THEY STILL MAKE ROCK MUSIC? I GUESS THEY DO - Music Reviews, 9/24/19
I've pivoted pretty hard to rock music lately, which is shocking because I thought this genre didn't have much left to offer. I still think it's a niche coasting off of nostalgia, but you could say that about culture as a whole at this point so who cares? Let's slam dance.
So. There was an album that came out a few weeks ago that people have been waiting thirteen years to get their hands on. They waited so long in fact that physical media went the way of the dodo and the only copies that came out were $50 editions with 4" HD screens built in (which sold out in the pre-release phase so good luck on e-Bay). You can't "get your hands on" a stream. But you can damn sure get it in your ears, you can wrap your mind around it, you can bathe in it, experience it and be taken on a journey. And at 86 and a half minutes it is a journey.
Prepare yourselves. It's finally here. So what did I think of Tool's first album since I started doing this blog in July of 2006? What are all the thoughts that I gathered after listening to its titanic compositions? What manner of description can I give to this that encompasses such breadth and depth? It took me quite awhile, but I considered my words carefully and I have crafted my opinion. What do I think of Fear Inoculum?
Tool "Fear Inoculum" *** and 1/3
It's okay, I guess.
Tarja "In The Raw" ** and 3/4
Year 2000 rap font and color scheme aside, the construction of this album is very Y2K as well. Metal didn't really know what the fuck it was doing back then and you were more likely to get genre diversions and experiments during a longer album. This one starts with some standard but perfectly honed power metal, then gets a little slower. Then a little slower. Next thing you know, you're listening to seven minutes of new age music with vocals but without lyrics. Then a song on an 8-string guitar punches you in the gut right after that, followed by half-time dramatics, complete with piano intro with British narration (for what it's worth, "Silent Masquerade" is one of the best songs on here so I'm not complaining). It's a mixed bag that doesn't settle on being one thing or the other, nor do the halves coalesce into something that makes it work in tandem, but In The Raw has it's moments of grace and strength.
Lower Dens "The Competition" [1/2 of a *]
Lyrics are good, music is BORING. I don't know why this was on my new release radar for so long, but I must have heard the single at some point. Whatever I heard I've fallen out of love with. Like I said, the lyrics are definitely up to snuff but it's a shame I can't deal with the vocal delivery nor the 2019 update of early Depeche Mode (which has been done right in the past, just not here).
Someone "Airspace" *** and 9/16
Airspace is an apt title for this breezy little 16 minute set. Especially since the first two songs were just kind of there; I liked them, but they didn't get me going (especially the 2:20 lyricless interlude sitting at track two of a five song EP). "Cherry Blossom Girl" however, was a different story. The softly delivered melody was like an aural confection, but with a bittersweet twist, so like, grown up candy, y'know? "Surfing On A Rocket" is a clear single and is still stuck in my head, a nice vibey song to go do stuff on a Saturday to, and it leads to a soft landing on "Venus", the closer. If you need to relax but don't want to get new-agey or sacrifice songcraft, this is a really good place to start.
Cold "The Things We Can't Stop"
Things like a new Cold album from being made, apparently.
Puddle Of Mudd "Welcome To Galvania"
Or this one either. Jesus Christ.
Bad Religion "The Age Of Unreason" *** and 2/3
Lyrically, this album is a professor of the Humanities trying to come to grips with the nightmare dystopia of the modern world. Musically, it's a Bad Religion album: High energy, uptempo, Oozin Aahs. It's on the lighter side of their catalogue, not really aggro (except "Faces Of Grief"), but that kind of fits the subject matter. The things we need to keep alive and away from the bonfires of the damned are Empathy, Intelligence and the ability to give a shit. Not just passion, not just "caring", but the ability to not be cynical. To not give in to the temptation that "winning the game" is the true goal of life because it's not. There's a lot more to it and the more you neglect that, the more miserable your life and the world around become.
Okay, for real this time:
Tool "Fear Inoculum" ** and 1/2
This album got worse on second listen. Everything after "Invincible" sounded kind of unnecessary. Oddly enough, I like the title track more when on first go 'round it was my least favorite bit of the album, but...come to think of it, the last few minutes of "Invincible" started to sound unnecessary too (that was a real problem I had with it the first time as well). By the time "Descending" hit the halfway mark, I was officially bored. These songs sound way too similar and having the album be this long exposes that fact so starkly I can't properly convey it with words. At least after this listen I remember a little of it.
I can recall a time when a 75 minute album wasn't even daunting. That was just how long CDs were back in the day and I had plenty of time to block out to listen to the whole thing in one sitting. This album (at over 86 minutes) I had to wait a week to listen to again because I didn't have the time or energy to do this pile of homework.
But that's maybe the point. It's not music made for enjoyment. It's art intended to provoke thought. I mean, I'm thinking about the nature of albums and music distribution and free time (and entropy, since I never thought I'd be "too tired" to listen to music, but that happens all the time now) and whether or not an artist has to even try to meet their audience halfway...though this might actually be halfway. (Either that, or this is the only sounds Tool are capable of, because they did the same song like five or six times on here...)
