Soundbites

A Perfect Circle “eMOTIVe” Virgin
Records

Cover songs often get a bad reputation for not being as good as
the original, mostly because they’re usually the same exact
song performed by a different musician. What is most impressive
with the anti-war cover song album, “eMOTIVe,” is that
A Perfect Circle completely reconstructs some of the most
well-known protest songs in America, so much so that, if it were
not for their lyrics, the songs would be completely unidentifiable.
Each cover song, with the exception of Joni Mitchell’s
“Fiddle and the Drum,” is completely renovated with new
melodies, instrumentation, arrangements and the band’s
trademark ambient and brooding sound. The result is that the album
effectively emphasizes the serious and dark nature of war. On the
album’s first track, “Annihilation,” the group
keeps the focus on the lyrics by using an understated, minimalist
approach. Originally performed by the Berkeley agro-punk band
Crucifix, “Annihilation” has a glockenspiel-sounding
backdrop and a barely detectable guitar to accompany singer Maynard
James Keenan’s intense whisperings in dactylic meter, as
though he is casting an evil spell. The album’s anti-war
stance is most clearly enunciated at the end of the song:
“Reject the system dictating the norms from dehumanization to
arms production, to hasten this nation towards its destruction.
It’s your choice, your choice, your choice, your choice,
peace or annihilation.” The group metamorphoses Black
Flag’s “Gimmie, Gimmie, Gimmie” into a
nightmarish carnival ride, complete with harmonium and
Keenan’s psychotic vocals. The song manages to perfectly
convey the lyrics’ message of greed as insanity. Depeche
Mode’s upbeat and danceable original version of “People
Are People” is slowed to half speed with guitarist Billy
Howerdel’s deep, ’80s-sounding vocals, drummer Josh
Freese’s drum machine-like beat and Jeordie White’s
impressively heavy but agile bass. “Peace Love and
Understanding,” originally recorded by Elvis Costello,
changes from an upbeat rock piece to a truly sorrowful song about
losing hope for peace with Howerdel’s fragile, damaged
vocals, a dizzying mandolin-sounding riff and weeping strings. But
not every cover is so successful. The group’s dark sound
doesn’t work as well for “Imagine.” John
Lennon’s innocent lyrics of hope for peace become an
apocalyptic omen with Keenan’s seemingly futile pleading and
the clanging of doomful, minor piano chords. The album also weakens
with the original song “Counting Bodies Like Sheep to the
Rhythm of the War Drums,” where a repetitive bass line and
mechanical drumming drag the song on for over five and a half
minutes. The cover of “When the Levee Breaks” is also a
letdown. The band turns Led Zeppelin’s heavy blues romp into
background mood music that will make just about anyone fall asleep.
It is also unclear why the band decided to cover this particular
song on an anti-war album. Fans of Tool, Keenan’s other band,
are used to hearing the building of tension through suffocating,
heavily distorted riffing and a final climax in 15-minute songs,
and will likely be disappointed with the lack of climax in the more
mainstream-sounding four-minute songs on this album, like the slow,
laid-back cover of Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going
On.” But Tool fans will be especially pleased with the
original song “Passive,” which features at its climax
Keenan’s ferocious yell, “You f—in’ disappoint
me.” They will also be pleased with the cover of Devo’s
“Freedom of Choice,” a head-banging rocker that is
definitely devil horns worthy. A Perfect Circle fans, on the other
hand, will be very pleased to see that the band has not abandoned
its distinct musical style, even while adopting other
musicians’ lyrics. With “eMOTIVe,” A Perfect
Circle has succeeded in offering refreshing new spins on some
classic songs. ““ Angela Lu