A Perfect Circle plays covers
MUSIC REVIEW: By Marty Garza
IV Leader Columnist, Dec. 9, 2004
What do you do when you're considered the most original band of the last 10 years? Become a cover band.
First of all, A Perfect Circle’s release is not a bad album by any stretch of the imagination. It is accomplished and shows that a lot of thought was put into the production.
It is a cover album, which could turn some people off, but the covers that A Perfect Circle does are really good.
Well, at least most of them are.
The covers of Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On," and Devo's "Freedom of Choice," are okay but fall short of hitting the mark when compared to their counterparts.
"What's Going On," needs a smoother voice and "Freedom of Choice" needs a synthesizer to hit the marks.
However, the covers of John Lennon's "Imagine," Fear's "Let's have a War," and Zepplin's "When the levee breaks," really bring something new to the board.
Each song sounds almost nothing like the original, but instead turns it into a song that sounds like it belongs to APC. I think this is the best way to cover songs and the only way to be taken seriously when doing so.
"Imagine" is the only song I kind of feel bad for liking. It lost a lot of its meaning by the amount of extras that are used on the APC version of the song.
"Imagine" was supposed to be played practically naked. Nothing but the guitar and piano; nothing but the voice and the man.
The only reason APC didn't throw in the kitchen sink was because it couldn't hold a tune. This is what bothered me the most, I didn't mind that they took most of the blues out of "When the levee breaks," since they replaced it with musicianship that just barely falls short of Zepplin.
"Let's Have a War" is obscure enough that anyone who is introduced to it will think the lyrics are Maynard's. If you can stand the political propaganda of the album, it's easy to roll with.
Score: A Perfect Circle pulls an "American Idiot" approach to its album with all the political business, but beats the hell out of what Green Day was trying to do.