The Real Five: Tool [VIDEO]

This week “The Real Five” looks at Tool.  The band has recently hit the studio, so what a better time to check out some of their past.  This list is surprising, but “The Real Five” is based on the numbers, so there’s no hiding behind the truth.  More after the jump.

You have to remember that for the first few albums Tool was an “underground” thing.  They were freaks with weird videos and only some people “got it”.  It wasn’t until later that they busted things wide open-that’s why the newer Tool stuff has a bigger impact on “The Real Five” (according to airplay).  A lot of us would say “Sober”, “Stinkfist”, “Prison Sex” or some other track(s) are the “best” Tool songs, but once again, they are the “best” in retrospect.  The songs below were giant in their time. It’s also interesting to note that while many people associate Tool with their CRAZY videos, most of the songs on this list do not have an “official” video.  In those cases I substituted the most popular fan made, or lyric video for the song.  Enjoy some Tool.

5. 46 & 2.  Coming in at number five, the oldest tool track on the list. Interestingly enough, it was the record companies fourth try at a single off the album Aenima.  Yes, the album was almost two years old before the general public stated to “get it”.

4. Vicarious. Vicarious was the “lead” track off of 10,000 Days, the 2006 release from Tool.  The song and album were very highly anticipated, so it’s no surprise the lead track did so well.

3. The Pot. The song starts with the strong a Capella message “Who are you to wave your finger?”  It’s a pretty simple statement, but also an enormously powerful one when presented in the context of the song.

2. Lateralus.  Lateralus was the title track but the third release from the 2002 album. It is once again amazing that this “single” achieved such a huge amount of airplay. The second single (between this and Schism) “Parabola” failed to get any real airplay.

1. Schism. At the point when Schism hit the radio people had fully embraced the Tool sound.  Interestingly enough it only made it to number two on the rock charts.  The only Tool song to make it to number one so far was “The Pot”