A-HA - Hunting High and Low

A-ha - Hunting High and Low

Published in 1985

Wikipedia

"We're talking away
I don't know what
I'm to say I'll say it anyway
Today's another day to find you
Shying away
I'll be coming for your love, OK?

Take on me, take me on
I'll be gone
In a day or two"

First off, thanks to Jake. I don't know why I am thanking Jake, because as I saw on a shirt once, he is a Jerk, but I guess I'll thank him anyway, for suggesting this album.

The Album Project Bureau of Jokes and Other Sarcastic-cies has been working hard to research all of the eighties trivia that I need to make fun of because of this album.  The tireless public servants have been researching for hours on the internet about a decade that I was not actually a part of in any meaningful way.  I will refer you to our honorary historical joke director, Mr. William Joel.  He has a pretty good primer on Youtube.  Unfortunately, due to budget cuts and the removal of their collective bargaining rights (timely for four months ago!  Also, probably timely for now, what with the NFL collapsing like a flan.) the department had to be let go, because this album is actually pretty damn good.


You see, when you crack open an A-ha album, you seem to have some prebuilt assumptions.  One, that they are as much of a joke as they have become.  Two, that the other songs are going to be the the eightiesist things that you have ever eighties heard.  And three, that you won't enjoy it.


But this album holds up.  It's surprisingly well written, the songs are good, they don't overly use anything but the drum machine.  The songs are somewhat catchy, and the album is pretty short and sweet.  You are rarely stuck in one song too long, and when they get old, they fade out and go into a new one.


They are no joke too.  They play some pretty on fire new wave, and they do some really cool things with their instrumentation.  They play some pretty damn good music, and while the songs aren't anything spectacularly out there, they are solidly made and produced.


Yes, there is some dating, but actually, it's not as bad as I expected.  It doesn't sound like a parody of itself, it just embraces it's eightiesness in a way that is endearing and not annoying.  They have a pretty solid piece of work here.


I just don't have a lot to say about it.  It's not good enough that I think anything other than Take on Me deserves to be held in high regard, but that song is a pop culture masterpiece, even getting future TAP artists Reel Big Fish to cover the song.  It's one of those songs that instantly gives something a place and time to be tacked on to, like Huey Lewis and the News.


So, thanks again Jake, and hope to get more suggestions from you,


"You can't Fax glitter!" "Well, not with that attitude!" "NOT WITH ANY ATTITUDE!"
Matt


PS. Do something good and Give Phil Five!

Old Crow Medicine Show - Big Iron World

Old Crow Medicine Show - Big Iron World

Published in 2006

Wikipedia

First off, let's all say thanks to Cole, for having an interesting enough life to make a blog about himself, and secondly for suggesting this album.  So, thanks Cole.

As someone who is into music (could you guess), I have noticed something of a conspiratorial air about. Someone out there in the universe has declared that folk music is going to be the new thing for indie kids.  Why this is happening, well I have some theories, but it's happening more and more, and the Freak Folk mantle is being brought up quickly to the in-thing.

As I said in my Mumford and Sons write up, I don't understand 'Freak Folk'.  I understand that people don't want you to confuse old folk with new folk, and it is strange to hear the two versions in the same area, but really, is there such a big difference between classic folk and modern folk?  Both of them deal with subjects that were important to those writing the songs.  I don't think that folk has ever been considered the pinnacle of formulaic art, and actually one of the reasons it is folksy, is because it deals with realistic subjects important at the time of the song's writing.

One reason I think modern folk is doing well is because it is so appealing to a side of people who just want to hear good performers playing simple music.   The nostalgia bumper crop appeals to people who either grew up with this on their radios, or (like me) listened to a lot of Prairie Home Companion as a kid.  There is a certain appeal to this kind of music that sounds down home, and simple, and that is a beautiful thing.  

Old Crow Medicine Show is a group that is making perfectly serviceable folk music.  I mean that in the most neutral way possible.  I don't think they are as good as Mumford and Sons, but that is because I listened to them first.  I think they sound somewhat similar, although Mumford and Sons is a bit darker, and it makes a difference for the listening experience.

The lighter moments on the album though, are some of the best.  I love that they included the singer screwing up on the first verse and the band starting again.  I think that the funnier songs are good, and as a child of the I-95 corridor, good stuff is on this album.  

I cannot say that this album is anything but optional, but if you're a fan of folk music and bluegrass, you should probably pick it up,  it's fun and light and enjoyable.  If you don't really like bluegrass, this could be a way in, but I'd look other places first.

