Editorials
[Editorial] From Worst To Best: Tool
Tool is by no means meant for the casual listener. Their music defies traditional songwriting, dynamically surges from crushing distortion to soft beauty, plays with time signatures, bears some of the most interesting lyrics available, and doesn’t give a damn about song length to ensure radio play. Add to this list the band’s love of the occult and teasing fans with the possibilities that their lyrics and music hide a deeper meaning. Everything combined makes Tool one of the most challenging, well-respected and fascinating bands releasing music these days.
And so I decided that my love of the band should be used to rank their discography. Having listened to each album more times than I can count, I feel very comfortable in my decisions. Note that I am only doing the four full-length albums and I’m not including the Opiate EP nor the Salival release.
This is by no means an easy task. Having been a fan of Tool for more years than I can easily count, I realize that these albums each represent a different period of my life and I have certain memories associated with each one. Still, I’ll do my best to remain objective. So, join me below to find out my “From Worst To Best” with Tool.
10,000 Days
I feel almost dirty saying that this is my personal worst Tool album. I realize just how personal and meaningful it is to singer Maynard James Keenan, considering the lyrical nature of “Wings For Marie” and “10,000 Days”, which are odes to the passing of his mother. But I can’t help but feel that these tracks wander aimlessly, almost meandering about trying to find the time to coalesce.
Then there is the seemingly pointless “Lipan Conjuring”, which doesn’t match the importance or effect of AEnima’s “Intermission” or Lateralus’ “Eon Blue Apocalypse”. Those tracks at least build up and enhance the following tracks, “Jimmy” and “Patient” respectively.
The final track, “Vigniti Tres” doesn’t seem to serve much of a purpose. Lateralus’ “Faaip De Oiad” had a story and a terrifying atmosphere that was very Tool-esque (much like Undertow’s “Disgustipated”), which “Vigniti Tres” lacked.
However, I must say that songs like “The Pot” and “Jambi” are incredible and “Right In Two” may very well be one of my favorite Tool songs.
Undertow
Easily Tool’s most sinister album but nowhere near as polished. This can easily be attributed to it being their debut full-length as well as the fact that the lack of polish actually serves to help the songs and their atmosphere. Definitely the angriest Tool has been.
However, it seemed like the band hadn’t really figured out exactly what possibilities there were available to them. They still played within boundaries.
A very strong album but I’m still going to have to put it third overall.
AEnima
It was incredibly difficult trying to decide between this album and Lateralus as to who gets the crown. Both albums are astonishing, defining pieces of music. So choosing between the two of them as to which gets the crown was something I agonized over for days.
It’s a complex and fierce album that mixes the long, epic songs Tool is now known for with the shorter, in-your-face heavy hitters that fans can’t get enough of at concerts. Melodic and thrilling, AEnima will always remain one of my favorite albums of all time.
Lateralus
Where AEnima is clearly the heaviest, most visceral Tool album, Lateralus is the pièce de résistance. It’s more a work of art with stellar songwriting and fascinating, heartrending lyrics. It’s also a source of great mystery and intrigue with the listeners, who devoted time and energy into creating an alternate track list based upon the Fibonacci sequence, of which they took inspiration from the lyrics themselves.
Something about this album made the band just seem to coalesce into a machine that knew how to work perfectly well with each other.
This album also features my personal favorite Tool song “Reflection”. Talk about a song that builds layer upon layer and comes to an astonishing climax. Not to mention the whole trilogy (“Disposition”, “Reflection”, and “Triad”) is an incredible journey.
Alright Tool fans, now that I’ve said my piece, what are your thoughts? What should the order be?
The trailer for Ti West’s upcoming adaptation of A Christmas Carol raised a lot of eyebrows when it dropped earlier this week. While plenty of folks initially dismissed Ebenezer as a derivative project meant to cash in on the recent wave of unnecessary prequels that expand the backstory of beloved characters (such as 2023’s Wonka), Charles Dickens’ original novel already made a point of exploring Ebenezer Scrooge’s origins in detail – meaning that this new film is likely just a particularly faithful adaptation of the source material under a different name.
Couple that with the fact that the movie is being helmed by a genuine horror auteur and I think it’s safe to say that the latest iteration of the first modern ghost story is in good hands.
That being said, one detail that immediately jumped out at me during the brief teaser (other than a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it nod to Johnny Depp’s iconic bedroom death scene from the original A Nightmare on Elm Street) is the fact that many of Ebenezer’s ghosts appear to have been directly lifted from the iconic John Leech illustrations that accompanied the first edition of Dickens’ novel.
Here are a couple of stills from the trailer compared to the original artwork:
The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come in ‘Ebenezer’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’
The Phantoms in ‘A Christmas Carol’ and ‘Ebenezer’
Marley’s Ghost in ‘Ebenezer’ and ‘A Christmas Carol’
Mainly working with old-school wood and steel engravings that would later be transferred to print, Leech was instrumental in crafting the iconic look of history’s most influential phantoms – especially since Dickens is said to have been deeply involved with the creation of these so-called “comic illustrations.”
And since the novel is commonly said to have popularized spiritualism in Victorian England, much of the ghostly iconography that we still see in genre media to this very day (including some of Ti West’s previous films) can be traced back to the author’s partnership with Leech.
Ebenezer won’t be the first A Christmas Carol adaptation to borrow heavily from these designs, but I can appreciate how Ti West is incorporating an important part of horror history into his latest film.
Ebenezer will be available in theaters starting November 13.
You must be logged in to post a comment.