DEFTONES: Saturday Night Wrist Vinyl LP

The difficult one -- and the one that rewards the most patience.

Saturday Night Wrist (2006) was made under significant internal strain: creative tensions between Chino Moreno and the rest of the band, an unfinished record handed to producer Bob Ezrin mid-session, and a general sense that the whole thing might not hold together. It does hold together, in its own fractured way -- and in hindsight the album's unevenness reads less like a failure and more like a document of a band pushing through a genuinely difficult period. Hole in the Earth, Beware, and Mein landed as standout singles. Cherry Waves is as good a slow-burn ballad as anything in the catalogue. Reviewers at the time were mixed; fans have since revised their verdict significantly upward.