Three years after the release of its debut Mer de Noms, A Perfect Circle's Thirteenth Step sees the light of day. By that time, Troy van Leeuwen and Paz Lenchantin had left and been replaced by bassist Jeordie Osborne White, formerly of Marilyn Manson, and guitarist James Iha, formerly of the Smashing Pumpkins (though he doe not appear on the album). While van Leeuwen appear on part of the set, guitarist Danny Lohner helped out after he departed. Amazingly, despite the changes, the sound is still very much the creation of Billy Howerdel with the unmistakable vocal of Maynard Keenan from Tool. Produced by Howerdel and mixed by the inimitable Andy Wallace, Thirteenth Step is a moodier, tenser, and more atmospheric (if that is possible) recording than its predecessor. Written mostly by Howerdel and Keenan, the songs traverse a particular associated with surrender, loss, having the nature of a person stripped away, and turning in the twilight of those feelings toward a kind of slow transformation into something that can only be called "other." There are no easy outs and no easy answers, only hard questions throughout "Weak and Powerless," where surrender is necessary but far from desired. The title bitingly refers to the 12 Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous, but this is not your average recovery outing. Tracks like "Blue," "Vanishing," and "Lullaby" (one of two tracks featuring the amazing Jarboe on vocals) feature a kind of barely restrained menace caught in a trap by ock & roll vulnerability. The wide dynamic swathes that were so prominent on the band's debut are all but absent here. The squalling guitars have taken a backseat to carefully crafted melodies where atmospherics are maximized and pulled taut over the listener. While not a radical departure from Mer de Noms, there is a real progression here. However, the explosive, heavier-than-heavy rock-ism of A Perfect Circle is so well known for it is readily evidenced on cuts such as "The Outsider" and "Pet." As moods shapeshift from the sepia-toned murk of "The Package" and "The Noose," the over the top hard rock to the Baroquely scaled "The Nurse Who Loved Me" and "Gravity," with its beautiful guitar effects and crystalline bassline, the listener becomes aware of just how much water has traveled under A Perfect Circle's bridge. The Thirteenth Step is the sound of a musical and lyrical maturity that normally doesn't occur until a band's third or fourth albums. Lyrically, musically, sonically, the Thirteenth Step is proof positive that mainstream rock has plenty of life and vision left in it.
I am going to make this into a place for me to get whatever song is in my head out, whether it be my own or someone elses...enjoy! (i hope!)Here's the song that is in my brain today:"The Nurse Who Loved Me" - A Perfect CircleSay hello to the rug's topography It holds quite a lot of interest with your face down on it Say hello to the shrinking in your head You can't see it but you know its there...
More >
"Best to keep things in the shallow end, cause I never quite learned how to swim."A Perfect Circle, 'Blue'
More >
A Perfect Circle - Thirteenth Step * * * 1/2Long gone are the days when I would scour every music store within a 60-mile radius to find a midnight sale of an album. Truth be told, recent years have provided very few albums that have been released that have earned my time and energy. Since Mer De Noms by A Perfect Circle was released, it was Tool’s Salival that I lusted after, and then it was La.
More >
Great tune....if you've ever seen the new movie "Invisible" this song comes at a crucial time in the movie, to give it a great twist....Merry Christmas to All, And to all a Good fight!!!!!!
More >
did you know that a 1900 mph 9mm parabellum bullet is affected by gravity at a dizzying rate, so that if you were aiming at a still target at...say... 900 yards, you would have to aim 7 1/2 feet high, but then you would need to factor in the wind current and aim 4 feet to the opposite direction of a 10 mph wind.....fascinating...Jack's gray eyes,Tyler Durden
More >
my old neighbor had a Japanese Akita, and when that died he got a Tosa, a big, BIG dog...it put my basketball in it's mouth like it was a tennis ball to a regular dog...if you would have put a mane on it, it would have looked like the result of a lion and a minotaur inbreeding together....Jack's illegal breeding tendencies,Tyler Durdenps--> I had a pet minotaur once, he didn't get along with my...
More >
my best friend as a kid dyed his hair smurf blue , it was way cool, I always wished I could have straight hair like his so I could grow my hair out long and actually like it.....Jack's hair envy,Tyler Durden
More >
I once wrote a poem for my high school vignette, but I was turned down because I was not one of the popular kids....I am not one to toot me own horn, butthe poem written in a drug haze was about a man locked in a box of black and white whocould see the happy colors through a barred window but couldn't get out, and one day he finally broke out and was a bright blue bird!!!!! I lost out to a pi...
More >
hang yourself right, do it so that your neck snap upon reaching the limit of slack of the rope.....Poor 13 year old girl hung herself in her closet because the person she thought was so great turned on her and put her down so bad, it drove her to suicide, very tragic, no one likes to see a young teenager take their life...Jack's generation thinks they need drugs,Tyler Durden
More >
go to sleep little baby...I can't stop picturing Jafar from Alladin laughing over top a sleeping baby...sick? Yes disturbing? definetely Jack's twisted twister game,Tyler DurdenLeft Leg Green....broken
More >
the Doors are awesome, I listened to everysong while I was tripping years ago, WHEN YOU'RE STRANGEJack's chemical romance,Tyler Durden
More >
first in 12 songs that will blow your mind...very talented band Jack's uploading headache,Tyler Durden
More >
limbs getting weaker, lights going dimmer, boner growing smaller, uuuhhhh, Jack's bad stage acting,Tyler Durden
More >
the new thing on the list I never heard of till yesterday...The Perfect Circle competition....you swing your arm in a circle holding a piece of chalk, and whoever draws the best circle the fastest wins....yup, it is true...sad, but true...Jack's pendulum swing,Tyler Durden
More >
It is only illegal if you get caught???? no, I commited many crimes, but never got arrested...one time a buddy of mine were running from the cops through the woods, we split up when we jumped a guardrail, we both went over the other side of the road down a steep hill, the cop followed my buddy Nick, the cop caught him by the collar and they fell together down the hill, the cops knee caught a co...
More >
voila, tyler dissaper...uh, uh dissapear....uh, dissapJack's tender footed friend,Tyler Durden dissapear
More >
Bono said it well, "I've never had a problem with Christ. It's Christians I've had problems with." This song drives home the human lack of halo qualification.
More >
I am going to make this into a place for me to get whatever song is in my head out, whether it be my own or someone elses...enjoy! (i hope!)Here's the song that is in my brain today:"The Nurse Who Loved Me" - A Perfect CircleSay hello to the rug's topography It holds quite a lot of interest with your face down on it Say hello to the shrinking in your head You can't see it but you know its there...
More >
| Title | Lyrics | Buy |
|---|---|---|
| 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 |
|
|
Click to purchase…
© 2006-2009 Mog Inc. All Rights Reserved
 "Thirteenth Step")
