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Review Summary: At its best, it diversifies the listener's range of tastes and musical exposure, and at the same time "easing" them into these different genres through A Perfect Circle's soft, ambient alt-rock approach. Still doesn't make it a great album. A Perfect Circle - Emotive
Originally intended to relay a political message (and, I suppose, get out of contractual obligations), this album's direction and effort is best appreciated through A Perfect Circle's choices of what material to cover to relay their political viewpoints, rather than the quality of the covers themselves. At its best, it effectively diversifies the listener's range of tastes and musical exposure, and at the same time easing them into these different genres through APC's soft, ambient alt-rock approach. While they may be praised for taking the songs and actually doing something quite different with them, at the same time, they risk offending many listeners for their polarizing treatment of many contemporary classics. You just can't win.
The strongest song on the disc is the album's only true "original", Passive - something that came out of a defunct Tapeworm project. It's one of the heaviest tracks on the album, and probably the most rock station friendly on the disc with a bursting crescendo of anger and vitriol towards the end - the archetypal APC radio single. Existing fans of APC should start, and perhaps end here with this disk.
The other true highlight is their cover of Imagine, which is a much darker rendition of the original and is now featured in a solemn minor key - perhaps in a reflection of how they view the state of affairs today relative to the era when John composed the song. It works really well if you can listen to it as a supplementary piece to the original - a modern times retake. Other highlights of the album are found towards the end with Fiddle and the Drum and When the Levee Breaks; the former of which features an acapella of several voices with no instrumentation, while the latter is reminiscent of something you'd hear at a jazz lounge. Both pleasant listens without being groundbreaking.
The rest of it is a very mixed bag. Let's have a War and Freedom of Choice are decent enough covers, and the former features some interesting guest vocal work. Annihilation drags on for far too long for its simplicity, even while serving as an artsy intro with one single riff made from a musical box. Peace Love and Understanding, What's Going On, People are People and Gimmie Gimmie Gimmie sound like afterthoughts that were hastily put together. A Perfect Circle may have done better to have trimmed this record into a 5-track EP.
Counting Bodies... is a retool of "Pet". If you liked the original, there's nothing wrong with this industrial-sounding retake, though it doesn't sound different or unique enough to deserve to be on another LP. This would have fit in perfectly on that box set of remixes, aMOTION, but I suppose this belongs here for the sake of their political messaging.
Fans of the band could get it as it's their last release for a while, while casual listeners would do well to stay away.
Recommended downloads:
Passive
Imagine
When the Levee Breaks
Let's Have a War
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Album Rating: 1.0
Pretty good review though
| | | Album Rating: 3.0
[QUOTE=Iai]It explicitly states in the rules that you're not allowed to review albums until they're actually released.
And your line-up is horribly wrong.[/QUOTE]
Well go ahead and get a mod to delete it you little prick.
Look again: http://www.musicianforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=127392
I don't see such a rule that you listed.
And you're breaking a rule here with your comment:
3) Please make no miscellaneous comments besides comments that contribute to a review.
I spent a good hour or so writing this and you comment with your nitpicking. Fortunately I posted this in other areas that are more well receiving. If you really want to hear the album first I can send it to you, leave me a note.
EDIT: lineup updated as per your request.
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It's a shame they didn't include a studio version of Diary of a Madman(or Love Song, whichever) I love that song.. Good review though, as I didn't know how the heck this'll sound like.
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Dude, send me an AIM message or something... email's [email]guitarist0ni@yahoo.com[/email], AIM's just guitarist0ni
and the 0 is a zero.
I'm really interested in obtainging a copy...
Great review by the way, I love them
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MDN is good, and I LOVE 13th Step, but I won't be buying this one. I have no interest in them doing covers, although The Nurse Who Loved Me was superb.
I just want new T00L, dammit. :p
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Haha yeah
13th Step was, in my opinion, one of the best mainstream albums of all time, if not one of the best albums period. I'd get this just to hear their take on these songs, good or not. I actually liked their cover of Imagine, even though it was a bit bland
| | | Album Rating: 3.0
Telling me to delete my review isn't contributing anything. Either way, you obviously just want dibs on writing this so if you think you can write a better one when it comes out, go ahead.
Oh yeah, many high profile music reviews in magazines and sites publish them before an album is released. It's kind of a sneak peek, it's good for people who are thinking of preordering. Everyone reads them and plenty of people write them, and seriously, when's the last time you saw a review that cares about the cover art or anything? It's about the music. (and don't go around wasting your time looking for 2 examples). Isn't this section for informative purposes, not petty little struggles between who gets to write the review? Furthermore it isn't in the official rules listing. If the mod thinks the review is biased or full of ****, he can delete it based on that, not because some other unhappy kiddo wants a shot at reviewing it :rolleyes:
and I'm _only_ offering the album to the guy who thinks he can do a better job writing a review now. Everyone else, go and buy it if you think you'll like it.
| | | Album Rating: 3.0
hah, okay. Fair enough. But you still can't blame me for not reading the "explicity explained rules" or what not since it's not even there...yet. And yes, I do credit you for pointing out the originally incorrect lineup, thanks.
anyway, we'll see what happens when it's out. I'm fairly confident the changes made won't be drastic by now, the leak should be fairly intact since that is the tracklisting that has been released since September. I also forgot to mention the order of the songs on the leak is different from the order I listed in the review, which is what I got from original sources when the tracklisting was first published. So yes, there are a few possible differences, but at least the songs are authentic.
and isn't writing on only albums you enjoy bland? everyone has the urge to bash something now and then....
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I think it's ridiculous that people who don't own an album shouldn't review them. I would have done...1 review, I think.
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I won't be buying this. I need gas instead.
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I've just put this on, listened to the first two tracks, and I've already gotten the chills more than once... (that's a good thing, btw hehe)
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I'd buy it, it's just not out yet ; ;
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The Standout Tracks for me is: Annihilation, Imagine, Passive, Gimme Gimme Gimme, People are people, Let's have a war, Counting bodies like sheep to the rythm of the war drums.. Eeeh, oops, that's almost all the tracks.
I'd give this a 4/5 .. I think this is great!.. I was very pleasently surprised
I'm definately buying this if I stumble across it when it's released
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It is good, but why not release an album of all originals. It's obvious they took enough time changing the songs anyways, why not spend an extra six months and record an all original album.
I realise they wanted this out before the election, but to me this album does not give me any political vibes or anything.
If anything this is just going to ruin their legacy, and it's a shame.
| | | Album Rating: 1.0
[QUOTE=Zappa]I think it's ridiculous that people who don't own an album shouldn't review them. I would have done...1 review, I think.[/QUOTE]
:lol: :lol:
I think it's sometimes important to own the album, like sometimes the album art contributes to the album (eg Radiohead, Tool, Sigur Ros etc)
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I just listened to this CD. If I was going to describe it in one word, that word would be "anus".
It's terrible. A bunch of great artists are now spinning in their graves. Even the ones who are still alive.
Did they change the lyrics to Freedom of Choice?
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I'll be buying it, I really like 13th step, even more then Mer De Noms. We'll see if it is worth buying soon enough.
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[QUOTE=TempermentalGoat]6. "When The Levee Breaks" - Led Zeppelin - (1971)[/QUOTE]
I thought they(Led Zeppelin) covered it, not wrote it? Help me out here.
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All I want to know is how the cover of "Let's Have a War" compares to Fear's original.
Because Fear are the greatest.
Ever.
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this is a cool album
nice review
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