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So you’ve heard something about Maynard James Keenan from Tool in another band? Well
you’ve heard right. For those who are followers of Keenan and his bizarre yet awesome
activities know about the band A Perfect Circle. Can’t get enough of Tool? Don’t hold
your breath for the next album as it looks like they won’t be getting back for awhile.
A Perfect Circle is NOT a side project, but an entirely independent, self reliant entity
in the world of rock.
Tool fans run hot and cold with A Perfect Circle. Some say Keenan sold out by working
with another band. Traditionalists say that Tool should stay Tool all the way to the end.
Ironically enough on their 3rd album the song, Hooker with a penis, is about just that.
Anyway, keep in mind that A Perfect Circle is not Tool, and vice versa. Besides, who would
want to hear a band that sounds exactly like another one? Nevertheless, APC definitely has
some Tool aspects to it starting with their first album Mer de Noms, released in 2000.
Let me state right away that A Perfect Circle is a mellower band. Don’t be misleaded though;
APC can still kick some ass. Just because their songs aren’t full of screaming lyrics and
heavily distorted guitars, doesn’t mean they aren’t hard rock. Keenan and his band mates
can still rock an audience. Unlike their first release Mer de Noms, Thirteenth Step is a
more sedated. The first single off the album entitled Weak and Powerless is not at all a
representative track. Although it is very good, tracks like Blue and Vanishing are much
better depictions of the album. If you’re looking to get worked up and go nuts, check out
another band, because you won’t find yourself speeding to this music. Think Tool but with
less experimental music, and more straightforward composition.
When Weak and Powerless was released to radio stations, it also came with a press release
from Keenan. He said that Thirteenth Step was an album about the darker side to the human
psyche, and its quite clear that he meant what he said. Although some of the lyrics are
fairly obscure. For example:
Weak and Powerless:
Tilling my own grave to keep me level,
Jam another dragon down the hole.
Digging to the rhythm and the echo of a solitary siren,
one that pushes me along, and leaves me so,
desperate and ravenous.
I'm so Weak and powerless over you,
Someone feed the monkey while I dig in search of china,
White as Dracula as I approach the bottom,
so desperate and ravenous.
I'm so Weak and powerless over you,
See what I mean? Some people think that the song is about drugs, particularly Heroin.
Although I am pretty sure that Keenan isn’t a hard drug user, just really into art
rock. A Perfect Circle is a band that you would want to listen to when you’re relaxed
and feel like chilling out. In the same way Pink Floyd wouldn’t be listened to when
you are getting psyched out. Like all music, it evokes a certain mood, and in A Perfect
Circle’s case, 13th Step is a laid-back album. For instance track 9: The Nurse Who Loved
Me (cover) is really slow yet its topic is quite strange. Check the album out to see
what I mean. Much of the music I review isn’t mainstream music, well at least mainstream
to people who listen to Justin Timberlake and No Doubt.
Thirteenth Step runs about 50 minutes long with some songs that I like and some that I
just can’t warm up to. The long wait from their first album could have been blown open
with an entire album that could have been awesome. Unfortunately I think that when
Keenan says that it’s a trip into the darker parts of the human psyche I think that
it came across too sedated. Don’t get me wrong, the CD is pretty decent with songs
like Blue, The Package, Pet, and Weak and Powerless, but the other 9 steps are missing
something that made Mer de Noms something awesome. What I like about A Perfect Circle,
is that they have a calm sound, but an undercurrent of surging electricity that
sometimes bursts to the surface with the song Blue. It’s an excellent song that’s much
more energetic than others but still is leashed to the rest of the album.
On Thirteenth Step, A Perfect Circle has made some lineup changes including the bassist
and the guitarist. Paz Lanchantin left to play bass for Zwan, the Smashing Pumpkins
mutation, which ultimately burst into flames. Luckily she was replaced by Jeordie Orsborne
White, who played with shock rocker Marilyn Manson under the stage name Twiggy Ramirez.
Troy Van Leeuwen has been replaced with James Iha who was also with Smashing Pumpkins.
I can’t say that the change is better or worse, but on Weak and Powerless, White really
plays a killer intro riff. You can check out their website at www.aperfectcircle.net for
tour information and other such information.
I give A Perfect Circle’s Thirteenth Step 3 and a half planets. There are some songs that
really stick out and are well crafted. Way to go APC!! But then there are some others that
could have either been more energetic or just less apathetic. There are several bands that
have a tranquilized sound but still hold your attention. If you are a fan of Tool and liked
APC’s first album, it can’t hurt to try out this one. However if you don’t like A Perfect
Circle, you wont find much in this release.
Track Listing:
01. The Package
02. Weak and Powerless
03. The Noose
04. Blue
05. Vanishing
06. A Stranger
07. The Outsider
08. Crimes
09. The Nurse Who Loved Me
10. Pet
11. Lullaby
12. Gravity
Nightswrath Rating:
3.5 out of 5 Planets
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