Anyway, thanks again to Cole, I hope I did this album a little justice, and I can't wait to hear how I am wrong about it Mike H. style.  

"Love is about compromises, Zorak, compromising your future to the city council of Bethesda Maryland."

Matt

PS.

Phil! Five? Give Him!? 

Radiohead - Kid A and Amnesiac

Radiohead - Kid A and Amnesiac

Published in 2000 and 2001

Wikipedia - Kid A and Wikipedia - Amnesiac

With OK Computer a resounding success both commercially and critically, there must have been a temptation to rest on the solid ground that they had created, seemingly from nowhere. The experiment in forward moving rock had been a success, and to keep moving further away from what they initally were would, to a casual observer, be an act of madness.

However, a careful observer would dispute this interpretation. Perhaps it would have been easier for Radiohead to continue on the epic album track. Perhaps they would be known as the new Pink Floyd and be able to put out long meditations on whatever struck them. This, however would have been musically unsatisfying.

There is a part of the human experience that drives us to move to new things. There is also a partnthat drives us to stay static. This is the tension in which decisions are made. If you are not bold, you will stagnate in the regularity, but if you change too much, you lose a sense of who you are.

Radiohead, as a creative entity walks down this path. The risk of alienaion of their fans is balanced by the movement into new areas and new fans. By remaining a band that is dictated by creativity over sales, Radiohead has not stagnated and has not lost itself.

Kid A is a record that sounds completely different than any of the previous works of Radiohead. The music has been created with an ear for defying expectations, but also with the intent of creating an album of extraordinary power.  This allows the band to get away with more than most, but it rigidly locks them into producing something good.

I am going to attempt to not go track by track for this one, simply because it is going to sound very similar to my OM Computer review. Let us be clear, there is no bad song on this album, and the great songs are perhaps some of the greatest ever made.

Let's start with The National Anthem. This is a song that is the closest thing to a pure rock song on the album. I am contractually obligated to mention that the bass line was written by blah blah blah who cares. It is a simple bass line, it was written at a young age. It simply kicks ass. The bass line uses it's simplicity in the strongest way possible, by making it a driving force in the song. Every moment that the bass line is going in the song, there is a percieved forward motion that allows the music to sound more urgent than it's tempo.

I am also contractually obligated to mention the horns at the end. Many people have said that this ruins the song, and the use offhe horns is a cheap stunt to create cacophany without any investment. They may have a point, but I like to look at them another way. As the horns enter, we hear the blasting and bleating as a departure from the sound of Radiohead. The music is residing in a space that we had not been in before, and as a reult of this change, we are taken out of passive listening and into active listening. By activating us in this way, we're enticed to compare the sounds to other songs with horns in them. This is not ska, this is not jazz, this is not classical. The musical space is a purely Radiohead defined realm, and the rules are defined by them.

By allowing the horns to attempt to overtly play indiviudual parts, we allow them to be seperated and individualistic. These competeing strains are a call back to the message of the song, which ishat even in a crowd of like minded people, one can feel so alone. By looking at it this way, the end of the song is neither cacaphony nor organized, but a collective effort of individuals attempting to create something beautiful and shared on the form of harmony, missing their mark, and forming a new kind of harmony instead. The distraction of the music is a powerful reminder of the individual.

The triumph of the collective and individual nature is obviously important to this album. Thom Yorke has said that the title is a reference to the first human clone. This achievement would be a triumph of humanity, a collective effort, but perhaps an individual tragedy. The child at the center of it all would not understand why he was what he was, and nit understand that he was important. This person would be detached from humanity by virtue of being one of fhe greatest achievements of the species.

This emotion is perhaps best reflected in How To Disappear Completely.  The use of acoustic guitars, the brishig of the snare and the wandering bass line is incredibly private sounding. The lyrics are from the perspective of someone who is either unnoticed or noticed too much. As the chorus states, I'm not here, This isn't happening. The song itself is an escape for the mind of the singer, whether or not his body is physically able to move or not. The reflected feelings of alienation and wishes of escape and freedom to move freely is completely in the character of this album, and is clearly the point of much of it.

By exploring both of these conflicting sounds, Radiohead opened it's world up to a both a wider and narrower audience. Those who could find one song that they liked was expanded, but those who were locked in and completely taken with the album were narrower.

