10,000 Days is the Grammy Award-winning fourth full-length studio album by Tool. It was released on April 28, 2006 in parts of Europe, April 29 in Australia, May 1 in the United Kingdom and May 2 in North America.
Singles
On March 27, 2006 Billboard.com posted an article about 10,000 Days, which mentioned that "Vicarious" would be the album's first single. "Vicarious" was officially released to radio on April 17, and entered the Modern Rock Tracks chart at #2. A music video for the song was tentatively scheduled to premiere in early July 2006. However, it has not yet been released.
The second single from the album is "The Pot", which peaked at #5 on the Modern Rock chart. It was the band's first #1 single on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. A video for "The Pot" was scheduled to shoot over the 2006 holiday season. Industry news site FMQB states that "Jambi" will be the third radio single and should receive airtime on both Modern and Mainstream Rock formats.
Recording
The album was recorded at O'Henry Studios in Burbank, California as well as at The Loft and Grandmaster Studios in Hollywood, California. It was mixed at Bay 7 in North Hollywood and mastered at Gateway Mastering Studios in Portland, Maine. The May 2006 issue of Guitar World (released April 11, 2006) featured an interview with guitarist Adam Jones discussing the new album. Jones explained that recording techniques for the album involved the use of a "pipe bomb microphone" (a guitar pickup mounted inside a brass cylinder), and a talk box guitar solo on the song "Jambi." Drummer Danny Carey triggered many of the sound effects on the album using electronic drums called Mandalas. More information about the "pipe bomb microphone" and the making of 10,000 Days can be found in the MIX Magazine article "The Making of Tool's 10,000 Days", dated July 1st, 2006.
Artwork
The CD packaging for 10,000 Days consists of a thick cardboard-bound booklet partly covered by a flap holding a pair of stereoscopic eyeglasses, which can be used to view a series of images inside (including, for the first time since Undertow, an individual portrait of each band member). Viewed with the glasses, the artwork produces an illusion of depth and three-dimensionality. Alex Grey, who created a majority of the album art for Lateralus and its accompanying video "Parabola", reprised his role for 10,000 Days. The CD face itself is decorated with stylized eyes, arranged in a seemingly logarithmic spiral towards the center (adapted from a previous Alex Grey painting, Collective Vision). As with Tool's other albums, the lyrics are not printed within the artwork; vocalist Maynard James Keenan has instead released lyrics for previous Tool albums online following their respective releases; however, it is unknown if this trend will continue. As of January 2007, only the official lyrics of "Rosetta Stoned", "The Pot", "Wings for Marie (Part 1)" and "10,000 Days (Wings Part 2)" have been released.
On May 5, 2006, the band's official webmaster hinted that "the four individual photos [of the band members] can be used as the pieces of a kind of puzzle", but the puzzle and its meaning "will just be another nut to crack."
On February 11, 2007, Adam Jones, art director and guitarist for the band, received the Grammy Award for Best Recording Package for his work on the 10,000 Days packaging.
Internet leak
On April 14, 2006, a 30-second clip from "Vicarious" aired on Pittsburgh radio station "105.9 The X". Subsequently, the entire song was leaked in WAV format when a private FTP server (used to distribute the song to radio stations) was left open without password protection for a few minutes. The entire album was later leaked to the Internet, despite heavy security and strict conditions regarding media previews. Exactly how the album came to be leaked is unknown. Some rumors had led fans to believe that the band leaked it as an attack on their record company, yet statements from Keenan in interviews expressing his distaste for internet leaks seem to contradict this.
Critical reception
On average, 10,000 Days received generally favorable critical reception, albeit with less enthusiasm than previous Tool albums. Most critics praised the album as another example of Tool's musicianship. Critics who gave 10,000 Days a relatively low score questioned the merits of its ambient interludes, which Tool have also used on their previous releases. In addition, the song "Vicarious" was nominated for the "Best Hard Rock Performance" Grammy. Rolling Stone magazine named it the 38th Best Album of 2006. The album (as aforementioned) also received a Grammy in 2006 for Best Recording Package.