Point is, my star rating is irrelevant. Anthony Fantano's four out of ten is irrelevant. Crash Thompson's five out of five is irrelevant. This isn't meant to be quantified or judged or nitpicked. This may not even be meant to be enjoyed. It may be meant to be "experienced", but to say that is to be pretentious, and at 86 minutes and change, ain't nobody in the modern world (besides the super dedicated) are going near it if it's said out loud by the artist.
You can listen to it for fun, you can nitpick and critique and judge and give it a score out of a score, you can spew vitriol on it for not being what you wanted and you can praise it to high heaven too. The listener is free to do as they please and take the record however they want to take it.
But holy shit, I'd forgotten that isn't the point of art.
Art is the expression of human experience and emotion through means other than mere functional communication (at least to me it is). It's meant to convey something. To get a point across, to share an experience or to invoke a feeling. It's not just here to consume, enjoy and/or rate.
Am I raising the rating past two and a half stars in light of this new wave of enlightenment? Fuck no. It's lucky I liked what I did enough to go that high. I still feel like this album is way too long. Each of the songs is not only drawn out but sounds too much like its neighbors, and only two of the four interludes even remotely work ("Litanie Contre la Peur" sort of and "Chocolate Chip Trip", which has caused an uptick in my consumption of chocolate chip cookies recently (at least one of these songs made some kind of impact)). But it may grow on me if I listen to some of these tracks in isolation from the rest; I especially feel like "7empest" might be getting a raw deal because of this, since I'm usually checked out by then.
I might hear you saying in response: Your attention span is just shot! You can't sit and pay attention to anything longer than five minutes, you pop music-guzzling pleb!
A) You're right, but who's attention span isn't shot? The world has too much shit in it and we haven't evolved our brains to take it all in yet. But B) What if there was something that both proved and disproved this supposition? An EP less than 15 minutes, but with only one song on it? Let's dig into:
The Shanghai Restoration Project "Tactile Sonic Glide" ****
This is one fourteen and a half minute track. It kind of stays in the same lane for the whole run time, relying on modulation of key and mode to make for a dreamy, yet somehow garish experience. Like a series of keyboard patches designed by the Memphis Group played by John Abercrombie trying to break into the mainstream, with a hint of Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush to keep it grounded. You'd think something that stays on the same beat for that long would get tiresome, but its length is earned. This is the muthafuckin' jam. I might even throw this in my year end songs list, which would be the first time something over ten minutes made it.
I'm not quite done yet. Look for my Fall 2019 Hit Mix coming soon to see what singles caught my fancy in the last three months. 'Til then, take it easy.
So. There was an album that came out a few weeks ago that people have been waiting thirteen years to get their hands on. They waited so long in fact that physical media went the way of the dodo and the only copies that came out were $50 editions with 4" HD screens built in (which sold out in the pre-release phase so good luck on e-Bay). You can't "get your hands on" a stream. But you can damn sure get it in your ears, you can wrap your mind around it, you can bathe in it, experience it and be taken on a journey. And at 86 and a half minutes it is a journey.
Prepare yourselves. It's finally here. So what did I think of Tool's first album since I started doing this blog in July of 2006? What are all the thoughts that I gathered after listening to its titanic compositions? What manner of description can I give to this that encompasses such breadth and depth? It took me quite awhile, but I considered my words carefully and I have crafted my opinion. What do I think of Fear Inoculum?
Tool "Fear Inoculum" *** and 1/3
It's okay, I guess.
Tarja "In The Raw" ** and 3/4
Year 2000 rap font and color scheme aside, the construction of this album is very Y2K as well. Metal didn't really know what the fuck it was doing back then and you were more likely to get genre diversions and experiments during a longer album. This one starts with some standard but perfectly honed power metal, then gets a little slower. Then a little slower. Next thing you know, you're listening to seven minutes of new age music with vocals but without lyrics. Then a song on an 8-string guitar punches you in the gut right after that, followed by half-time dramatics, complete with piano intro with British narration (for what it's worth, "Silent Masquerade" is one of the best songs on here so I'm not complaining). It's a mixed bag that doesn't settle on being one thing or the other, nor do the halves coalesce into something that makes it work in tandem, but In The Raw has it's moments of grace and strength.
Lower Dens "The Competition" [1/2 of a *]
Lyrics are good, music is BORING. I don't know why this was on my new release radar for so long, but I must have heard the single at some point. Whatever I heard I've fallen out of love with. Like I said, the lyrics are definitely up to snuff but it's a shame I can't deal with the vocal delivery nor the 2019 update of early Depeche Mode (which has been done right in the past, just not here).
Someone "Airspace" *** and 9/16
Airspace is an apt title for this breezy little 16 minute set. Especially since the first two songs were just kind of there; I liked them, but they didn't get me going (especially the 2:20 lyricless interlude sitting at track two of a five song EP). "Cherry Blossom Girl" however, was a different story. The softly delivered melody was like an aural confection, but with a bittersweet twist, so like, grown up candy, y'know? "Surfing On A Rocket" is a clear single and is still stuck in my head, a nice vibey song to go do stuff on a Saturday to, and it leads to a soft landing on "Venus", the closer. If you need to relax but don't want to get new-agey or sacrifice songcraft, this is a really good place to start.
