Album Rating: 4.5
yea, it took me a while to fully appreciate with White Pony, but it clicked with me after a while. KNY is a lot of fun to jam, but it's recently been competing with SNW for my third favorite from them
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Album Rating: 5.0
'But what does the woo symbolize? What is the deeper subtext here? Now that is the question.''
To find the answer to this question, we must first be wary of the context: this 'woo' follows the line, 'guns, razors, knives (fuck with me)', which are screamed rather than sung, giving them a sense of intensity. This line implies a willingness to use violence of any sort to defend oneself
But the 'woo' reshapes the meaning of the previous line, and infers that Chino Moreno, the lyricist, actually not only is aware of the violence he is participating in, but indulges in it and relishes it.
This, combined with the song's surrounding lyrics, such as 'you're red, soaking wet' and 'I'll be right next to you' imply that this violence is at least partially sexual in nature, which might lead us to a conclusion that Chino gets an orgasmic pleasure from the use of weapons.
But there's more we can get from this if we hyperfocus on the word 'woo' itself: perhaps Chino is using an alternate definition. Let's look at our available options:
'woo'
1. seek the favor, support, or custom of.
"pop stars are being wooed by film companies eager to sign them up"
2. try to gain the love of (someone), especially with a view to marriage.
"he wooed her with quotes from Shakespeare"
Given the sexual nature of the rest of the song, we can deduce that the second definition is more likely. Perhaps Chino himself does not find pleasure in the use of weapons; perhaps it is the unnamed person he is trying to ingratiate himself with that does, and perhaps Chino is attempting to 'woo' him or her with these displays of weaponry.
Chino himself may say that he used said 'woo' as either an expression of energy or under it's definition that I've provided, but I'm not satisfied with either conclusion. I say we review this 'woo' using the literacy concept 'death of the author', and exclude the word's original intent entirely.
In conclusion, the 'woo' exists in a quantum state where it can be read as either, or can even be read as both. It's a perfect, laser-accurate use of a double entendre, with can be analyzed much further than the simple overview I've given thus far. The amount of meaning packed into that one-second exclamation, that three-letter outburst, is a perfect encapsulation of what makes Deftones so cerebral and poetic, and why I have decided to give this album a perfect score of 5.0 out of 5.0.
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