Review Summary: Even though two of eMOTIVe's songs are epic, the rest of the album seems flat, uneventful, and very, very boring.
Now when listening to A Perfect Circle's
eMOTIVe, its best to listen with an open mind and let you make the decision on whether you like it or not. There's a huge gap with A Perfect Circle fans, as a small minority thinks
eMOTIVe is the best A Perfect Circle album to date. The other half (a lot larger) thinks the album is the worst thing Maynard James Keenan has put his hands on to date. And, while its Keenan's first cover album, hopefully it will be his last because
eMOTIVe is not up to par with any of Tool or A Perfect Circle's albums.
eMOTIVe tries to be an epic, with its apocalyptic cover and the songs they chose to cover because most of them were great songs. But all A Perfect Circle did was butcher most of them, outside of two songs called
Imagine and
Passive. These two songs manage to be gripping, epic, and really live up to the name of the band on the cover; but two songs don't make an album and such makes A Perfect Circle's
eMOTIVe fail miserably. There's no other songs on this album that are good, they're just listenable. But, you won't want to listen to it again because songs like the boring, irritating
Annihilation, or the Depeche Mode cover
People or People which manage to try to add new wave to their sound but ends up sounding horrifically bad.
And while songs like
Imagine manage to really capture an epic feel because it slowly builds up and by the end, its a full-blown out A Perfect Circle rock song. The lyrics are deep, and Maynard's vocals are especially soothing here and manage to blend in with the music perfectly. The only other good song on
eMOTIVe would have to be
Passive which just is a really, really strong song all around. From the second it kicks into gear, the song sounds like one of A Perfect Circle's classics off of
Mer de Noms or
Thirteenth Step. The piano in this song manages to set the mood, and the guitars keep it going. The song truly shines in with Maynard's vocals though; as they sound like his vocals in
3 Libras in parts then sound like a Tool album in other parts. Its easily one of his best songs, and easily one of A Perfect Circle's songs.
There's not much else interesting on the album though, like
Peace, Love, and Understanding is utterly boring, with boring instrumental effects and Maynard James Keenan's voice a little bit too distorted.
What's Going On? is not very good because the song gets irritating quickly and you can barely hear the vocals in this song. And after a short break with the great
Passive, the album is quickly back to the boring, experimental tracks that are cluttered among
eMOTIVe like the completely idiotic hard rock
Gimme Gimme Gimme with its completely moronic and irritating chorus where Keenan screams,
GIMME! GIMME! GIMME! DON'T ASK WHAT ITS FOR!
And where the rest of the song isn't half bad, the chorus manages to chop up any expectations I had for the song.
People are People is just not very good at all, as they experimented with the keyboards and it just doesn't flow very well with their style of music.
Freedom of Choice is an average song, as the chorus isn't half bad, the song is catchy, the breakdowns are pretty well integrated, and the vocals are perfect for the song style. After an average track, the album goes in a downward spiral, saving its worst tracks for last.
Let's Have a War sounds like a dancefloor track with its beats in the back and the vocals are almost inaudible in this song;
Counting Bodies Like Sheep to the Rhythm of War Drums sounds like a Nine Inch Nails
The Fragile-era song with its bass-blowing noise, but it doesn't come anywhere close to
The Fragile as the vocals seemed tacked on to the instruments.
When the Levee Breaks made a Led Zeppelin classic into a slow, mind-boggling elevator music epic with barely any masculine vocals. Keenan manages to sound like a high-pitched girl for most of the song and really makes you ask, "is this A Perfect Circle?". And at the end,
The Fiddle and the Drum manages to be completely pointless, irritating, and repetitive; and to top it all off, the vocals irritate me because beyond belief because they are layered.
So by the end, you end up realizing that the album could have been great because
Imagine and
Passive are awesome songs. But, the rest of the album falls flat on its face, which is the case with most cover albums. The album doesn't live up to any of the A Perfect Circle or Tool records, and manages to slightly stain Maynard James Keenan's musical reputation. Too many of the songs were messed with in the production room distorting possibly good vocals by Keenan, adding to many experimental keyboard noises, and just an utter lack of A Perfect Circle rushing this album out so they could release it on election day. All in all, an utter disappointment that doesn't live up to the greatness that was
Mer de Noms and
Thirteenth Step.
