1 keeper
keeper avg .083
No matter how much I try I can't get into Tool and I can't get into APC. Not that "Judith"***** wasn't a hell of a single; with Billy Howerdel's inventive melodic guitar riffs and Maynard James Keenan's howling chorus it rose to #4 on the US Mainstream Rock. Generally, most of the songs are at least Tool-adjacent, just without Danny Carey's virtuosic drumming. Other points of reference are the Alice In Chains grunge of "Magdalena," as well as their angular, ominous vocal harmonies, the spacey rock like Deftones of "Breña," and the restrained emo of Failure or Shiner in the dramatic "3 Libras" (I'd credit the influence of Troy Van Leeuwen, though this isn't even one of the songs he's credited on). Funny that the best part of any given song seems to be an evocative melodic guitar lead by Howerdel. Also interesting that he has a thing for a mellow, unhurried waltz-time, which he uses in about half of the album's rock-type songs.
There are memorable bits here and there; the rhythmically-complex intro to album-opener "The Hollow", the menacing guitar wails in "Magdalena", and the dramatic harmonies in the choruses of "Thinking of You" and "Thomas" are a few. There are also some true clunkers: "Rose" with its boring guitar gimmicks, the monotonous unison vocal/guitar-chugging in "Thinking of You," and the weird album-closing "Over," a little xylophone song blurb-thing (with a brief, dramatic piano transition). Other than that it's just so much "fine" and I can't listen to this f-ing album any more. I mean, good on Billy Howerdel for turning a roadie gig with Tool and rooming with Keenan into a full-on musical career, and good on Keenan for giving the project its due attention, as it's not like he needed a new gig after the resounding success of Ænima (1996).
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