Tool – Fear Inoculum

I need to put this out here so that I can move on with my Play Later playlist. Probably I rather want to listen to it a hundred more times than say too much about it.

My short summary is that Tool’s journey can be heard on this one again, like through each one of their records. Again, it’s more refined, more nuanced, and more soft. This also means that it’s less raw, less surprising, and less revolting. Some Tool fans are not satisfied with this journey, and I’m not one of those fans. I like everything about it, I like what their music has become. My only concern is that with Maynard’s works in other areas of life I cannot help thinking whether his full soul is still in this project, or it’s just something that he gave in to and tried to accomplish to the best of his efforts. However, I have no doubt that they did everything as good as they humanly could to accomplish this record.

The music is not something I could describe with words like great, wonderful, or such. It works on a very different level and scale. I love that there are the most number of 10+ minute songs so far, and I love the path all those take from beginning to end. I’m meh for the short filler pieces, but the arcs of the epic ones blow me away, those are the ones why I have this album on constant replay for a week now.

On another note, I just realized that each Tool album represents a completely different stage in my life. This is also probably why I will always like their latest album the best. The music part is not something that’s up for debate, I know that their work will always resonate with me. It’s just what I add and how I connect to it.

Drab Majesty – Modern Mirror

This album is so not interesting. Just wanted to make a note here: I don’t feel this to be a goth album at all, it’s way more of a new wave (sometimes future pop) dressed as goth. Probably that’s the very reason I don’t like it. Under this darkwave look I don’t feel any real content and value. There’s also this trend of new goth music incorporating a heavy influence from synthwave. Sometimes I like it, in this case I don’t. I compare this record to everything by Cigarettes After Sex. *smirk

Marie Davidson – Working Class Woman

This album is part hilarious and part fascinating. Work It is something I cannot not re-listen any number of times, it is like a caricature of a motivational speech but it actually does feel motivating. And The Tunnel is creepy like hell, it’s like an audio version of a horror movie and not in a sense that there are horroresque soundtrack elements in it but the atmosphere and words hit nails under my nails. Overall the whole record is that great kind of avantgarde with minimal wave synth sounds where the words deliver meaning even if they sound dadaist at times. It’s artsy but works.

Plaid – Polymer

This is a wonderful record. My love for Plaid was strong in the late ’90s and early ’00s, in the era of their classics and when everything was abount IDM. The journey they took after had interesting moments but it was different. And different is good, at least they didn’t try to repeat themselves and either fail or succeed but in a boring way. But now, this album is like the thing I’ve been waiting for: it has everything I love about them and still sounds new and fresh. This is my favorite kind of nostalgia experience: something that feels like what I remember but actually being a totally refurbished and improved version of that memory. Right now this is my favorite Plaid album, and it feels so great to think that. Random note: wrapping up this list of tracks with Praze gives me goosebumps.

Jambinai – ONDA

Korean post-rock played with traditional instruments and musical elements. This ablum is breathtaking. The “totally didn’t see this coming” winner of the month. The kind of experience that is hard to imagine without listening to it and feeling the goosebumps all over me.