By actively ignoring the impulse to grow broader, and infact concentrating their efforts in the opposite direction, Kid A is a triumph of a band in transition, not a static band. Where they were going was past the reaches of where they had gone before.



Amnesiac starts with an incredibly percussive beginning, and the first tone is held back until about 30 seconds in. This song is one of the more accessable, but it is remarkable for a couple of things. 1. The guitar has all but disappeared. It has been replaced by synths and percussive sounds. 2. The sounds are both otherworldly and electronic, but there is a deep humanity to the track. 3. It is not rock music, but some kind of hybrid.

The most arresting song of Amnesiac is the next song, Pyramid Song. It is arresting because the song follows a traditional format in an untradtional way. The song has a moving piano line, that makes a huge impression on the listener immediately. The piano, however plays the percussive or bass role in the song, repeating the same chords over and over, and allowing the voice and various other instruments to take the melody.

Pyramid song is one of the few songs that seems delivered straight from another world. The parts seem to be obvious, a stripped down piano that builds to a huge climax and then releases slowly. But the song just slowly eats itself in such a way that the entirety of it is swollowed up, leaving the listener grasping at the end of the song, just to find somewhere to hold onto.

As we move farther into the album, the sonic landscape is taken up by incredibly diverse computerized loops and sounds, giving the impression of a spiky and distopian far future. The sounds of the album are rarely warm and inviting, or at least don't inspire the same level of pathos in you as some off of OK and even Kid A.  Even You and Whose Army uses a vocal effect to put space between the listener and the singer, keeping a dreamy distant feel to the whole affair.

The entire album is incredibly diverse, and a necessary step to their canon. This should be listened to as compainion prices, and should be seen as such. The sheer amount of purely interesting material is a good reason, but the better reason is that the whole band is astoundingly different than their other records, and the experimentation settled in a place of incredible beauty.

Next time on the Catalog Project -
Hail to the Thief, and Why it isn't a good album for beginners.

"Jesus, Krieger, you're still taping bum fights?"
"No, I've moved on to something much . . . darker."
Matt

Megadeth - Rust In Peace

Megadeth - Rust In Peace

Published in 1990

Wikipedia

First up, thanks to Zach for suggesting this album.  

MEEEEEEEEEEETTTTTTTTTTAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!

Sorry, I had to get that out.  Fucking Megadeth is one of those bands that you just purely enjoy if you enjoy any part of metal.  The guitar solos are awesome, the drums are pounding, the vocals are a mix of insane fantasy and UFO lore, and you know you're in for an insane ride the whole time.

Another reason that I am glad that Zach picked this album is because it has Hangar 18 on it.  Hangar 18 is one of the most fucking awesome songs of all time, and should guarantee that all members of Megadeth have VIP seats in metal heaven, surrounded by groupie angels and free "water".

Seriously, go find Hangar 18.  Put it on.  I'm telling you, when I think of a metal song, this is the song I think of more than any other.  Given my tilting toward lists, let me describe how to make a great metal song.

1. Get a kick ass band together.  Make sure your guitarist hasn't gotten laid throughout high school, but practiced arpeggios until his fingers bled, bones broke, and his parents were sued by the people next door to take his amp stack away. The vocalist must be the least talented member of the group, but must be able to wail guitar like back at the guitar, write some crazy D&D vocals and shit, and be humble enough to get the fuck out of the way when solo time comes.  Give the drummer an insane kit, double bass is essential, and tell him that if he gets off time, he's fucking fired.  The bassist must be as technically proficient as the guitarist, but he must be the guy that no one recognizes and most likely make the best financial decisions of the whole band. Also, he will most likely be the one who owns all the equipment you're using, so be nice to him. Whoever's garage you practice in will be your first manager, but will quickly be fired when record companies come calling.

2.  Riffs.  Riffs must be repeated at least a dozen times, and must include as many notes as possible, without breaking strings.  Also, the more powerful the sound the better, and allowing the notes to fade into feedback is a plus.  Make sure the bassist is driving the thing forward the whole time, and the drummer is about to get fired the entire time.  Take whatever you did, and do it faster.  Then faster. Then louder. Then Faster.

3.  Vocals.  Vocals are the part of the song known as "between the solos".  Vocals must reference Tolkien, mythology, paranormal subjects or magic in general, and provide a backdrop against which the guitarist can shred.

4.  Drums.  Fire the drummer, get a new one who is faster.

5.  Solos. arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios, arpeggios.

6. End the song on a resolved power chord.

7. Get a bunch of money, blow it on insane stage props, then make the money back.

8. Don't die of an OD.

And you'll have a successful metal song.  It's just that easy.

