Rockabye Baby – Lullaby Renditions Of Tool

Tool is one of those bands that I’ve followed for years with great pleasure. Their music is equally creepy, aggressive, and yet uplifting and fascinating to me. They really can’t be beat for atmosphere, brute force, brilliant lyrics and mastery of form. And then there’s Maynard James Keenan’s voice, which is (in my opinion) unequaled in this vein.

I came to them just a little late, with Undertow, when I learned that another favourite artist of mine, Henry Rollins, had contributed vocals to the song Bottom. I have bought every album the band has released since and have never once been disappointed. My one great regret (regarding this band) is having a copy of their Salival DVD in my hands in HMV on Rue Ste. Catherine in Montréal several years ago and, lacking discretionary funds at the time, I left it there. Of course, it was limited edition and soon went out of print, and when I went back for it it was long gone. It now sells for exorbitant amounts of money through collector sites, if you’re lucky enough to even find a copy of it. So often a release will say Limited Edition on it and yet it remains easily available. This one time, I guess, they meant it when they said limited. Damn.

Anyway, now you know more than you likely wanted to know about my unimportant (to you) history with this band’s work. I could probably have summed it up by saying “I’m a fan,” but apparently I’ve lost all ability to be concise (if I ever had it).

So, to the point. As with most other things that cross my path without my knowing why, I somehow or other heard of a series of albums being released called Rockabye Baby, produced and arranged by some guy named Michael Armstrong. These albums feature lullaby (yes, you read that correctly) versions of songs by artists as varied as radiohead, Pink Floyd, Nirvana, Metallica and, yes, Tool. Being a fan of all of these bands, I knew I’d want to hear them, if only for the entertainment value that was sure to ensue.

I don’t remember mentioning this series to my brother-in-law, but at Christmas this year he gave me my very own copy of the Lullaby Renditions Of Tool. Right on! We popped it into the CD player immediately and, half-expecting hilarity, I was actually thrilled to hear well-done and interesting musical impressions of some of Tool’s best-known songs. What struck me was just how fantastic and off-beat it would be to actually play this in a baby’s nursery. Sure, on one level it’s just a bunch of xylophone, bells, chimes and vibraphone tracks that are melodic and pretty-sounding. But on another level entirely, Tool’s music has an undercurrent of rather menacing and spine-tingling edginess which, I’d imagine, couldn’t be at all soothing to infants.

I really liked this CD, and I will play it often. The joke would be lost if you don’t know Tool’s stuff, though if you aren’t acquainted with them already, it’s about bloody time you were. Would I recommend you play this for your baby? After much consideration, I say yes, for the same reasons that made the Grimm fairytales universally popular. Sure, they’re not really built for kids but, hey, that’s the real world for you. May as well give them a head start.