No. 203 – Disposition / Reflection

Performer: Tool

Songwriters: Maynard James Keenan, Adam Jones, Danny Carey, Justin Chancellor

Original Release: Lateralus

Year: 2001

Definitive Version: None.

Whew. Well, let’s talk about something a little lighter, shall we? I don’t know about you, but after yesterday, I’m tired of writing, let alone reading. Let’s take a little break from the feast and enjoy an ironic amuse-bouche. The irony is that it took me longer to listen to this song suite than it did to write the entry for it.

Being a huge prog-rock fan, I lamented the seeming death at the end of the 20th Century of the 10-minute epic. Don’t get me wrong: I loved my Nineties grunge rock, but I wanted something more.

Tool broke the 10-minute barrier with Third Eye on Ænima in 1996, but aside from live versions of certain songs, that was it for the rest of the decade as far as the music I listened to at the time. No one else, it seemed, was doing anything on a grand scale. So when Lateralus arrived, I was hopeful. If any band had it in them to crack off a 10-minute song, it was Tool.

As I mentioned a long time ago now, I bought Lateralus just before I was to move out of my house in 2001 following my breakup with Debbie. For various reasons, I wasn’t able to listen to the album all the way through—and thus hear this magnum suite—until I had moved into my apartment. I mention that because I remember the first time I heard Reflection clear as day.

Disposition / Reflection came on. So far I had loved everything I’d heard on the album, and this song fit the overall vibe. I remember digging in particular the understated Eastern-influenced drone of Reflection that continues to build toward climax throughout the song.

As I was doing whatever it was I was doing in the apartment—probably unpacking boxes in the kitchen—I took note of the counter on my CD player. (Tool didn’t list the length of the songs on Lateralus.) It hit seven minutes, then eight … nine.

Finally, the song blasts off, seemingly wrapping up in a hailstorm of metal power chords, but on the fourth assault, right when I think the song will end at 9:30, the drums reintroduce the Eastern polyrhythm again under the guitars, and I was overjoyed. This song ain’t over yet! It’s going past 10! It does, and Nigel Tufnel would approve, because this one even goes to 11.

It was a small thing overall but big at the time—an oasis of pleasure in what was an ocean of misery. My private life had just crumbled, and my professional life was just about to follow suit, but we’ll leave that for another time.