This album is insanely good.  I've never listened to a full Megadeth album before today, and I have to say, if this is representative of the whole, the catalog will soon be on my iTunes.  Seriously, it's 10 songs long, and every one of them is well done metal.  It's fun to listen to, and you can seriously bang your head to it.  If you have a metal loving bone in your body, you should pick this album up, and give it a couple of good listens.  If you hear anything you like in Hangar 18, get the album, you'll love it.

"Grandspa's Guitars?"

Matt

PS. Phil. Five. Give.

Muse - Resistance

Muse - Resistance

Published in 2009

Wikipedia

iPod, so there.

First off, thanks to Lena for suggesting this album.

I don't know how to feel about Muse, but this might be my fault. You see, I am of two minds when it comes to them. One side, the sober side thinks that they play some really technical and clean rock, that is obviously appealing, but never really lights my fire. It's fun to sing to, fun to listen to, but I will get overwhelmed after a couple of tracks and have to esacpe from it. The songs I really like I enjoy throughly, but I have trouble paying attention.

The drunken me has two reactions to Muse. One is that this shitis tons of fun to sing, the lyrics are enjoyable and they encourage you to get involved and sing along. The second is to ascribe a certain deepness to their lyrics that the sober me would laugh at.   It's a disappointing dichotomy, but I must live with it.

That might be the real problem. This record sounds like the band really, really, really wants to be liked, and whatever you like, they'll try to do it for you. Like electronic music? Here you go! Like ballads? Here, sample this. Like classic rock? Here you are! It's such a buffet that I don't really know what I like about Muse.

Which sucks, actually. I like them, but I can't tell why, and if this blog indicates anything, I'll devote hundreds of words to why I like something, and figuring out why, but when a band tries to make me like them, I get gun-shy?

Muse seems like a good example of this eternal problem of taste. Why do we like some things and hate others? What is it that make our brains love one thing and hate another? Why are we subject to these whims?

The drunk me, in objection to what I wrote above would slur something like the following:

If you like something, but you can't understand why you like it, you must like it for surface reasons, the sound, the feel of the music is more important to your primitive brain than the deeper signifiers. Knowing that you like it has given you insight, but to understand that insight is what your brain has been programmed to do, and it is in that confusion that comes with justifying your taste that you lose the enigmatic part that you liked in the first place.

Sober me, then retorts:

But as this blog proves, breaking things down into peices and trying to understand them is something that my brain does with everything. While it does not always lead to full satisfactory understanding, the joy that I take in writing these is partly related to the act of breaking things down to figure them out. As we've seen, the ones that confuse me most run the gamut from most loved to most hated, so I disagree.

Drunk me:

And yet, you agreed that you like this album at some level. The difficulty only comes with the breaking down of the album, so just talk about what you like in general and hope that clarifies it for you.

Sober me:

Okay, I'll try that.

I think the song writin on display is some of the more clever that I've heard on an anthemy rock album like this. I find the lyrics to ironically wink at the source material, while still treating it gravely enough that it isn't annoying.

I think the performances are spectacular, however I don't enjoy some of the more electronic style choices, because I feel it detracts from the image presented. But, of course, the musicians are all spectacularly competent and the music is produced with flair, vim and even vigor.

I think United States of Eurasia is one of the most fun to sing along songs with in history, behind 1. Seal - Kiss from a Rose 2. The Eagles - Hotel California and 3. Weezer  - Say It Ain't So.  Obviously, it is in good company.  I also think that Resistance and Uprising are good, if not great, and Breaking Through is pretty damn okay too.  The rest of the album, I am not as entranced with.

I want to like them so bad.  Maybe this problem would be solved if I listened to a non-concept album by Muse, but I have no idea.  I just have this one to write about, Jeez, get off my back.

But of course, if you love Muse, and want to tell me why I am a jackass, and why drunk me is right, please do so in the comments, and get us ever closer to the goal of Bequeathing Phillip Half of a Hamilton.

"Five Four Three Nose One"
Matt

PS.  More albums please, I'm devouring these!

The Presidents of the United States of America - The Presidents of the United States of America

The Presidents of the United States of America - The Presidents of the United States of America

Published in 1995

Wikipedia

Dear Paul O., this one is for you.

