A Perfect Circle - eMotive album review
Written March 3, 2005

If there’s one thing I never expected from Maynard James Keenan, it’s a cover. But that’s exactly what A Perfect Circle ’s eMotive delivers in abundance: a collection of anti-war songs from the distant and not-so-distant past, a concept album aimed at the heart of imperialist America . And for the most part it works.

Songs from artists like Black Flag, Joni Mitchell and John Lennon are reworked and suitably darkened, with mixed results. Elvis Costello’s “Peace, Love and Understanding” thrives as a slow, methodical crescendo. Lennon’s “Imagine” soars on blackened wings, but tracks like “Gimme gimme gimme” and “Annihilation” fall short – Keenan’s voice is hardly suited for nu-metal whispers and growls. “Counting Bodies” sounds like Trent Reznor was given a great deal of crystal meth and asked to industrially remix APC’s “Pet” from the excellent Thirteenth Step release of last year.

The rest of the covers run the gamut from mediocre to likeable, but all are significantly unique interpretations of the original tune. No punk rock “play-some-song three-times-faster and it’s-a-kickass-cover!” mentality here.

eMotive suffers a bit from the pendulum effect, varying tempos and musical styles flying all over the place as the album progresses. Considering the range of influences that APC sampled – from Depeche Mode to Marvin Gaye – this is probably something to be expected, but it makes for a jarring listen.

Still, the breakout tracks are head and shoulders above most new rock. The lone original offering, “Passive,” stands as the album’s strongest leg, a testament to A Perfect Circle ’s songwriting appeal. This is likely A Perfect Circle ’s final offering – they’ve reached the end of their three-album contract – and while eMotive might carry some of the weaknesses of a cover album, it’s definitely worth a listen while we wait for the next Tool release.

I wrote this because I hadn't churned out anything for poor Carly in Entertainment for a while, and I had been listening to this album something fierce in the preceding weeks. What a fascinating history! I'm so interesting and deep and special.