Three picks that will hopefully surprise some people:
14. Hooker With A Penis
While some see this song as immature and stupid, I see it as ironic and hilarious. While it is the closest Tool can really come to a ‘novelty song’, it’s actually got great riffs and vocal moments, with the chorus being an expletive-filled delight. The various moments where it breaks down to just Maynard whispering are excellent, especially the ‘shut up and… BUYYYY! MY RECORD!’ bit, which is the best, and most hilarious, artist response to being called a sellout that I have ever heard. It also has one of Tool's best instrumental section.
13. You Lied (Live)
Another cover, but a fine one again from Danny Carey’s old band. The atmosphere in this song is incredible, with the bass riff in the intro building up anticipation that is added to by wonderfully harmonised guitar parts, before the crashing, and, for lack of a better word, epic riff, comes in (a riff that reminds me a lot of Metallica’s Outlaw Torn, incidentally) Maynard’s on top form here, and Justin Chancellor does a great job doing the backup vocals in the final verse, which really add more to the song than they’d seem to. Add an amazing outro to all of this, and you’ve got yourself a wonderful cover, and an even more stunning live performance.
12. Cold And Ugly (Live)
This is really the song that proves to me that Tool can do straightforward hard rock with the best of them. The production on Opiate is so raw (probably unintentionally…) but in this song it really adds to the sound. My favourite parts of this song are the way Maynard sings ‘trembling at the thouuught of, feeeeeling,’ for some reason, I really love the way he draws out those words. The quasi-solo is also great, and the fact that it’s live actually adds to it in this case for me. A low-key, angry, straightforward song, three adjectives that are rare to find all in the same Tool track.