Take a big whiff right now.  You smell that?  Yessir, there is a bumper crop of nostalgia over yonder, and we're about to get to harvesting it.  It's going to be a long process, but at that first feel and taste of it, you'll be whisked back to your youth.  Indeed, it is time for us to talk about our childhoods, and make sure that everyone knows about this album.

You see, round these parts, in Album Country, we only know a few things for sure.  Why old man Johnson once whittled us up a sign with all them on it.  It went something like this.
1. Don't fuck with bears.
2. Sharks are bears of the sea.
3. Cee Lo Green does no wrong.
4. Fuck Cousin Jerry.
5. Nostalgia is a powerful thing, and it is addictive as fuck.
That sign has gone the way of the dodo, but the ideas remain true.  Especially the bear parts.

When we all get together and sing those old songs that we remember from our youth, we know that we are carrying on a tradition that goes back literally years.  Almost impossible to imagine that Albums were made that long ago, I know, but of course, you aren't from these parts.

Presidents of the United States of America is one of the base ingredients for my nostalgia pie.  I'll tell you why.  This shit is cut with pure awesomeness, and if you sprinkle a little listening on it, it is sweet and tasty, never leaving a residue.  You give it a try, you're bound to like it.

From Kitty to Naked and famous, the sounds of this album are like an incredible cornucopia of fucking wonderfulness.  This album is one of those albums that takes a little bit of investment, but the instant you like one song, you have found the album.  Every fucking song is good.  Every one.  Seriously. Every. Damn. Song. Is. Essential.

Okay, let's get real, and stop talking crazy.  This is a nostalgic album for me because it's one of the few that I remember listening to on my first CD player.  Yeah, I know, an actual musical disc based transportation device.  Little will my younger readers know, but once upon a time, you couldn't just steal all the music you wanted from the internet, you actually had to possess it.  If you are young enough that this is shocking, why are you reading this?  Seriously.  What the fuck are you doing on here, you gotta be what, 6 years old?  Fuck is a bad word and I am addressing it to you, you prepubescent monster.  I hate that guy.

I remember lying down on my mom's old wooden floor, reading a book and playing this album on repeat.  It's a great one for just sitting around and enjoying.  From the first track, it has a sound of it's own.  They sound different from almost anything else you can hear.  It's fucking awesome.  The vocalists are good, the drums are pounding, and the basitar and the guitbass are sweet as fuck.

You seriously should pick up this album and give it a listen.  It's spectacular.  You have to have some sort of rock in your heart place for you not to love this album.  For serious.  Literally.  Truly. For sure.

Listen to it, jerk.  And no six year olds on the blog.  That's number 6 now.

"I CAN SPEAK FRENCH, VERY LOUDLY!"
Matt

PS. Give Phil Five!  Your God demands it!

Tool - Lateralus

Tool - Lateralus

Published in 2001

Wikipedia

First off, thanks to Paul for recommending this album.  I actually have a ton to say about Tool, so this should be an interesting one.

I have several friends who are big Tool fans.  I try not to hold this against them.  It's one of those strange things that I have a problem with, but I think one of them clarified it for me.

You see, even Tool doesn't like Tool fans.  I know this for a fact, because Mr. Keenan beats the ever living shit out of his fans if they try to get close to him. I hope that video is up on Youtube, because it serves a warning about what everyone thinks about Tool fans.  So thank you Mr. Cooney for teaching me that I can like Tool and not be an asshole.

Not that I really like Tool, even to this day.  I've had a long and complicated history of loving some of their stuff and haaating other parts of it.  It is with this mindset that I get down to writing about Lateralus.

This is a great album by a band that is incredibly accessible to the wrong kind of people to be listening to this music.  The ideas of the album are deep and the music is incredibly complex, and these things make people feel like they are just like the person writing it.  The problem is, the people who are feeling that are not as deep as the people making the album.  They are just a bunch of drunken assholes in shirts, who tell you that just because you don't think that Tool is the greatest band in history, you are a fucking asshole.

I don't mean to keep writing about Tool fans, but it's one of those groups of musical snobs that I cannot get over.  As is obvious by my blog, I attempt to have a diverse taste in music.  I really enjoy listening to things that are different, and I love finding something new that intrigues me.  So anyone who latches onto one band to the exclusion of great music elsewhere is doing themselves a terrible disservice, and they are doing the band a disservice.  If you are going to try to get people to like your favorite band, the best way is not to say, "this is a pile of shit that you are listening to, you need to listen to this and this alone."  People seem to be turned off by that.

