Album Rating: 4.5
You are entitled to your opinion, Akerstache, but you have to strengthen your argument past the surface. If I were to only focus on one portion of a review, what help would that be? Think in the context of a person who has never listened to the album. If they read the review and see "Maynard is bad so the album is bad" what help does that give? If they have no idea what Maynard sounds like anyways, how would they know what a bad Maynard sounds like? As a critic you have to structure your review around the entirety of the album. The album is one whole element comprised of the bands entire effort. If you focus on Maynard specifically, that implies everyone else doesn't matter. Especially when you deal with a complex band like A Perfect Circle, which as you can see has a devout fanbase, you have to make sure you analyze how everything works together.
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Album Rating: 1.5
"They didn't have anything to separate them from the flock other than Maynard, so they put him at the forefront. As opposed to Tool, who were driven by Danny Carey's drumming, APC were always about emulating Maynard's voice."
"Maynard is simply not very invested. His singing is still technically good mind you, but his voice is what made APC great. A lack of care is felt throughout the entire album, which leaves it to the musicians of APC to carry the album. And this is the real downfall of Eat the Elephant. The music is simply typical early-2000s hard rock, it's dated and boring. Without Maynard giving his all they simply can't distinguish themselves as anything other than a parody of themselves."
I understand what you're saying, but I'm not trying to analyze the merits of the music alone. I attempted to discuss what APC were and their past strengths, and then contextualize it with their latest album. Maynard made APC, he always has. He was the make it or break it aspect of their music, the music was always about pushing his voice to the forefront. Judith is the perfect backing track to the hatred and vitriol presented for religion, while Weak and Powerless presents a timid and weak sound to accompany his fear and self-loathing. Eat the Elephant doesn't do that, songs like Talktalk posses none of Maynard's rage and comes off as ham-fisted. So Long and Thanks for the Fish is straight up annoying with him sounding like he's plugged his nose over a somehow less original Imagine Dragons song. The Doomed is the closest thing to exciting, but the nonstop pounding drum sound mixed with the empty production makes it far more grating than it should have been, but unlike the other tracks Maynard sorta tries, which despite the music being poor almost saves it. And the rest of the tracks continue the theme, an overabundance of mediocre music and lack of effort from Maynard. Maynard is the overarching problem with this album, the music is pedestrian like every other APC album, but unlike the other albums Maynard doesn't work in tandem with the music, he works against it. Maynard made this album shit, which is why I focused on him so much.
As much as it seems like I'm arguing with you, I'm really not. At least I'm not trying to. This is my first review, and as such I really do appreciate the advice. The next review I will write I'll absolutely add more to it discussing the music and the sum of the parts. So I honestly do want to thank you, I will take your advice to heart and work on making my next review better. Thank you.
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Album Rating: 1.5
Nah dude you're good, no need to apologize. I just don't want to create any bad blood on my first review, you seem like a cool dude, and you've got a lot of good advice. You're cool.
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