MattA75's Full Review: Emotive [PA] by A Perfect Circle
I made no secret last year that I thought A Perfect Circle's sophomore album, Thirteenth Step, was by far the biggest disappointment and let down of the musical year. While I understood what the band was attempting to do with that record (namely, record a cohesive ALBUM), I just feel it didn't come across as well as intended. Consequently, when I was in an APC mood, I continued to reach for the band's debut, Mer de Noms.
Meanwhile, I was completely unaware until about two weeks ago that the band had a new record in the can. I was even more unaware that it was mostly a record of cover songs, though given lead vocalist Maynard James Keenan's penchant for taking forever to write new material, it shouldn't have been a surprise.
So today, Election Day 2004, A Perfect Circle released Emotive, a collection of 12 songs (10 covers, 2 originals) that makes no bones about what it is: a protest album against the war in Iraq, and the general policies of the Bush administration, and where the band feels the country has moved over the last four years, and where they feel we might be heading if another four years of Bush is to take place. The timing of the album's release makes some sense, although one wonders why they wouldn't have released it a couple of weeks before the election for maximum impact.
To the band's credit, it takes giant balls to completely re-arrange songs such as John Lennon'sImagine or Marvin Gaye'sWhat's Going On. In essence, the band rips the guts out of both of these songs. While Imagine was always a hopeful song about a Utopian society, here it becomes something akin to an ominous death march, with the darker tones that completely overhaul any and all preconceptions of what this song was and could be.
What's Going On is a bit more upbeat, although its far from uptempo. Keenan gives a brilliant vocal performance on this song, allowing small glimmers of hope into his otherwise sad and detached reading of the song.
Perhaps the most haunting track on the record is the opening Annihilation (from which I took my title, originally done by Crucifix), which is almost jingle-like in it's arrangement, and Keenan's whispered vocals are one of the most captivating things I've heard on record all year.
For those who were salivating over the Trent Reznor/Keenan side project dubbed Tapeworm, the song Passive apparently comes from those sessions. The song is one of the heavier songs on the record, and is probably closest to the type of song that casual APC fans would come into this album wanting. With that being said, the sound achieved on Passive is certainly the exception and not the rule on this album.
APC co-founder and guitarist Billy Howerdel takes a vocal turn on (What's So Funny Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding, made famous by Elvis Costello. His voice manages to come close to matching the emotion found in Keenan's contributions to this record, and this isn't the only time one can say that. His other vocal turns, on Depeche Mode'sPeople are People and Devo'sFreedom of Choice, are just as noteworthy. The Devo cover, in fact, may be the best song here, melding not only the sound that APC has worked hard in achieving, but also allowing a bit of the famous Devo sound to color the track as well.
Sadly, the album does lose a bit of steam over the last third or so. Counting Bodies Like Sheep to the Rhythm of the War Drums has a solid marching quality to it that certainly brings up visions of soldiers, but the fact remains that this is nothing more than a remix of Pet from the Thirteenth Step record, and well, I liked Pet a lot more than I like this.
When the Levee Breaks, best known as a Zeppelin tune, is terribly repetitive and boring, while the closing Fiddle and the Drum (originally done by Joni Mitchell) brings the album to a bit of a snoozing close.
All in all though, Emotive is an impressive collection of songs and performances. It isn't perfect, but I find myself liking it more and more with each listen. For an album that has seemingly divided the most ardent fans of the band, I find very little to be divisive about. 4 stars.
A Perfect Circle s new album, eMOTIVe is a collection of songs about war, peace, love and greed. In addition to previously announced versions of JOHN ...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
![Emotive [PA] by A Perfect Circle](http://di1.shopping.com/images1/pi/6d/3a/a1/2002410235-177x150-0-0.jpg)
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.