Emotive | ||||
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Studio album by | ||||
Released | November 2, 2004 | |||
Recorded | June 28 − September 3, 2004 | |||
Genre | ||||
Length | 48:13 | |||
Label | Virgin | |||
Producer | Billy Howerdel, Maynard James Keenan (exec.) | |||
A Perfect Circle chronology | ||||
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Singles from Emotive | ||||
Emotive (stylized as eMOTIVe) is the third studio album by American rock band A Perfect Circle. The album is primarily a collection of anti-war cover songs. It was released on November 2, 2004, via Virgin Records to coincide with the US presidential election. [2] Two singles were released in support of the album; a cover of John Lennon's "Imagine", and "Passive", a previously unreleased song originating from the defunct Tapeworm project. The album debuted at number two on the US Billboard 200 chart, though the band would not tour in support of the album, later entering a hiatus. It would be the band's last studio release until 2018's Eat the Elephant .
After wrapping up the touring in support of Thirteenth Step in the first half of 2004, the band had announced it planned to enter a long hiatus so that band frontman Maynard James Keenan could return to his original band, Tool, while guitarist Billy Howerdel pursued a solo career. [3] In July 2004, Keenan performed at Serj Tankian's (System of a Down) and Tom Morello's (Rage Against the Machine) Axis of Justice concert – an event for musicians to advocate for political and social causes. [4] At the performance, Keenan announced that A Perfect Circle would be releasing a collection of political cover songs. [5] During the beginning of the touring cycle for Thirteenth Step, Howerdel and Keenan discussed potential ideas for a third studio album. [6] An early idea was to record an album of cover songs, though they were initially hesitant, feeling they needed a meaningful reason to warrant doing it. [6] Keenan, who had been very critical of President George W. Bush during the touring cycle, proposed tying the concept together as a political-themed covers album, with Howerdel, while generally apolitical publicly, felt was worth pursuing in their post-September 11th attacks political and social climate. [6] The two put their plans on hold temporarily and decided to move forward on the project as the band's third studio album. [7]
Keenan emphasized that, despite his personal feelings on Bush, the album was less of an "anti-Bush" album, and more of a "anti-political apathy" – encouraging people to research things and become more involved. [8]
The band rushed to complete the album in time to release it prior to the 2004 U.S. Presidential Elections in November, just barely a year after their prior release. [9] [7] Recording sessions ran from late June to early September. [7] In addition to Howerdel, Keenan, and drummer Josh Freese, who appear on most tracks, the album features various contributions from former and then-current members of the band including Paz Lenchantin, Danny Lohner, Jeordie White, and James Iha. [10] [11] Keenan, aware of the time constraints and Howerdel's future intentions on doing solo albums, also encouraged Howerdel to contribute lead vocals to about a third of the album. [12] [10] A wide variety of different songs were chosen to be recorded, from Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On" to "When the Levee Breaks", a song written and first recorded by Kansas Joe McCoy and Memphis Minnie and later popularized by Led Zeppelin. [13] Most songs were radical reinterpretations of the original, sometimes unrecognizable compared to the originals. [13] Howerdel explained that it was done on purpose, to make the songs their own, and conceded that he, as of 2010, still had not even once ever heard the original version of Crucifix's "Annihilation", another song re-recorded for the album. [9] He also stated that some songs had started as original A Perfect Circle songs musically, until the band decided to use the lyrics of other songs over the compositions, in turn converting them into cover songs. [14] Keenan explained the album's concept:
"Look, clearly I'm supporting anyone but Bush in this upcoming election, but I'm not telling anyone who to vote for with this new album. I'm still just trying to encourage people to think for themselves…to stop buying into this absurdity and rampant fear. But even that message has been somehow edited over the last four fucking years and it pisses me off. How can simple message of 'get off your ass and educate yourself' be turned into a reason to dismiss our efforts? We're speaking our minds. We're following our hearts. [15]
The album's final track list would contain ten covers and two original songs. The song "Passive", was one of just two original songs on the album, tracing back to writing sessions for Trent Reznor's unreleased Tapeworm project. [16] In the late 1990s, Reznor started the project for songs that did not fit Nine Inch Nails, which eventually grew into a collaborative project with a number of other musicians. [16] One track, "Vacant", featured contributions from Keenan and Lohner in 1999, but with the project hitting development hell due to creative and legal hurdles of many of the participants in the early 2000s, A Perfect Circle began playing the track at live shows. [17] [16] With the project being shelved completely by 2004, Keenan decided to rework the track as "Passive" for Emotive. [16] The other original song was "Counting Bodies Like Sheep to the Rhythm of the War Drums", which was originally perceived to be a remix of the song "Pet", from Thirteenth Step. Keenan later clarified it as not a remix, but rather a second part of "Pet". The lyrical content of "Counting Bodies Like Sheep to the Rhythm of the War Drums" is similar to that in "Pet", but the delivery and staging of the vocals vary, reflecting the political tones of the album. The band also recorded a rendition of Elton John's "Border Song" during the Emotive sessions, but it was left off the album, with Keenan feeling they were unable to make their version of the song work right in the context of the album. [18]
