3 keepers
keeper avg .300
While Deftones don't have everything about their approach buttoned down on their second album, it's lightyears past the 1995 debut. Album opener "My Own Summer (Shove It)"**** proudly highlights the band's discovery of the concept for dynamics as Chino Moreno's delivery ranges from a breathy sigh to full screams with some solid melody in-between, over a fairly complex riff. "Dai the Flu" showcases Moreno's unusual melodic sense and Stephen Carpenter's layered guitar textures. But "Be Quiet and Drive (Far Away)"***** has the magic combination of depth and power that was able to get me interested in a nu-metal band of all things; Carpenter stacks layers of guitar to form intriguing stacked chords, locked into Abe Cunningham's furiously hopping drum pattern, while for most of the song Moreno seems to float in the ether above, pouncing into the groove for the appropriate lines.
Most of other songs involve a lot of yelling, though Moreno sings at least the choruses in "Lhabia" and "Lotion." Even without a strong chorus, "MX"**** is still an intriguing half-song, Moreno's sinister promises both admonishing and seductive. The hidden track "Damone" isn't necessarily worth the annoyance of accessing it (buried at the end of the 37-minute CD track of "MX"), but it's better than at least 3 of the album's proper tracks.
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