitar theory, just the basics as part of my piano studies and a couple of years of university preparatory music courses in high school (I didn't go into music, though). So I don't even know which mode is which offhand.
Anyway, I agree with you. Tool are more rhythmically complex than melodically complex. There is still melodic complexity there, more so than most rock bands, but Adam Jones resorts to D pentatonic (and variants thereof) a bit too often.
Steve, if you're looking for an introduction to Tool, I actually suggest starting with 10,000 Days. I think it's the second most accessible Tool record, after Undertow, and it's better than Undertow by a wide enough margin for me to recommend you buy 10,000 Days first. Ænima and Lateralus are also good, just harder to get into (Ænima because of the intermediate non-song tracks, Lateralus because the tracks are longer but more repetitive). I think 10,000 Days hits the sweet spot in Tool's musical range harder and more consistently than any of their other albums.
Which, I suppose, is a roundabout way of saying that I think it's the best one. They are, in order:
Opiate (EP) Undertow Ænima Salival (box set of B-sides and covers) Lateralus 10,000 Days
Plus singles, of course. As an aside, Salival has a great cover of Led Zeppelin's No Quarter on it.
Posts: 10886 | Registered: Feb 2000
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Hmm. I'm unimpressed. Just not my cup of tea, I think-- all the songs seem the same, and I couldn't catch a sense of the lyrics through the drums and guitar.
I like to be able to understand what the singer is singing-- emoting pain and rage through a raised voice just doesn't do it for me.
posted
I'd say that's less true on 10,000 Days than the other albums, especially in Vicarious ("I need to watch things die" refrain excepted). In general, though, you're right, and that's one of the many reasons I like Tool a lot more than other bands that are just as heavy.
Posts: 10886 | Registered: Feb 2000
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Really? I missed it, especially the 'excellent singing.' I'd call it mediocre, at best.
No, I take it back-- the first few songs of 10,000 days were acceptable. But toward the end (after Lost Keys, I think), it just disintegrated.
Okay, now I'm embarassed. There's very little screaming on the tracks, but I keep getting the sense that the singer's trying to share some soul-shaming secret, but in code. I don't like it when Lyle Lovett does it; I don't like it when Tool does it.
Now that I think about it, I have the same problem with LOTS of alternative/goth/heavy metal/grunge rock. There's the presence of lyrics, but the emotional content of the song is carried by the instruments, not the singer.
(The 'screaming singer' comment for Tool comes specifically from the tracks 'Rosetta Stoned' and 'Right in Two')
Also, what's the point of 'Viginti Tres?'
Posts: 14554 | Registered: Dec 1999
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quote:There's the presence of lyrics, but the emotional content of the song is carried by the instruments, not the singer.
I don't see this as a problem -- I listen to music for the melodies, harmonies, and rhythms (vocal or instrumental) much more so than for the lyrics. Lyrics that I find meaningful are a nice-to-have rather an essential element of music appreciation for me. That may come from my musical background, of course (21 years of piano, 10 of guitar, zero of singing).
So I have no idea what the point of Viginti Tres is, but I find it serves as a nice way to close the album and help me wind my way back to real life after 72 minutes of rock. However, I'm predisposed to like it because it's less self-indulgent than stuff like Disgustipated, Die Eier Von Satan, and Faaip De Oiad from their previous albums, and doesn't get in the way of me thinking about what I've just listened to.
Posts: 10886 | Registered: Feb 2000
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quote:I listen to music for the melodies, harmonies, and rhythms (vocal or instrumental) much more so than for the lyrics. Lyrics that I find meaningful are a nice-to-have rather an essential element of music appreciation for me. That may come from my musical background, of course (21 years of piano, 10 of guitar, zero of singing).
This is an interesting point, twinky. Most of my musical experience has been in voice, and really, I only pretend to be a good singer. My chief talent is the capacity to blend really, really well with other singers.
Oh, and I've got the timbre of a tenor, but the range of a bass, and no head voice to speak of.
To me, vocals are very important.
Posts: 14554 | Registered: Dec 1999
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I really like the gritty or gravelly vocal textures of grunge -- Chris Cornell is a favourite of mine. A lot of my favourite bands (e.g. Tool, Radiohead, Muse, Sigur Ros) have singers who wouldn't be considered "good" by conventional standards of singing (that is, the standards of choral and/or other classical vocal training). Led Zeppelin are another good example. I think all of the singers (perhaps they should be called "vocalists") of these bands are great, but I wouldn't put any of them in a choir.