The band's third album, Emotive, was released on November 2, 2004 – the actual U.S. Presidential Election Day. [19] Two singles were released in support of the album, the first of which was a somber cover of John Lennon's "Imagine" [19] The second single, "Passive", was released as a second single in early 2005. [16] "Counting Bodies Like Sheep" was also released as a promotional single, and had an accompanying animated music video. [20] Additionally, two weeks after the release of Emotive, on November 16, 2004, the band released the CD/DVD compilation set entitled Amotion . The DVD part contained the music videos for the band's six singles; while the CD is composed entirely of remixes of the singles from Mer de Noms and Thirteenth Step. [21] [22]
The band did not tour in support of the release, instead deciding to enter the hiatus they had delayed to record the album in the first place. [23] However, upon reforming in 2010, the band would play the album live, in its entirety, on multiple occasions, as part of the band's efforts to play each of their three albums live, front to back, for their 2011 live album release A Perfect Circle Live: Featuring Stone and Echo . [14] These performances featured refined and extended iterations of many songs, often containing alternate vocal performances and extended guitar or piano parts for tracks, reworked to be optimally played in a live setting. [14]
Aggregate scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
Metacritic | 62/100 [24] |
Review scores | |
Source | Rating |
AllMusic | [25] |
Blender | [26] |
E! Online | B+ [27] |
The Guardian | [28] |
Rolling Stone | [29] |
Upon its release, Emotive received generally positive reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from critics, the album received an average score of 62, which indicates "generally favorable reviews", based on 12 reviews. [24] The reception was much more polarizing than with their prior two albums, with some critics and fans not appreciating the band's move into more political content, [9] [8] [30] or the radical liberties they had taken with the album's cover versions. [13] [9] Others accused the band of rushing out a third album to fulfill the band's three album contractual obligation to Virgin Records, a claim refuted as false by Howerdel. [9] The album still managed to receive a generally positive reception from critics. [31] In a three out of five star review, Mojo dubbed it "one of the most bizarre covers albums ever". [32]
Adam Sweeting of The Guardian gave the album a four-star review, stating: "Cover versions are often hobbled by the artist's inability to step outside the original and find a fresh perspective, but some of these treatments verge on the visionary." [28] David Fricke of Rolling Stone labeled the album as "eccentric", while noting that the band "revisits classic protest hits, jacking up the terror by throwing out iconic arrangements and performing heretical surgery on the melodies." [29]
Nevertheless, Rob Theakston of AllMusic was mixed in his review, stating that "Emotive falls flat and fails to raise the bar set so high by the quality of their previous two releases." He also criticized the style of the album and wrote: "A Perfect Circle work their way through 12 songs that would almost be unrecognizable in their current arrangement if one weren't familiar with the original versions of each song." [25]
The album's sales were similar to its reception – positive, but less so than prior albums. The position debuted at number 2 on the US Billboard 200 chart, selling 142,000 copies in its first week – matching Thirteenth Step's peak chart placement, but selling almost 90,000 copies less. [33] It was certified Gold by the RIAA on December 9, 2004, indicating half of a million units sold. [34]
No. | Title | Length |
---|---|---|
1. | "Annihilation" (Crucifix cover) | 2:13 |
2. | "Imagine" (John Lennon cover) | 4:48 |
3. | "Peace, Love, and Understanding" (Nick Lowe cover) | 5:03 |
4. | "What's Going On" (Marvin Gaye cover) | 4:53 |
5. | "Passive" (written by Lohner / Keenan / Reznor / Howerdel) | 4:09 |
6. | "Gimmie Gimmie Gimmie" (Black Flag cover) | 2:18 |
7. | "People Are People" (Depeche Mode cover) | 3:43 |
8. | "Freedom of Choice" (Devo cover) | 2:59 |
9. | "Let's Have a War" (Fear cover) | 3:28 |
10. | "Counting Bodies Like Sheep to the Rhythm of the War Drums" (written by Howerdel / Keenan) | 5:36 |
11. | "When the Levee Breaks" (Memphis Minnie & Kansas Joe McCoy cover) | 5:55 |
12. | "Fiddle and the Drum" (Joni Mitchell cover) | 3:06 |
Total length: | 48:13 |
A Perfect Circle
| Additional musicians
Production
|
Chart (2004) | Peak position |
---|---|
Australian Albums (ARIA) [35] | 8 |
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria) [36] | 61 |
