| A Perfect Circle Thirteenth Step |
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 | Tracklist:
1.The package
2.Weak and powerless
3.The noose
4.Blue
5.Vanishing
6.A stranger
7.The outsider
8.Crimes
9.The nurse who loved me
10.Pet
11.Lullaby
12.Gravity
| Ranking: #71 for 2003 | |
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On 93 Lists
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| Summary: While it's a beautifully crafted alt rock record, only half of its songs are remembered as truly great because of the irregular album flow. |
2 of 3 thought this review was well written
Maynard James Keenan is a man of versatile talent. He fronts the massively popular radio prog band Tool, this alt/art rock outfit and his industrial/alt endeavor, Puscifer. The music of A Perfect Circle was literally made for his voice, and more often than not, the music is successful on Thirteenth Step. In general, the music here is great, and most of the songs are an extremely enjoyable listen. However, they do not really work well together at times, especially in the order they were put on the album.
“The Package” opens the album, and what an opener it is. The progression and building of the song is perfect. It’s a pretty standard alt rock number with cool percussion until the distortion and intensity come in near the end for the song’s climax. The dynamic here works extremely well, as it does on several other songs featuring soft/heavy transition. The album flows perfectly into “Weak and Powerless”, a pretty but rather monotonous song that also served as the album’s first single. I am not going to mention every song, but it should be noted that the album flows extremely well for the first four tracks. It is immediately apparent when listening to the first couple tracks that this is a carefully crafted alt rock record, but unfortunately, the band seem to run out of steam after the great first portion of the album.
Starting with “Vanishing”, the horribly paced middle section makes its appearance. The song is not bad in itself, but it’s one of those filler tracks Maynard seems to be ever so fond of, and it absolutely kills the album flow. To reiterate, it’s a cool, escalating little diddy, but it certainly feels out of place, and it brings nothing to the album but a feeling of interlude. I can’t place all the blame on this track, because the next track is just as much at fault. It’s also a good song, but what’s frustrating is that it’s placed right after a similar paced song. What makes it seem even more like a flow interruption is that the first four songs worked so well together, but the next two poorly flowing tracks are placed next to each other, so the flow is interrupted long enough to lose the sensation the first four gave.
The album is briefly saved with “The Outsider”. This song is perfect. From the memorable opening guitar to the excellent pre chorus to the heavy sections, the song is a blissful romp to its end. However, it only sets up the next section of frustration: the next to two tracks. “Crimes” unfortunately gets the tag of the only bad song in addition to disrupting flow. With its obnoxious and repetitive beat in the foreground, cutting the track from the album would help it enough to warrant “The Nurse Who Loved Me” having its place; it’s a co-contributor to this particular flow misstep, but it’s such a beautiful song in its own right. It would have worked perfectly as a closer. Too bad.
The album gets its last boost with “Pet”, the heaviest song on the album. The bass is mixed perfectly here, and sets an example of what the mixing levels of hard rock should sound like. It drops out for the quiet verses, but when the song comes back to its intense part, it is always expected yet extremely effective. Maynard does a great job here also. His performance on the entire album ranges from solid to outstanding, and this is one of the tracks that feature the latter. The next two songs are, again, good songs, but since they both are built with a similar slow pace, they should not have been placed next to each other. There seems to be a pattern with the songs; in simple words, it goes fast, slow, slow, fast, slow, slow, fast. By the end of the album, it’s so irritating that it’s quite easy to forget the great moments of the album.
Obviously I have beaten the album flow to death, but even if you overlook that, the album’s slower moments can get boring and monotonous, even when the song the moments belong to are good. When you look at the album's better songs alone, what you see is a fantastic group of wonderfully crafted alt rock songs. However, when these very songs are put in the context of the album as a whole, they tend to lose power because there is a greater number of mediocre tracks, usually paired together in between the great ones; this is what ultimately makes a potentially fantastic album just a good one with fantastic songs. With that said, the instrument performance is great from every member, albeit usually minimal. Of course that’s not bad, but sometimes that’s a contributing factor in why the boring parts are boring; a simple but effective riff can only be effective for so long. The album does have its great moments nonetheless, and it’s worth checking out if you haven’t yet for some reason.
Recommended tracks:
“The Package”
“The Noose”
“The Outsider”
“Pet”
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| Recent reviews by this author | | | |
Album Rating: 4.5
[quote=]Starting with “Vanishing”, the horribly paced middle section makes its appearance. The song is not bad in itself, but it’s one of those filler tracks Maynard seems to be ever so fond of, and it absolutely kills the album flow.[/quote]
fail
Digging: Pig Destroyer - Terrifyer | | | Album Rating: 4
I wholeheartedly agree with your highlights list.
Digging: Circle Takes The Square - As The Roots Undo | | | Album Rating: 4.5
"Pet" is ridiculously awesome.
Digging: P.O.S. - Never Better | | | Album Rating: 4
The package is boring, weak and powerless is awesome, blue is cool, the outsider is cool, pet is awesome and gravity is awesome.
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A Perfect Circle just doesn't do the trick for me, Tool shits all over APC.
| | | Album Rating: 4.5 | Sound Off
thought this was a great album and the only track I can do without is crimes and sometimes nurse who loved. Gravity and your highlights are great.
Digging: Converge - Axe To Fall | | | Album Rating: 4
good review. i agree the tracking is odd. i would still rate this higher just because maynard makes everything better than it should be.
Digging: Pavement - Slanted and Enchanted | | | Album Rating: 3
it'd be fantastic if whoever negged could offer some input, thanks.
Digging: Wilco - Being There | | | Album Rating: 4
It'd be fantastic if you tried reviewing something that didn't already have seven reviews.
Digging: Biffy Clyro - Only Revolutions | | | Album Rating: 3
yeah all seven rated this a 3
| | | Album Rating: 4
Not the point, man. There's plenty of shit around on Sputnik with two or less reviews.
Just sayin', is all. Don't do Untouchables or St. Anger and all shall be good.
| | | Album Rating: 3
there's nothing wrong with reviewing something that already has 27 reviews if you have a different opinion than all of them. i mean sure it's not a super important review but no one else seems to think this album is overrated.
| | | Album Rating: 4
Just because you're the only 3, doesn't mean your view is crazily different to the other reviews.
| | | Album Rating: 3
yeah you're right, i mean why review something if your opinion isn't radically different?
| | | Album Rating: 4
This album deserves at least a 4. There are plenty of great tracks on here and I didn't mind the order that they were placed in.
Digging: Oceansize - Frames | | | Album Rating: 4
Well, take Van Halen III for example. Of the two reviews, one is a five and the other is a one. That's a good contrast.
Panic At The Disco's album has reviews that range from 5 to 1. That Revolver review, regardless of how much it sucked, was still different to the three five reviews it had.
Having a similar rating is fine when there's only a couple of reviews, but if there's five or more you're really going to have to make your review/opinion standout.
| | | Album Rating: 3
the only other review that has enough contrast from the majority opinion is FP's 3.5, and it's a great review, better than mine, but i elaborated on how bad the album flow is, and i think it's bad enough to kill half the album, not just bring the overall rating down. idk i thought this review was warranted.
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I don't like this band at all really, but The Noose is a good track.
Digging: Earth - Earth 2
| | | Album Rating: 4
I just don't understand how you can review this album and not once mention "Gravity". It is clearly one of the best songs on the album.
| | | Album Rating: 3
it's a good song but it barely misses out on the highlights list.
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