Good Tunes: Deftones, 'Minerva'

I’ve teased some Spotify-inspired Good Tunes posts and it’s high time I deliver! So here is the first of probably a few: “Minerva” by Deftones.

I’ve been meaning to listen to more Deftones for years, so I worked my way through the albums of theirs I don’t have (all except Around the Fur and White Pony) on Spotify. It has been a fantastic musical journal (except for B-Sides & Rarities and Covers, which are not my cup of tea), and I’m not done yet.

Among the gems on the band’s self-titled 2003 album is “Minerva.” It’s the best-known song from the album, and I know I heard it before, but it embodies everything I like about Deftones’s sound: it can be hypnotic and dreamlike, evoking a peaceful sunset over the ocean, as well as hard and aggressive. That’s an impressive range. It’s a sound that symbolizes California for me: beauty and harshness in one.