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders) [37] | 97 |
Canadian Albums (Billboard) [38] | 5 |
Dutch Albums (Album Top 100) [39] | 46 |
French Albums (SNEP) [40] | 61 |
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100) [41] | 33 |
Italian Albums (FIMI) [42] | 31 |
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ) [43] | 2 |
Norwegian Albums (VG-lista) [44] | 18 |
Scottish Albums (OCC) [45] | 68 |
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade) [46] | 62 |
UK Albums (OCC) [47] | 80 |
US Billboard 200 [48] | 2 |
Year | Single | Chart | Position |
---|---|---|---|
2004 | "Imagine" | Mainstream Rock Tracks [49] | 26 |
Modern Rock Tracks [50] | 26 | ||
"Passive" | Mainstream Rock Tracks [49] | 14 | |
Modern Rock Tracks [50] | 14 |
Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
---|---|---|
Canada (Music Canada) [51] | Gold | 50,000^ |
United States (RIAA) [52] | Gold | 500,000^ |
^ Shipments figures based on certification alone. |
A Perfect Circle is an American rock band formed in Los Angeles, California in 1999 by guitarist Billy Howerdel and Tool vocalist Maynard James Keenan. A Perfect Circle released three of their four studio albums in the early 2000s: their debut Mer de Noms in 2000, a follow-up, Thirteenth Step in 2003; and an album of radically re-worked cover songs, Emotive, in 2004. Shortly after Emotive's release, the band went on hiatus; Keenan returned to Tool and started up solo work under the band name Puscifer, while Howerdel released a solo album, Keep Telling Myself It's Alright, under the moniker Ashes Divide. Band activity was sporadic in the following years; the band reformed in 2010, and played live shows on and off between 2010 and 2013, but fell into inactivity after the release of their greatest hits album, Three Sixty, and a live album box set, A Perfect Circle Live: Featuring Stone and Echo in late 2013. The band reformed in 2017 to record a fourth album, Eat the Elephant, which was released in 2018. After spending the rest of the year touring in support of the album, the band fell into inactivity until 2024 for a brief tour and one-off song "Kindred".
Thirteenth Step is the second studio album by American rock band A Perfect Circle, released on September 16, 2003. The album sold well, charting at the number 2 position on the Billboard 200 in its premiere week, selling over 231,000 copies and staying on the charts for 78 weeks. The album went on to be certified as gold on November 4, 2003, and as platinum on March 24, 2006, by the RIAA. Three singles were released from the album, "Weak and Powerless", which topped both the Mainstream Rock Tracks and Modern Rock Tracks, followed by "The Outsider" and "Blue", which also charted on the respective charts.
William L. Howerdel is an American musician, best known as a founding member, guitarist, backing vocalist, songwriter, and producer for the band A Perfect Circle, as well as for his former solo project, Ashes Divide. Howerdel has recorded six studio albums across his career: four with A Perfect Circle, one under the moniker Ashes Divide, and one under his own name.
Amotion is a DVD–CD set released by American rock band A Perfect Circle on November 16, 2004, only two weeks after the debut of the band's third album, eMOTIVe. The DVD consists of music videos for singles such as "Judith", "3 Libras" and "Weak and Powerless" as well as previously unreleased videos for singles such as "Blue" and "Thinking of You". The CD is composed entirely of remixes of the singles from Mer de Noms and Thirteenth Step. The songs were retooled by Danny Lohner, Joshua Eustis, Massive Attack, and James Iha among others. The video album debuted at number four on the SoundScan Top Music Video chart and number ten on the Australian music DVD chart. aMOTION was certified Platinum by the RIAA on 17 December 2004.
Tapeworm was an American side project of Nine Inch Nails which existed in various forms from 1995 to roughly 2004. Tapeworm never released any recordings, but was frequently referenced in interviews. The band started as a side-project between Nine Inch Nails frontman Trent Reznor and live-band members Danny Lohner and Charlie Clouser. Through the years the group expanded and evolved numerous times to include artists such as Maynard James Keenan, Atticus Ross, and Alan Moulder, effectively turning the project into a supergroup. After many years of rumors and expected release dates, Reznor announced the end of the project in 2004.
Daniel Patrick Lohner, frequently known as Renholdër, is an American musician and record producer best known for his work with Nine Inch Nails and A Perfect Circle. In 2020, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a member of Nine Inch Nails.
"3 Libras" is a song by alternative rock band A Perfect Circle. The song was the second single from their debut album Mer de Noms. The song was well received both critically and commercially, with it peaking at number 12 on both the US Billboard Modern Rock and Mainstream Rock charts in 2000.
"Passive" is a song by American rock band A Perfect Circle. The song, originating from the Tapeworm side-project under the title "Vacant", was eventually recorded in the studio as "Passive" by A Perfect Circle around the time of the side-project's demise. It was the second single from their album Emotive, and peaked at number 14 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock Songs chart in 2005.
