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39 of 48 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good--depressing, but good, February 19, 2006
Nowadays, if you're a celebrity, there are really two ways you can protest a war or government. You can either do what one Fred Durst did, and make a holy fool of yourself by grabbing the mic at an awards show and saying to the crowd "I hope we're all in agreeance that this war should go away"; or plan b) you can make a protest album. Maynard James Keenan and his side project, A Perfect Circle, have a little intelligence on their side, so they chose the latter option. "Emotive," APC's third release, is a protest/covers album; it covers everything from John Lennon ("Imagine") to Depeche Mode ("People Are People") to Black Flag ("Gimmie Gimmie Gimmie"). Plus, there are two original songs (tracks which aren't covers). Track five, "Passive," is actually a remake of a song written by Keenan and Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor, and "Counting Bodies Like Sheep to the Rhythm of the War Drums" (catchy title, huh?) is, contrary to popular belief, not a remix of the song "Pet" (which appeared on A Perfect Circle's last album, "13th Step"). Rather, this song is a continuation/second part of "Pet."
Some fans think that "Emotive" isn't an anti-war album, because of comments made by Maynard before the album's release. But, with lyrics like "war is not the answer" (in "What's Going On," a song originally done by Marvin Gaye), it's hard to believe there isn't an underlying political or anti-war message, here.
Almost every song on here is moving and touching. "Emotive," as a whole, is very depressing, but it's also very pretty. Plus, some of the songs (like "Imagine" and "Passive") are even kind of catchy.
The album begins with "Annihilation," which has very creepy, almost bonechilling whispers about power. The next song, "Imagine," is the single. It has some funeral-like piano playing, occasional string plucking, and a rhythmic drum beat; but it's mainly catchy because of Maynard's vocal style. Tracks three and eleven, ("What's So Funny `Bout) Peace Love and Understanding" and "When The Levee Breaks," find Maynard singing in a clear, limpid, feminine, almost falsetto tone. Plus, the former track is very atmospheric, with reverberating piano keys, a violin, and a resonating drum beat.
Elsewhere, "What's Going On" has very spacey singing with humming, almost static-y synthesizers; "Passive" is rather up-tempo and fast; and the album closer, "Fiddle and the Drum," is almost breathtaking (with nasal, a capella singing).
"Emotive" doesn't raise the bar for Maynard or A Perfect Circle, so it's understandable that some fans would be quite disappointed by this album. Plus, if you think a protest album should uplift the listener's spirits and give you a feeling of empowerment, you'll definitely not have any luck with this C.D.. But if you're an anti-war Maynard aficionado who's looking for some peace love and understanding, or if you just want a C.D. that's very calming and soothing, look no further.
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11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Cacophonous Cover Tunes, November 8, 2004
I think it might be useful to preface my review by stating that I normally provide quite charitable, if not subjective, reviews of albums by A Perfect Circle and Tool. This instance, at least in the former sense, is no exception; this album is barely worthy of 2 stars.
I'm not going to give a song and dance about the quality of individual songs since the criteria used by reviewers is purely subjective. However, I might as well state that, for me, not even one of the songs succeeded in capturing my attention.
In light of their predecessors, these songs take the form of bad cover music. Keenan's rendition of the song "Imagine" is embarrassing and probably the most sadistic treatment of Lennon - sans Brinkley's shooting the man himself back in 1980. Songs like "When the Levee Breaks" and "What's Going On" are equally irreverent.
In short, "EMotive" falls way short of previous APC accomplishments. Even after multiple listens, this album failed to compel me.
Dispensable.
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9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Powerful, topical... but not for the easily depressed. >_<;, December 27, 2004
I don't often write music reviews. I like what I like and I figure others are pretty much the same. Musical tastes are as varied as people, after all. I'm a child of the 80's in music, who underwent a distinct broadening of tastes as I grew older from New Wave to New Age, Progressive, Punk, metal rock, classic rock, light jazz, Folk Music, Latin, classical music, Celtic, Asian, African - a distinct smattering of World Beat. I'll give anything a try once -- even Rap (didn't stick, tho). But I grew up listening to my mother's music: the Beatles, Roberta Flack, Don McLean, Carly Simon, Jim Croche, James Taylor, Joan Baez and Cat Stevens. Music to think by. Yet my brother and I taught her about Album Rock - explained Pink Floyd's "The Wall" to her so she wasn't so outraged over the song "Another Brick in the Wall Part 1". I like to think I've been fairly muscially diverse over the years since, yet I'm still hanging on the fringes of popular rock - I still prefer what they brand as Alternative music these days.
But I simply have to rec this album to everyone.
Not because I'll listen to it over and over and bop to it while driving down the road on a daily basis... because I won't.
But because it made my throat go tight. It made my heart ache in my chest and my eyes prickle. And it even made me sing along to the songs I know so well -- and love so much -- despite the twisted form they've taken here.
Maybe you've heard APC and Maynard James Keenan's slow dirge-like cover of John Lennon's Imagine. Perhaps you were outraged, as I first was, when I heard it. A song of hope and peace and looking forward... turned into something dark and sinister and cynical. I love their version now too, even though it hurts so much to hear it each and every time...
Because isn't that what happened to Lennon's dream? Isn't that what's happened to the bright underlying promise of the 60's... the hope for peace and equality and understanding has become crushed by greed and fear and self-interest.
Maynard and Co. don't stop there, however. The whole album is a scathing repudiation of American apathy that unfortunately won't get the airplay of Green Day's bouncy, catchy "American Idiot". And it should. But only as a whole album. And only with the Crisis Hotlines fully manned. It's depressing as hell, poignant and heart-rending, this album. As a whole as well as individually -- but mostly as a whole. It really needs to be listened to that way. To hear Elvis Costello's "Peace Love and Understanding" turned into a lament, Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On" into a frightened wail and Devo's "Freedom of Choice" into a mocking ridicule - followed by the public domain but made famous by Led Zeppelin "When the Levee Breaks" - all of it chilling, lamentory and dark.
It clubs you over the head with each song choice, each startling arrangement and with Maynard's delicious voice twisted in ever so many disturbing ways. That fear is wrong, that letting others tell you how to live is cowardice, that war is evil and that hope... hope is hard to find these days. It's a warning that you truly have to think for yourself and keep an open mind.
Wake up, America. Listen. This entire album is a dirge for freedom, hope and peace.
And no, it's not easy to listen to. But it shouldn't be. This is a challenge - a rub-it-in-your-face kind of one - to thinking people to wake up and look around them again.
Unfortunately, the ones who need to hear this the most -- aren't going to listen. They'll only hear the surface; and looking for escapism, they'll miss the whole point.
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