10,000 Days

The new tool cd is really quite awesome, and I highly recommend it. I've been listening to it since it came out over a week ago to really get a feel for it, and it's definitely one of the best I've heard in a long time. Without adopting the sort of pedantic review style Tool would despise, I'll just say that it's incredible, and develops their style more than previously. Lead singer Maynard James Keenan seems to sing in and under the music more than on previous albums, and the rhythms and melodies are definitely the greater focus. The opening track is the current single released on the radio and criticizes society, all of it, for thriving on the tragedies of others, glued to our TV's watching people die. The second song is about sacrifice, but the album really excels on the third and fourth track.

The third and fourth are by far my favorite. They're meant to be played together, and are apparently a tribute to Kennan's mother, "Judith Marie," who suffered a stroke and was paralyzed until her death 27 years later (approximately 10,000 days.) He's calling for her to be accepted into heaven and given the angel wings she deserves. The way the tracks build, resonate and compliment each other is simply astounding. The level of emotion conveyed through the mixture of instrumental and vocal music is creative and unique - really amazing.

The album continues with their familiar mix of calls for gnostic revelation and criticism for popular culture. They describe someone who's blitzed out of their mind, have a track called "lipan conjuring" (the Lipan are a group of Apache Indians) that consists of a people wailing the whole time, and end the lyrical section on the 10th track criticizing humanity for misusing knowledge and agency in a misguided obsession with fighting for power.

On previous disks from both Tool and A Perfect Circle, Keenan seems very well acquainted with Christian imagery, but completely rejects Christianity, Christ and the Christian notion of redemption. This trend is especially blatant on APC's first single, Judith, where Maynard repeatedly berates Judith for her faith in God. While there's no shocking break from this trend on the current disk, and indeed the jacket is covered with renditions of Satan from Inferno, the lyrics seem more redemptive, as if Maynard's found a degree of peace and given up criticizing Christ for the faults of his followers. Judith is presumably the same Judith Marie, his mother, whose faith and life he's lauding and crediting his own salvation to on the aforementioned second track. Near the end of this track, he says the following:

"Set as I am in my ways and my arrogance,
Burden of proof tossed upon the believers.
You were the witness, my eyes, my evidence,
Judith Marie, unconditional one."

And on the second track,

"The devil and his had me down
In love with the dark side I've found
Dabblin' all the way down
Up to my neck soon to drown.
But you changed that all for me
Lifted me up, turned me round
So I, I would wish this all away"

While I hesitate to try and read too much of my reaction into the lyrics, it sounds in my mind like he's playing out redemption, which isn't something I ever expected to hear on a Tool disk. He explores this theme passionately and delicately, respectfully, and with the characteristic honesty of someone who understands. I appreciate that, and combined with the amazing music this album has to offer, makes it an invigorating confluence of style and substance I can't recommend highly enough.

The album also seems to be filled with puzzles. One track is almost all noise. The cd jacket comes with a pair of glasses installed, through which pictures in a book that would normally hold lyrics can be seen in 3d. The pictures of the band members are supposed to be pieces of some sort of puzzle, but the puzzle itself, and it's solution, are both mysteries. Without the time to plunder the depths of this kind of esoteric mystery, I'm content to take it at face value and simply enjoy the lyrics. Maybe I won't receive the powers associated with enlightenment, but you might remember that I don't have much faith in gnostics.

Whether you do or not, it's only $11 at Target right now, so why not go check it out?

And if that's not your thing, or even if it is, check this out: it's hilarious.