And Day 16 of Album Month - August 2022 is now encoded into the interwebs. Therein I explore the second album, Ænema, by the band Tool.
I'm not going to act like I'm some badass fan, but I do remember when "Sober" first showed up on MTV. As most would agree, for the times and for MTV, the videos were oddly fascinating and dark, with this heavy music with great bass and a progressive rock feel. Tool was quite a different band for that time, where grunge and alternative rock and 90s pop ruled. Despite the heaviness and the dark depths of the lyrics, they didn't really fit the genres of the day, not even Industrial. Tool was a world of their own, and they still are no matter how many try to be them.
I was always intrigued when their videos came on, not sure what I thought about the specifics, but I knew it piqued my interest. Musically it was new to me, and I did enjoy it, even nodding my head with it, it just never pulled at me in terms of buying an album for some reason. Fast forward to my 30s and my thoughts of wanting to explore them more, but never having done so for some reason, even after burning a copy of Lateralus (I know… I'm sorry…) . At some point in the last 5 years I came upon Ænema at the big book sale our central library puts on a couple times a year and put it in my pile. I had fully intended to explore it when I bought it, I just didn't know it'd take until 2022 to do it. This is officially my first time listening to a Tool album.
So what did I think? What did…do I think. *ponders* Well… I find this album to be 'mood' music, and I am guessing Tool is this in general. What I mean by this is that it's not something I could listen to on a daily or regular basis, that it requires a certain mood for the vibe it creates. There are a lot of great bands that I feel this way about in some form or another (and some artists have albums like that for me), so this isn't speaking negatively at all. It's just saying, from the start, this is where it sits overall for me.
That said, it is a very interesting, tight, well done album. Whatever the hell genre they fit into or call themselves, it works for them and I definitely appreciate it. The classic videos are a great representation of their vibe, as it makes you pay attention to connect to it. The lyrics always seem to be a little farther back in the mix, giving them an almost claustrophobic, 'stuck inside your head' kind of feeling. (I'm not sure how else to put it into words.) Elements of the "Stinkfist" video–obvious favorite song from the album for me–depict this feeling quite well, actually. Musically, the time signatures are insane, and some songs can go into so many dimensions but they all make sense somehow. It makes sense for Tool, and the band is fucking tight. This seems to be a recurring thing in some of these album month posts, but the bass is one of my favorite things about this album and maybe even about Tool as a band. I really love how it seems to carry the songs along in this dirty sound wave river; this bass is just… dirty, and I mean it in a good way! I'm not sure how else to put it into words… Tool itself feels like an anomaly is the landscape of heavy music with the unique way they go about their songwriting and playing. Fascinating is the strongest fitting word for me.
Ænema's stand out track for me is "Third Eye" with "Eulogy" a close second in that regard. These are the stories on that album that most intrigue me, "Third Eye" being the most interesting of the two. The way the song moves musically, going into different sections…almost like fever dreams, perhaps? Lyrically it almost feels like a companion to "Eulogy" in a way, so it seems to make sense that they stood out to me. It feels almost like a want to make an otherworldly connection with the one who has passed too soon. I'm probably way off, but this is kinda of the vibe for me.
As is likely super evident in my writing here, I haven't read up on Tool or this album, so I have no idea if what I am saying makes any sense in regards. But that's okay. I'm just a listener giving my unpaid thoughts. Do with them what you will. I just know that, although it's not where I am at musically right now, Ænema is definitely a very solid, great piece of work by a great band that I would like to get to know better as time goes along.
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