1. Tool - Lateralus (2001)
Notable Tracks: Just start from the beginning and don't interrupt We finally made it to the end! If you haven't noticed yet (I'm sure you have), I'm a major fan of Tool. I wasn't sucked right in, however. I had to listen to their albums multiple times to really understand the music and the journey both their 1996 album Aenima, and their 2001 album Lateralus provide. Lateralus really is a journey from beginning to end. The record begins with one of the heavier songs, then moves into the tracks that work as the heart, or the core. Again, with this record, Tool not only delivers some of the best lyrics you will ever hear on a rock album, they also utilize more inventive methods of delivering the actual sounds. The album deals with antiquated mathematics during certain songs. Particularly, the song Lateralus is written in accordance to the Fibonacci sequence. The song itself has some interesting time signature variations, but during the chorus, the time signatures change from 9/8 to 8/8 to 7/8. 987 Just so happens to be the 16th number of the Fibonacci sequence. That must be a good, old-fashioned coincidence, right? Wrong. If you count between the obvious pauses in Maynard's singing, the syllables represent a spiraling version of the Fibonacci sequence. For example, the syllables go in this order: 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 5, 3, 2, 1, 1,2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 8, 5, 3. During these lyrics, Maynard vocalizes about a spiral going in and out, then riding said spiral to the end. It's compositions like this that prove to be absolutely astounding. One of the more popular songs from this album, Schism, is also composed in an intriguing manner. The song changes meter 47 times. Without getting too technical, the constant change in meter not only sounds fairly interesting on paper, but it sounds absolutely incredible blaring through your stereos. This is the album transcends all other albums in the 21st century, and very well may go down on a list, like this one (but better, probably), as one of the greatest rock albums of all time.
Note: I'd like to thank the readers who rode the lengthy spiral to the end of this countdown. I truly appreciate your time and support. I invite you to express your anger, resentment, arguments, agreements, etc. in the comments section. I'll be sure to respond kindly! Until next time, I'm not asking you to do as Bill Hicks suggests and "take all of your records, tapes, and CD's, and burn them," but I am requesting that you at least attempt to broaden your music horizons and give at least one, if not all of these albums a first, second, or fiftieth listen.