Tool - Undertow
|
List Price: Our Price: $11.66 You Save: $7.32 (39%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $7.25 (click here) Category: Music CD See more new music releases 
|
|---|
Canadian Music Store
Free Music Notes for Undertow
Free Music Review: Flawless!
Hit: 5 Stars
This may not be Tool's best CD, but man, it is FLAWLESS! The first track, "Intolerence," is a great way to start the CD. It is not the heaviest thing on earth, but it is great. The sound effects in the begining are pretty cool. "Prison Sex," track two, is one of my favorites on the CD. It starts out with some seage sound effects, and then goes into an awesome ballad about where mistakes can take you (this song has nothing to do with the title...) Then the single of the album, "Sober," has all rights to be the single. D'Amour is an awesome bassist, and this song proves that very well. I think it's a ballad about a paranoid guy who wants the past back. Henry Rollins comes in as a guest on "Bottom," which probably would've been the second single. It is very agressive, long, and just overall awesome. Definately one of the best. Then comes "Crawl Away." This song starts out with some strange sound effects that sounds like a detuned violin. Then it turns into a great guitar-driven track that is most likely the second best on the album, but then it comes. "Swamp Song." This is the greatest song on the album, and it is sort of a war song. The lyrics are just awesome! "Undertow," the title track, is next. This song is just fabulous! It starts out with a little guitar solo and then goes into a loud-soft-loud-soft sort of song. The lyrics are pretty good here too. "Shut up, shut up, shut up, set your enemy." The most innovative track is next. "Four Degrees" is BEAUTEOUS! I love the Egyptian guitar riff in the begining! Maynard's singing is just superb here. Then comes a darker track, "Flood." This has seldom any singing, and it is pretty freaky. Then, track 69, is the experiance of the album, which is the scariest thing ever. "Disgustipated" starts off with some sheep and a bongo, and some other little sound effects. Then a man's voice came on. It is so creepy...OVERALL: This is a great CD, not bad in any way. AEnima is better, though.
Free Music Review: Undertow
Hit: 5 Stars
Tool is probably my favorite band and this is my favorite album that the band has put out. Opiate and Ænima are also great albums, but in my opinion, Undertow is the best of the three.Some people have said that Ænima stands up better to repeated listenings than Undertow, but I don't agree. In fact, I think Undertow has the most replay value of Tool's three releases. Ænima is the best album to listen to straight through because a lot of the songs have similar sounds and it all flows together very well, but unless you always want to listen to the whole album, Undertow is the better choice. Contrary to what a couple of the editoral reviews say, Undertow has a fairly nice variety going. "Crawl Away" is one of Tool's heaviest songs (which makes sense, since it was one of the first songs they wrote), while "4 Degrees" is fairly soft-spoken by comparison.
Some people also feel that Undertow is "mindless rock," which blows my mind. Undertow has just as many philosophical concepts going on as Ænima. Songs like "Intolerance" and "Flood" deal with questions of faith, "Undertow" has been interpreted as being about struggling with substance abuse, and more.
In addition, a lot of self-professed "Tool fans" feel that "Sober" and "Prison Sex" are the best songs on the album, and the best that Tool has ever done. While they are good songs, I feel that they are actually two of the weaker songs here. "4 Degrees" and "Bottom" are so underappreciated that I can scarcely believe it. Then you have "Flood" and "Crawl Away," which are probably my two favorite Tool songs. As I said, though, there are no bad songs on this album.
If you don't own a Tool album yet, I would recommend buying Undertow first and then Opiate. If you buy Ænima first, don't expect all that many similarities between it and the other records.
Free Music Review: Superb
Hit: 5 Stars
To move from the E.P 'Opiate' to the album 'Undertow', released only a year later, is to move from a successful yet experimental foray into the previously uncharted musical waters which tool sail, to far more rounded, inclusive vision fully realised- a sound and style which would be expanded and built upon in tool's later releases.The sound lacks some of the rabid intensity of 'Aenima' or the utter complexity of 'Lateralus', yet this remains probably Tool most accessible release. The bass sounds fantastic, guitars screech menacingly, and Tools cathartic, emotionally compelling anger driven sound is inaugurated.
