When I was about 19, I sent Tool a long email asking if they were familiar with the work of Thorwald Dethlefsen. вЂњForty Six & 2вЂќ would seem to refer to the number of chromosomes a human being possesses and point towards some possible evolution.

I owe my friend Karl a million dollars from a bet one night at a bar when I confused it with вЂњIntermissionвЂќ somehow. вЂњUseful IdiotвЂќ closes the first side of the vinyl release. вЂњH.вЂќ may be about the birth of MaynardвЂ™s son Devo. It might be amusing to listen to it now and think of Donald Trump. Ron Hubbard but could equally be applied to virtually any demagogue. MTV wouldnвЂ™t call it by its name, labeling it instead as вЂњTrack #1.вЂќ вЂњStinkfistвЂќ is an elaboration of the anhedonia of depression, wrapped in a sexually explicit metaphor. Something kind of sad about, the way that things have come to be desensitized to everything-what became of subtlety? I may or may not have ever managed to pry my third eye open. Rather, it is hard to overstate the effect that this band-and Г†nima in particular-has had on my life and development in thought. This risks becoming too much about me, in a way that would be boring, but the point isnвЂ™t supposed to be that IвЂ™m OGT or anything like that. And, of course, the album is dedicated to Bill Hicks, who is sampled on вЂњThird Eye.вЂќ So I tracked down a VHS tape of that performance ( Sane Man) and became a Bill Hicks fan. So I went to the bookstore and bought some of his work. The title (anima), along with the reference to the shadow in вЂњForty Six & 2,вЂќ clearly stem from Carl Jung. On the one hand, then, I could point to various references made throughout the record, as though to explain them to you-and there could be some value in this-but on the other hand I once posted an extended interpretation of вЂњH.вЂќ to the Tool Usenet newsgroup arguing that the song is about hemorrhoids (which I never believed).ДЄnd I could tell you about the night driving down 261 between Kent and Ravenna, Ohio when I broke into tears listening to вЂњJimmyвЂќ as the вЂњsheвЂќ referenced became my own mother and 11 the age when I became separated from my father, and somehow this all clicked like some kind of moment of epiphany.ДЄ couple of reference points on Г†nima need to be mentioned, however. IвЂ™ve always felt that part of the power of Г†nima is that Maynard James KeenanвЂ™s lyrics are throughout open to multiple interpretations and open to various resonances, some of which simply could not have been planned. ToolвЂ™s Г†nima felt like a perfect palliative at that time for the cultural malaise of the mid-90s and for my angst-ridden teenage self, but it hits just as hard 25 years later in 2021. I donвЂ™t recall anyone particularly caring all that muchвЂ¦about anything, really. Bill Clinton is President, and running for a reelection he will handily win against Bob Dole.

Tool aenima album art