Cold "The Things We Can't Stop"
Things like a new Cold album from being made, apparently.
Puddle Of Mudd "Welcome To Galvania"
Or this one either. Jesus Christ.
Bad Religion "The Age Of Unreason" *** and 2/3
Lyrically, this album is a professor of the Humanities trying to come to grips with the nightmare dystopia of the modern world. Musically, it's a Bad Religion album: High energy, uptempo, Oozin Aahs. It's on the lighter side of their catalogue, not really aggro (except "Faces Of Grief"), but that kind of fits the subject matter. The things we need to keep alive and away from the bonfires of the damned are Empathy, Intelligence and the ability to give a shit. Not just passion, not just "caring", but the ability to not be cynical. To not give in to the temptation that "winning the game" is the true goal of life because it's not. There's a lot more to it and the more you neglect that, the more miserable your life and the world around become.
Okay, for real this time:
Tool "Fear Inoculum" ** and 1/2
This album got worse on second listen. Everything after "Invincible" sounded kind of unnecessary. Oddly enough, I like the title track more when on first go 'round it was my least favorite bit of the album, but...come to think of it, the last few minutes of "Invincible" started to sound unnecessary too (that was a real problem I had with it the first time as well). By the time "Descending" hit the halfway mark, I was officially bored. These songs sound way too similar and having the album be this long exposes that fact so starkly I can't properly convey it with words. At least after this listen I remember a little of it.
I can recall a time when a 75 minute album wasn't even daunting. That was just how long CDs were back in the day and I had plenty of time to block out to listen to the whole thing in one sitting. This album (at over 86 minutes) I had to wait a week to listen to again because I didn't have the time or energy to do this pile of homework.
But that's maybe the point. It's not music made for enjoyment. It's art intended to provoke thought. I mean, I'm thinking about the nature of albums and music distribution and free time (and entropy, since I never thought I'd be "too tired" to listen to music, but that happens all the time now) and whether or not an artist has to even try to meet their audience halfway...though this might actually be halfway. (Either that, or this is the only sounds Tool are capable of, because they did the same song like five or six times on here...)
Point is, my star rating is irrelevant. Anthony Fantano's four out of ten is irrelevant. Crash Thompson's five out of five is irrelevant. This isn't meant to be quantified or judged or nitpicked. This may not even be meant to be enjoyed. It may be meant to be "experienced", but to say that is to be pretentious, and at 86 minutes and change, ain't nobody in the modern world (besides the super dedicated) are going near it if it's said out loud by the artist.
You can listen to it for fun, you can nitpick and critique and judge and give it a score out of a score, you can spew vitriol on it for not being what you wanted and you can praise it to high heaven too. The listener is free to do as they please and take the record however they want to take it.
But holy shit, I'd forgotten that isn't the point of art.
Art is the expression of human experience and emotion through means other than mere functional communication (at least to me it is). It's meant to convey something. To get a point across, to share an experience or to invoke a feeling. It's not just here to consume, enjoy and/or rate.
Am I raising the rating past two and a half stars in light of this new wave of enlightenment? Fuck no. It's lucky I liked what I did enough to go that high. I still feel like this album is way too long. Each of the songs is not only drawn out but sounds too much like its neighbors, and only two of the four interludes even remotely work ("Litanie Contre la Peur" sort of and "Chocolate Chip Trip", which has caused an uptick in my consumption of chocolate chip cookies recently (at least one of these songs made some kind of impact)). But it may grow on me if I listen to some of these tracks in isolation from the rest; I especially feel like "7empest" might be getting a raw deal because of this, since I'm usually checked out by then.
I might hear you saying in response: Your attention span is just shot! You can't sit and pay attention to anything longer than five minutes, you pop music-guzzling pleb!
A) You're right, but who's attention span isn't shot? The world has too much shit in it and we haven't evolved our brains to take it all in yet. But B) What if there was something that both proved and disproved this supposition? An EP less than 15 minutes, but with only one song on it? Let's dig into:
The Shanghai Restoration Project "Tactile Sonic Glide" ****
This is one fourteen and a half minute track. It kind of stays in the same lane for the whole run time, relying on modulation of key and mode to make for a dreamy, yet somehow garish experience. Like a series of keyboard patches designed by the Memphis Group played by John Abercrombie trying to break into the mainstream, with a hint of Peter Gabriel and Kate Bush to keep it grounded. You'd think something that stays on the same beat for that long would get tiresome, but its length is earned. This is the muthafuckin' jam. I might even throw this in my year end songs list, which would be the first time something over ten minutes made it.
I'm not quite done yet. Look for my Fall 2019 Hit Mix coming soon to see what singles caught my fancy in the last three months. 'Til then, take it easy.
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