Musical Evolution

        Rarely in the span of modern music has a band driven to instill intellectual quality in the minds of their listeners purely through passivity and grace. The classical works of such masters as Beethoven and Bach produced this effect in earlier times, transforming the complex rhythms and intense moods of concertos and operas from an enjoyment only for the culturally elite to an enlightenment appreciated by the masses. These times, tumultuous in political upheaval and rich in the sins of the upper class are not much different from the world today. The technology and governments have changed, but the cynicism and despair of youth remains as vibrant today as in Mozart's time. Just as the classical masters moved beyond the elite to create a new outlet for the general populous, a new modern band has risen from the darkness and decadence of southern California to bring a new intellectual awareness to today's youth. Tool's latest release, Ænima, is aesthetically and intellectually superior because the music exhibits both a complex and cerebral nature in style, lyrical quality, and emotional appeal.

        The musicianship and style of Ænima's songs alone sets this album apart from the rest of popular music today. Influence of the classical works is manifest in Ænima as an underlying tone, forming with the musical training of the musicians themselves. Adam Jones, the lead guitarist, began his musical career as a classical violinist in a school orchestra, instead of garage bands, like those guitarists of many popular bands today, including Helmet, or even Nirvana. Jones also shaped the style of the band by his schooling as a stop-motion animator, developing a keen eye for detail in creating the band's signature music videos. Rarely appearing in their videos, and reluctant to grant personal interviews, Tool just wants the public to seem them for their art, not their personal lives. Tool is all about thinking for oneself, and looking beyond normality-themes which are curiously manifest in the band's own existence. The technical brilliance of the songs is lost on the common listener: each song represents a journey, sectioned into separate movements, akin to the movements of classical scores, but in contrast to the common pop formula of verses and a repeated chorus. At the same time, Tool is entirely modern, bringing in musical references and cultural diversity from such sources as Andean mountain tribes, obscure Brazilian slang, German folklore, and an Indian tribe in New York state. These influences are blended with layer upon layer of syncopated rhythms, dissonance, and chord changes kept together in a tight performance, an anomaly found nowhere else in music today-certainly not in the mundane world of the three-chord punk scene. It is this diversity of tone, and the contrast between these complexities and the simple haunting tones of singer Maynard James Keenan that cause so much power in Tool's music. But as music critic Cathi Unsworth states, Tool's "power lies in its grace and sensitivity, not just in the volume" (Unsworth 27). Even the most culturally inept headbanger can appreciate the volume of the music, but Unsworth conveys that it takes more understanding to truly appreciate the complexities and nakedness of the harmonies created.

        While the music alone creates stunning "black-on-black pictures of the decline of American culture," no listener can escape the modern poetry of Keenan's lyrics (Unsworth 27). Tool has always used intelligence in its lyrics, bringing such obscure terms as 'lachrymology' (the science of crying as a therapy) into the light of day, but the amount of intellectual terms has sharply increased in Ænima particularly, almost as if Tool dares the listener to try and understand them. Using such vocabulary as 'cesaro summability', 'metamorphosis', 'dogma', and allusions to the healing powers of negative ions and the sight behind the pineal gland force Tool beyond the realm of modern music, which often uses simple terms and catch phrases to get its point across. While most of the songs on the radio today sing about love, anger, or the pursuit of happiness, Tool's music instead focuses on Jungian theory (the title Ænima, blends the word 'enema' with Jung's 'anima'), evolution, and the darker side of the soul. Accordingly, in the quick-fix world of radio, Tool's eight- to fifteen-minute songs rarely get airplay, or even comprehension on the airwaves. The subtlety of Ænima's lyrics are often misunderstood by the listener, and are oftentimes so complex that Keenan himself is hardpressed to explain the ideas in words. As a result, much of Tool's press publicity has focused on the band's refusal to explain themselves. They instead encourage people to think for themselves, and, as Keenan states, "read between the lines." For example, the song "Fourty-Six & 2" speaks of the narrator's shadow overcoming his senses and cleansing what was: "By stepping through my shadow / Coming out the other side / Step into the shadow / Forty-six and two are just ahead of me." After much evaluation , a strong speculation among fans is that the song refers to the 46 chromosomes in the human genome, the shadow refers to the evils of society, and the extra "2" conveys the image of the narrator evolving beyond the rest of society to form a new consciousness. Obviously, not the usual 'boy meets girl' song.

        Perhaps the most incredible aspect of the Ænima album is the feeling it conveys to the listener. Music theorist David Tetzlaff quotes renowned British music scholar Simon Frith as saying: "One measure of good music . . . is, precisely, its 'presence', its ability to 'stop' time, to make us feel we are living within a moment, with no memory or anxiety about what has come before, what will come after." (Tetlzaff 100). Tool achieve exactly this effect of being within the sound itself, riding upon the musical waves as the harmonies ebb and flow through the album. The music itself is so powerful that it forces the listener to concentrate solely on the music, making any other simultaneous tasks impossible. Music critic Jack Reynolds asserted this point when he stated that Tool's music reminded him "of the sensation you get when you leave an amazing movie: it takes a fair amount of time to adjust to the mundanity of ordinary existence" (Reynolds 30). While this notion of music as a visual and auditory experience may seem unusual to the average radio listener, it is a common notion among Tool fans. The songs themselves tell a story, sometimes using the instrumentals as the storyteller, sometimes Keenan's vocals. These powerful movements carry the listener on along with the music, using the similar tactics of alternating severity and tenderness used by governments in brainwashing experiments. Only with Tool, the experience is not a negative one, but one of clarity and illumination as another wave of the liquid sound envelops the listener. To listen to Tool is truly to listen to a new kind of music-one that not only entertains the listener, but educates as well, turning the tide of modern music away from tired cliches towards a new enlightenment, and possibly, an evolution.

Selected Bibliography