Okay, Matt, it's time to focus on the album.  Please let these assholes get out of the way of you enjoying the album, so that we can all go home and feel good about ourselves.

Because of the asshole quotient of their fans, I have never actually listened to a Tool album all the way through, and I rolled my eyes at doing so when I heard this suggestion.  But because I love my readers and people who suggest things, I've been trying to open my mind to it, and I have to say, I'm incredibly impressed.

The music is driving, meaningful and deep. It has incredibly good song structures, and it always leaves you guessing where it is going.  The lyrics deserve to be singled out, because they inspire the perfect amount of pathos and rage, showing how well the band understands the lonelyness and anger that lie under isolation.  

The songs are well performed, and tight.  There are no wasted minutes, because this is an album of feeling, not an album of songs.  The music is designed to be listened to from one edge to the other.  The songs are spaced by intros and outros, letting the album flow from one place to another.

Schism, the big hit of this album is the closest thing that this album has to a popular song, but that is only because the rest of the album desires to be exclusive.  Schism is a great song.  It's one of the few songs that I heard on the radio and purely wanted to sing along to, because it just fucking speaks to people.  It's brilliantly written, and I can remember getting totally into it on trips and in cars all the time.

Parabola is an amazing fucking song too.  If you don't believe me, get this album, really get into it, sing along to Schism, and then wait for the moment when Parabola comes along.  You cannot miss it.  It's like a groundswell of immense sound after a quiet moment on the album.  Seriously, the album is worth it just for that moment.

The length of songs is actually one of the things that I think this album has going for it.  This band would be terrible at writing a three minute pop song, but given a canvas wide enough, they can create Last Supper like music.  Building complexity is only possible given the space to grow and change songs.  There is a bit of Dreamtheater in there, where the music is fantastically complex and requires multiple listens to get into, but of course, that is part of the appeal of the album.

It is a long fucking album though.  Clocking in at 79 minutes, it's something you really need to devote yourself to listening through.  Unless you get hooked early, you are going to be in for a long trudge.  It took me one or two listens before I was locked in and could really get into it, too.  The thing is, the mood that you have to be in is actually much more introspective (at least for me) than I thought it would be.

It's incredibly strange to me that these guys are known as a hard rock group, because all I hear is a fantastically emotional pleading group, looking for acceptance in a unforgiving and strange world.  Their purity in emotion is just hyper clear to me, and I love that they do this.  The musical contrast to this emotional tone creates a dissonance between the raw emotion and the rage that people feel under it.

And that is the space in which their fans lie.  When I think of the proto-tool fan, I think of the teenage kid who seems to desire to be a non-conformist (I was one of these as a teenager, so I can talk about them).  He thinks that the people around him are stupid and don't understand, and that they are against him.  He retreats into music and videogames because these are the places that have rules and make sense to him.  He finds peace in these things, and slowly understands that everyone else is going through the same thing, and finds his way out of his shell, or doesn't, retreating further, and not understanding why everyone doesn't understand him.  

So, Tool fans, the next time you are at a Tool concert, or buying Keenan's wine or whatever, please look around you, and recognize that there are people there with you, enjoying what you enjoy, and feeling your feelings.  Make it into a beautiful moment of collective catharsis, not a bunch of drunk assholes complaining about how no one understand them before they punch the guy in the same shirt as them right next to them in the face for something retarded.  Treat the women at the concert, not as objects, but as members of your tribe.  You'll find that you actually have a ton of friends.  And maybe, just maybe, if I hear you are doing better, I'll come to one of their concerts and hang out with you guys, and you can tell me why Tool is even better than I said here.

Look, I'm trying to keep writing, because this album is still on it's third play through, but seriously, this motherfucker is fucking 79 minutes long.  It would take a fucking book for me to write anything nearly as long as this.  It's one of those insane albums that I actually have less to say about than time it takes to listen to it.  This is my third time through, which means that I have spent a total of four hours listening to this album, and I could only start writing after two.

It's good.  Go get it. Listen to it (once), and if you like it (and I think you will), become a sane fan of Tool.  Thanks to Paul and Michael for getting me into them, just a little bit.  I know that I was hyper critical of your co-fans, but I think you guys are some of the sane ones.  Please make more fans like you, and we can go see the "amazing" shows that I hear about.  I just don't want sweaty assholes in my face the whole time for wearing the wrong color or liking the wrong album or something.

"Forget it Jake, it's Chinatown."

Matt

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