10,000 Days is the Grammy Award-winning fourth studio album by American rock band Tool. The album 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. By the end of 2007 the album had sold 2.5 million copies worldwide and has been awarded a Platinum certification by the RIAA.^[1]

Recording [link]

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 June 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". The "pipe bomb microphone" and other studio related information was further detailed in the June 1, 2006 issue of Mix.^[2] Drummer Danny Carey operated many of the sound effects on the interlude tracks on the album using electronic drums called Mandalas.

Packaging [link]

The compact disc 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 toward the center (adapted from a previous Alex Grey painting, "Net of Being"). As with Tool's other albums, the lyrics are not printed within the artwork; vocalist Maynard James Keenan has instead released the lyrics online.^[3]

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".^[4]

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.

Singles [link]

On March 27, 2006 Billboard.com posted an article about 10,000 Days,^[5] 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 released on DVD on December 18, 2007.^[6] The song has also been featured as a playable track on the video game Guitar Hero World Tour. The second single from the album was "The Pot", which peaked at No. 5 on the Modern Rock chart. It was the band's first No. 1 single on the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart. A video for "The Pot" was scheduled to shoot over the 2006 holiday season.^[7] "Jambi" was the third radio single and received airtime on both Modern^[8] and Mainstream Rock^[9] formats.

Critical reception [link]

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	68/100[10]
Review scores
Source	Rating
Allmusic	[11]
Drowned in Sound	8/10[12]
IGN	8.5/10[13]
Pitchfork Media	5.9/10[14]
PopMatters	6/10[15]
Rolling Stone	[16]
The Skinny	[17]
Sputnikmusic	3.5/5[18]

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.^[19] 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.^[20] The album also received a Grammy Award in 2006 for Best Recording Package. In 2008, 10,000 Days garnered another Grammy nomination when "The Pot" was nominated for "Best Hard Rock Performance".

Internet leak [link]

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.^[21] 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 to spite their record company,^[22] yet statements from Keenan in interviews expressing his distaste for Internet leaks seem to contradict this.^{[citation needed]}

Track listing [link]

Personnel [link]

Charting [link]

10,000 Days entered the U.S. Billboard 200 chart at number one, selling 564,000 copies in its first week. This was Tool's second album to top the Billboard 200 chart upon release. In Australia, 10,000 Days debuted at No. 1, selling 39,278 in its first week. In the UK, the album debuted at No. 4, the highest chart position they have ever managed in that country. It was certified Platinum in the U.S. by the RIAA on June 9, 2006. As of April 2007, 10,000 Days has sold 2.75 million copies worldwide. As of July 7, 2010, the album has sold 1,736,000 copies in the US.

Album [link]

Singles [link]

References [link]

External links [link]

• 10,000 Days at Metacritic