Keep Telling Myself It's Alright is the debut studio album by American rock band Ashes Divide, the solo-project by A Perfect Circle guitarist Billy Howerdel. While efforts towards a Howerdel solo album were started even back in his time in A Perfect Circle during touring in support of their 2003 album Thirteenth Step, commitments to A Perfect Circle and other projects, along with some difficult recording sessions, pushed the album's US release out to April 8, 2008. It was released in Australia on April 19. Its first single, "The Stone", entered radio circulation in January of that year.
Maynard James Keenan is best known as the singer of rock band Tool, with whom he has recorded five studio albums, A Perfect Circle, with whom he has recorded four studio albums, and Puscifer, a side project created by Keenan, has released three studio albums.
The discography of American alternative rock supergroup A Perfect Circle consists of four studio albums, two compilation albums, one extended play, one video album, thirteen singles, one promotional single and thirteen music videos. A Perfect Circle is the brainchild of Billy Howerdel. After hearing demos of Howerdel's music, Maynard James Keenan, the lead singer of Tool, offered his services as vocalist. Howerdel agreed, and the band formed in 1999. They were then joined by bassist/violinist Paz Lenchantin, guitarist Troy Van Leeuwen, formerly of Failure, and drummer Tim Alexander, formerly of Primus. Soon after entering the studio to record their first album, Alexander was replaced by Josh Freese of The Vandals. Mer de Noms was released in May 2000, selling 188,000 copies its debut week. The band embarked on a number of headlining tours all over the world to promote the album which was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) one month after its release, and platinum just four months later.
"By and Down" is a single by alternative rock band A Perfect Circle in 2013. The track represented the first studio material from the band in almost a decade's time. The studio version appears on the band's greatest hits album, Three Sixty, while a live version appears on their live box-set A Perfect Circle Live: Featuring Stone and Echo, both released in 2013. The song peaked at number 8 on the Billboard Mainstream Rock chart. An alternate version of the song, titled "By and Down the River", was later released on the band's fourth studio album, Eat the Elephant.
A Perfect Circle Live: Featuring Stone and Echo is a live box set by American rock supergroup, A Perfect Circle. It was released via the band's own label, A Perfect Circle Entertainment, on November 26, 2013, a week after the release of the band's greatest hits album, Three Sixty.
"Blue" is a song by American rock band A Perfect Circle. It was the third single from the band's second studio album, Thirteenth Step, behind the releases of the singles "Weak and Powerless" and "The Outsider". While not as successful as the prior two singles, which crossed over into the Billboard Hot 100 charts and hit the top 5 of the Mainstream Rock charts, the song was still a moderate success, peaking at number 19 on the latter chart. A remix version, "Blue ", was created by guitarist James Iha and released on the band's compilation album Amotion as well, and also received radio airplay.
Eat the Elephant is the fourth studio album by American rock band A Perfect Circle. It is their first album release in fourteen years since 2004's Emotive. While early work on new material traces back to as early as 2008, years of slow progress would ensue due to conflict between the band's chief music writers, frontman Maynard James Keenan and guitarist Billy Howerdel, largely stemming from their commitments to other projects and inability to come to an agreement on the direction to take the band. Renewed focus, alongside assistance from music producer Dave Sardy, helped propel the band into much more productive sessions across 2017, with the album being completed in early 2018. Thematically, the album covers a variety of Keenan's views on modern societal, religious, and political issues, focusing on his perceived lack of accountability in humanity. Musically, the album was viewed as an extension and maturation of their rock sound, adding more piano and electronic elements into songs for a more mellow sound than prior albums.
"The Doomed" is a song by American rock band A Perfect Circle. The song was first released as a single on October 16, 2017. It is the band's first single since 2013's "By and Down" for their greatest hits album Three Sixty, and was the lead single for their fourth studio album, Eat the Elephant. It peaked at number 16 on the Billboard US Mainstream Rock Songs chart in November 2017.
"TalkTalk" is a song by American rock band A Perfect Circle. It was released on February 5, 2018, as their third single off of their album Eat the Elephant. It peaked at number 17 on the US Billboard Mainstream Rock Songs chart.
Mer de Noms is the debut studio album by American rock band A Perfect Circle. The album was released on May 23, 2000, and entered the Billboard 200 at No. 4, making it the highest ever Billboard 200 debut for a rock band's first album. It sold over 188,000 copies in the first week, and was certified platinum by the RIAA later that same year. Three singles were released in promotion of the album, "Judith", "3 Libras", and "The Hollow", all of which hit the top 20 of both the Billboard US Modern Rock and Mainstream Rock charts.
What Normal Was is a solo studio album by Billy Howerdel, guitarist of A Perfect Circle. The album is his first to be directly released under his own name, and his second solo album overall, after releasing his prior album, Keep Telling Myself It's Alright (2008), under the pseudonym Ashes Divide 14 years prior.