Every once and a while, a band comes along and names themselves A Perfect Circle. Actually, if it happened more than once, I think there would be a few lawsuits involved. Before I begin though, I would like to say: If you have a record player and are interested in getting this album, get it on vinyl, it's worth it. But anyways, A Perfect Circle, in many ways, are not misnamed. The band consists of Tool's Maynard James Keenan (not to say that this is a knock-off of Tool), Billy Howerdel, Paz Lenchantin, Josh Freese, and Troy van Leeuwen. I'm not really sure why Troy is in the group though, because he only plays the guitar outros on Sleeping Beauty and Thinking of You, and they're basically complimentary of the vocals, but with weird effects. But Billy definitely plays his part, doing on average about three positions in each song. His instrumental range consists of: vocals, guitars, bass, programming, keys, lead vocal on renholder, and piano. Maynard is an essential, but he only does backing vocals on Renholder, a gord and lead vocals on Over, and lead vocals on all the others. Paz plays occasional violin, string arrangements, and bass on Sleeping Beauty. Josh plays drums on most tracks. Guests include ex-primus drummer Tim "herb" Alexander on The Hollow, Luciano Lenchantin on viola for 3 Libras, Draven Godwin plays percussion on Thomas, and Kelli Shafer does backing vocals on Renholder. The album itself is enough to satisfy with unique artwork, and text in a special font created by Billy called Myan and Elegant. It is based on the normal 26 letters in the English alphabet, but the characters themselves don't necessarily reflect the actual letters. Deciphering the text is half the fun of using it, and I did, but Matt couldn't quite do it, so I gave him a chart, which he spread around a few other people. The cd contains the artwork and a clip of lyrics in Myan from each song. The vinyl has all of that on the inner gatefold, plus all of the lyrics in myan on the back. The vinyl also features an extended intro on Sleeping Beauty and an alternate version of Over. About the music itself, excellent. Kirk Hammet himself (guitar maniac from Metallica) said that Billy is one of his favorite guitarists, and that he likes his style. Maynard's vocals vibrate softly through your ears, and the drums are rhythmic and enticing. But for an interesting background article on Josh, check this out. Ha ha ha. But this is a really great album, five handclaps, no doubt.
The Hollow
An upbeat, catchy song to start off the album with. As matt said, it is about the sexual libido (maybe not his words exactly). Features fairly prominant drums for Herb of Primus, and an elaborate guitar working, that seems to scramble itself, or maybe that's just my computers speakers.
Magdalena
The worship of an earthly goddess. At one point, it seems to be about a strip joint, "so pure so rare to witness such an earthly goddess that i've lost my self control beyond compelled to throw this dollar down before your holiest of altars". I'm not saying it is about a stripper, but who knows with Maynard? Matt seems to be drawn to the bass line, but it's just a simple one note thing that even he could play. It's really nothing special.
Rose
Not really about a flower, or a girl named rose, rose is what is said in the song as a past tense of rise. I think it's about getting out of a bad relationship, saying things such as "no longer will i lay down play dead play your doe in the headlights", "your beat down gun shy martyr", and "i rose, i roared".
Judith
Blind Faith, or also just God being a metephor for a bad person who has wronged without the followers noticing. "It's a real person named Judith. She doesn't know about it. And she never will. Just because of the nature of the song and what I'm speaking
about, she won't know... because she won't listen," says Maynard about Judith. What a stubborn bitch, huh?
Orestes
When my dad listened to this cd, he said this was his favorite song, not because it's mellow, but it has a strange catchiness. The chorus has a real feeling in it, and you unintentionally get shivers while you listen to it. "sever this umbilical residue that's keeping me from killing you". Fabulous.
3 Libras
"just to see if there's more behind the eyes of a fallen angel, eyes of a tragedy". Another sort of mellow song with a feeling to it. A woman Maynard must have liked, but she ignored and overlooked him for one reason or another. "threw you the obvious" must be some kind of flirtation that was overlooked.
Sleeping Beauty
Maynard has said that the song is about a bad relationship in which his girl was basically asleep throughout and didn't pay much attention. "truly thought i could make it right if i kissed you one more time to help you face the nightmare but you're far too poisoned for me".
Thomas
A moderate song with cool vocals. (sorry about the lack of a review)
Renholder
If you spell Renholder backwards, it spells Re: D. Lohner, i.e. Danny Lohner. The full lyrics don't say anything for this song, but the short cd lyric clips say "And I will not fall down". You can somewhat make that out in the song, and I wonder why it's not in the full lyrics... But if you listen to the song backwards, about 20 seconds in (or from the end of the song when played forwards), you hear Billy say "Danny Lohner, Danny Lohner!".
Thinking of You
As matt said, this is my favorite song off of Mer de Noms, not because of the rap rocking though, but because of the sheer energy of the song and the kick-ass chorus. "Sweet revelation, sweet surrender" is the chorus, and this song seems to be about a good relationship (for once).
Breņa
Breņa is the middle name of Maynard's fiance, Jennifer Breņa Ferguson, and this is just a regular plain old mellow love song, but no Perfect Circle song can really be that plain... "my reflection wraps and pulls me under". Maynard refers to her as his reflection, hence the previous quote. The chorus is really cool, as maynard sings about him being vulnerable but all right.
Over
A simple little ditty, with the lyrics "been over and over and over and over and over this before". Maynard plays a gord, whatever that is, I'm guessing one of those things africans use in their music, that sounds like a xylophone. Billy plays piano in this song, while an increasing orchestral note brings the song and cd to an end.
This has been Kal, talking nonstop about shit no one cares about.
Back to A Perfect Circle Reviews