Quote:"Sober" is a song by American rock band Tool. The song was released as the first single from their debut studio album, Undertow. Tool guitarist Adam Jones has stated in an interview that the song is about a friend of the band whose artistic expression only comes out when he is under the influence. "A lot of people give him shit for that," Jones explains. "If you become addicted and a junkie, well, that's your fault.

Quote:Music video

Screenshot of the Sober music video depicting the humanoid being.
A music video for "Sober" was made in 1993. It debuted in May of that same year and was directed by Fred Stuhr. It was filmed using stop-motion animation, with the characters' models designed by Adam Jones. It was the first of Tool's videos to be made in stop motion, the earlier promo video for "Hush" being live action. Whereas all four band members could be seen at all times during the previous clip, "Sober" shows only brief flashes of them.

The video's protagonist is a small, humanoid being, who lives and sleeps in an abandoned mansion, in a rusty room sparsely decorated with a table, a chair, and a bed with no mattress and a curtain as a blanket. He happens to stumble upon a wooden box, which he opens near the beginning. Its contents are kept hidden for the majority of the video's duration, but it seems that whatever it is, it has had adverse mind altering effects – there are repeated shots of the humanoid levitating in his chair, and his head and arm vibrating wildly. While experiencing these effects, the figure ventures through his living quarters and its many corridors.

The climax provides a barrage of imagery and revelations: a figure attached to a wall behind a translucent screen, a sentry of sorts wielding a mobile, robotic cannon and an organic substance flowing through a pipe found in the house. At the end, the box is empty, leaving the viewer to determine its meaning.

Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain claimed the video was a “shameless ripoff” of the stop-motion animations by filmmakers the Brothers Quay.

(Sep 15, 2025 10:18 AM)TheMightyKnighty Wrote:  Yeah! TOOL is so sick!