Undertow constitutes a fantastically diverse collection of songs, from the biting 'Intolerance', which manically berates another soul, to the gentle '4degrees' which concerns opening without reservation. The slightly more commercially recognisable (and viable) 'Prison sex' and 'Sober', are two of the albums best cuts, as is the cataclysmic finale 'Disgustipated', which in a truly bizzare world attains the dubious honour of remaining a particularly bizzare 'song'.
Under the surface of the entire album a subtle 'water' theme runs, which was prefigured in part by 'Sweat' back on 'Opiate' ('Sinking deeper, its almost like I'm swimming'). This theme shoots directly to prominence on two tracks specifically- which is fairly obvious when you consider their titles: 'Flood' and the title track, 'Undertow' itself. This underlying theme is intriguing and adds a cogent quality to the albums sprawling whole.
Maynard uses emotional imnsecurity and societys faults as powerful subject matter for extremely insightful lyrics and immpressive vocals, and hence the album is very intellectually stimulating material.
Well played, written and recorded, a joy to listen to, highly recommended.
Free Music Review: Their finest hour.
Hit: 5 Stars
Opiate, while it had a lot of good songs ("Sweat" "Cold and Ugly" "Jerk Off" "Opiate"), was too simple and straightforward. Aenima, while it also had a lot of good songs ("Eulogy" "46 & 2" "Aenima" even the strange "Die Eier Von Satan"), was too broken up and fragmented. Undertow is the perfect blend.In essence, it is a concept album about corruption, with a surprisingly religious theme (I am an atheist, but can still appreciate it). "Intolerance" sees God furious at the human race ("I want to believe you, I wanted to trust you, I want to have faith to put away the dagger . . . but you lie, cheat and steal"), and preparing revenge, and from these flaming towers, we are brought down into the world as it is. "Prison Sex" and "Crawl Away" are vicious, dark, negative-space for the rest of the album to paint upon - which says something, as the rest of the album covers a formidable spectrum of darkness and evil. "Sober" is about dishonesty and remorse. "Swamp Song" is about sliding into self-destructive neurosis. "Undertow" is about schizopherenic madness, while "4 Degrees" deals with despoilment and deflowerment. Finally, in the end ("Flood") God comes to take back what was his, and put an end to his creations. (the only fluke is "Disgustipated", which the band elected to seperate from the rest of the album by a minute of silence, or 60 tracks to skip through - odd and interesting, but a fluke).
Undertow belongs right up on the shelf next to Metallica's "Master of Puppets", Pink Floyd's "Wish You Were Here", and other examples of a good band at its best.
Free Music Review: Rock doesnt have to thrash to be exceptional
Hit: 5 Stars
After their short 6 song debut CD "Opiate", Tool got the exposure they needed to come up with Undertow, my favorite of the four Tool CD's. Definitely rock, Undertow is still a moodier, mellower CD than the thrash and head-banging I usually listen to, but pure and true to fans of the rock genre. Released in 1993, Tool's Undertow was part of the refining process that brought metal back from the grips of the measured and more sorrow-ridden grunge tracks that grew out of the 80's.
Melancholy and darker than their later works, with a touch of the de-tuning that Korn brought out of the closet for our metal-listening pleasure, Tool was smack dab in the middle of the 90's rebirth of rock and metal. This is one of my favorites for just kickin back and relaxing, nice background for reading, writing, or hot-tubbing.
My favorite song would have to be Sober, which is a little mellower than the rest of the songs but has such a catchy melody that it seems to be the one that sticks in my head the longest. Prison Sex and Intolerance are also catchy, thrumming tunes; while Swamp Song and Flood are the darkest and moodiest of the collection. Surprisingly, the song the CD was titled after, Undertow, is not a favorite. It just seems to lack the life that Maynard James Keenan pumps into the rest of the tracks.
Disgustipated seems to have two faces, on some of the comments I have seen it has long drawn out silences, but on my CD it wound out being only one second of silence and that's it; so I really don't have any comments on that particular track.
All in all, Tool's Undertow is a piece I consider a "must have" mood CD for those times when you are feeling a bit bleak and depressed, but not ready to give up the fight just yet. Enjoy!