ALBUM RECOMMENDATIONS |

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The old five-point scale has been retired in favor of just rating stuff 1-10, which allows me a much more nuanced final rating. Still don't take it that seriously. Most of these come from my own collection, so the grades skew rather high. Your results may vary if you send me stuff to review.

Each album is given three Essential tracks, my personal favorites, regardless of how weird and inconsequential they are. The Quintessential pick is the one I think best represents the album as a whole, so you can try one song instead of a whole album of songs. Non-Essential picks range from merely disappointing to outright unlistenable.

Deftones

[#] Around the Fur (1997)

Reviewed March 5, 2025

Postcoital dysphoria¹ at matching volume.

Nothing hits you as hard as "My Own Summer" played loud through your friend's car speakers being your introduction to Deftones. An incredibly ominous circular riff sets the stage for the full extent of Chino Moreno's vocal prowess, from eerie sing-whispering to violent screams of "shove it aside" to fading moans in the post-chorus. Deftones did these sorta deranged dynamics better than any of their peers, recognizing that you can capture a whole lot more emotion when you carefully place your screaming fits. Really, the pure volume workouts peppered through the second side are where Around the Fur gets lost in the shuffle. The creepy atmospheres? Those are the properly intense bits.

Instrumentally, Deftones (especially their guitarist Stephen Carpenter) do a great job of creating Earth-shaking musical backings to suit Chino's moods, whether that's in the grimy, dissonant crawl of "Mascara", the new wave shimmer of "Be Quiet and Drive", or the billowing, smoky "Dai the Flu". It's in these genre-blending, atmospheric moments that Around the Fur really shines, especially where Chino turns a road trip with a new love nauseously emotional on "Drive" or has intentionally morbid, tone-deaf phone sex on "MX" (courtesy of drummer Abe Cunningham's wife). The rap rock tracks like "Lotion" or "Headup", less so--good as the band are at noise, the aggression is too one-dimensional to be all that interesting. It'll still probably get off the nu-metal fans a-plenty, though.

¹I didn't come up with that phrase, but damn I wish I did.