Deftones
White Pony

Release Date: 2000 | Tracklist

White Pony is the point at which the Deftones seemed to find their sweet spot. Their first two albums were both uniformly excellent releases that garnered much deserved acclaim however in retrospect they both appeared to be building towards White Pony. The addition of Frank Delgado on the wheels of steel and the much more common fluctuations in tempo resulted in White Pony being their most eclectic release musically up to that point.

The album retained the intensity of their first two releases with tracks like Elite, Street Carp, and Korea but it also demonstrated an increased focus on melody. Digital Bath shimmers majestically while Change may well be their single greatest song. These songs like most Deftones songs maintain an ominous tone that is quite foreboding as Chino continually walks the line between sexual topics and sadistic ones lyrically often blurring the two together. His eloquence with these themes demonstrates just how similar these moods can be at times and his lyrical ambiguity allows the listener to come to his own conclusions and relate the songs to their life in which ever fashion they see fit. The addition of Delgado and the increased atmospherics he brought with him also heightened this tone with his tasteful fluorishes adorning an already rock solid musical foundation. Perhaps spurred by the success of Be Quiet and Drive the band were more than up to some more experimentation with slower songs. This resulted in bold moves like Chino using a poem he had written at age fifteen and coupling it with the sparsest instrumentation in the Deftones catalogue on Teenager. The uncluttered arrangement meshes perfectly with the simplicity inherent in the lyrics. Passenger also continued their tradition of collaborating with outside vocalists that began with Max Cavalera on Headup off Around the Fur and continued with Serj Tankian and Ann Hardy on Saturday Night Wrist tracks Mein and Pink Cellphone repectively. Maynard James Keenan of Tool works so well with/off Chino on Passenger that it is a crime that they have yet to collaborate again. Knife Party and RX Queen are also songs with big choruses that are easy on the ears and instantly ingratiating. Chino shows his increased comfort in his vocal range throughout the album going from screams to sighs effortlessly. The album takes the progressions of Around The Fur and expands further upon them displaying the Deftones career long refusal to stagnate creatively.

However, and rather unfortunately at that, this album would prove to be the commercial high water mark for the Deftones. Change and Back To School (which I still maintain was an idead hatched by Maverick ) were hits at modern rock radio sitting alongside the usual spit polished turds predominant on modern rock radio. Over time it has also seemed as though this was the last time the Deftones even attempted to expand their commercial prospects as from this point on they were content to continue doing their own thing with little disregard for singles or unit shifting. Their decision to take that route instead of the one most often travelled has no doubt resulted in their longevity while other bands of their era like Korn continually attempted to appease the masses by working with big name pop producers like Atticus Ross as their significance diminished with each subsequent release. Deftones are sittting much more comfortably at this point and their stock hasn't wavered after over twenty years of service.

There is a reason that a good portion of the Deftones audience believe White Pony to be their best album because quite simply it is.

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4.4 superb

Rank: #5 for 2000