I listen to a fair bit of classical music, but not much of it has vocals. Typically I listen to piano pieces, piano concertos, or orchestral pieces. Chopin and Rachmaninov are favourites of mine. I almost never listen to operatic or choral music, though I do have some. I listen to my disc of Gregorian chants occasionally.
So I think the difference in our perspective is partly due to training and taste, and partly because I think rock needs different things from its "vocalists" than other genres do. Added: I think this stems partly from its roots in and ties to blues and related genres.
Posts: 10886 | Registered: Feb 2000
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Yeah, but I LIKE Mark Knopfler, Eric Clapton, Van Morrison and Bruce Springsteen, none of whom have polished voices.
And I agree with you about rock needing different a different vocal style than other genres, and for the same reasons (influence of blues). Although, rock has been around long enough that it's going to start self-referencing. 'Alternative' rock isn't going to be on the scene long; it will evolve into it's own distinct genre, seperate from rock music entirely.
The Prophet hath spoken...
Posts: 14554 | Registered: Dec 1999
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quote: I listen to music for the melodies, harmonies, and rhythms (vocal or instrumental) much more so than for the lyrics. Lyrics that I find meaningful are a nice-to-have rather an essential element of music appreciation for me.
This is a spiritual type/personality/brain difference. I first encountered the study of it in Ware's writing on spiritual types, but for those of you who don't like that terminology we could call it a personality type thing.
For some people the words are the most important part of music and for others they're almost irrelevant. This is part (most) of what fuels the arguments about contemporary worship music -- the "type 1"s loathe most of it because the words are either insipid or bad theology (or both) and the "type 2"s don't care because the music makes them feel right with God and they don't listen to the words much anyway.
Posts: 9866 | Registered: Apr 2002
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quote:Yeah, but I LIKE Mark Knopfler, Eric Clapton, Van Morrison and Bruce Springsteen, none of whom have polished voices.
Hm. So then is it just the indistinctness of the lyrics that bothers you in alt-rock and metal vocals?
quote: 'Alternative' rock isn't going to be on the scene long; it will evolve into it's own distinct genre, seperate from rock music entirely.
But then how do you know what's Rock and what's Alternative? I have this problem when I browse the iTunes Music Store -- their categorizations are "Rock" and "Alternative," and I never know which category the band I'm looking for is listed under. I think a better solution, if we want to categorize, is to put sub-genres under the Rock umbrella -- punk, pop rock, alt- rock, hard rock, metal. I think all of those fall broadly into "rock."
quote:This is a spiritual type/personality/brain difference. I first encountered the study of it in Ware's writing on spiritual types, but for those of you who don't like that terminology we could call it a personality type thing.
Dana, that makes sense. Do you know if it is at all correlated with sense of pitch? i.e., is a person with perfect pitch more likely to appreciate music over lyrics than a person who is tone deaf? (Note: I am not suggesting that Scott is tone deaf; I certainly don't have perfect pitch. I'm just curious.)
Posts: 10886 | Registered: Feb 2000
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What I read didn't really focus on the technical music aspect. It was more related to whether you tended toward a "head" or a "heart" focus.
Posts: 9866 | Registered: Apr 2002
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dkw's assertions make a lot of sense to me too, EXCEPT that when it comes to hymns, I care less about the words, and more about the emotion conveyed by the music. I tend to think that this is BECAUSE the words are so awful, I have to latch onto something less awful-- the music.
quote:So then is it just the indistinctness of the lyrics that bothers you in alt-rock and metal vocals?
Maybe... I just don't want to have to work to understand the words being said.
Posts: 14554 | Registered: Dec 1999
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...whereas I don't mind not understanding them at all. Sigur Ros are a perfect example -- the words are sometimes in Icelandic, sometimes meaningless gibberish. I don't know the difference, and the music is so beautiful that I don't much care. Posts: 10886 | Registered: Feb 2000
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Well, do you listen to any other relatively heavy music? If not, then yeah, maybe you just don't like hard rock or metal. Posts: 10886 | Registered: Feb 2000
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quote:do you listen to any other relatively heavy music?
Does Evanescence count? That's about the heaviest thing on my iPod.
So, the answer is probably not. I should know better than to try to reason out my opinions when it boils down to, "I just don't like the musical style they play in..."
BTW, I'm listening to Sigur Ros' concert in Iceland right now.
Posts: 14554 | Registered: Dec 1999
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Silly USPS! I heard the first track Vicarious last week, and it sounds wonderful. I just love the intensity of Maynard's singing. ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
Several hours went by that way before I noticed. ![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
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