Silicon Obsession: The Long-Awaited Album by A Perfect Circle

A Perfect Circle

Say what you will, but Maynard James Keenan is one of the most interesting men in the music industry - one of the most influential if not controversial.  Indeed, his brand of art is so prodigious and log-awaited that his fans wait breathlessly for the sporadic albums to come out.  In 2015, we saw a new album by Puscifer, one of the best albums of the year, and next year will boast of  a new Tool album, the first in 13 years.  Fans are going crazy with anticipation.  And this year, we were blessed "Eat the Elephant", the spectacular new album by Keenan's supergroup, A Perfect Circle after a long 14-year hiatus.

Ever the eccentric artist, I enjoy watching and reading interviews with Keenan where he describes the creative process in making his music.  I have heard many a Tool fan slobber, "Maynard just writes the words!  He doesn't have anything to do with the music!"  This is said to diminish his contributions, but can you imagine "Aenima" without Keenan's misanthropic rantings?  It is true that he gives his fellow Tool members more creative leeway, because those guys are creative juggernauts.  Even with his personal project, Puscifer, Keenan knows how to surround himself with creative influence and channels it like a maestro.  The same can be said of A Perfect Circle.

Although the band started as the project of Billy Howerdel.  With someone as charismatic as Keenan, it is easy to be eclipsed, but there is no denying that this project is Howerdel's baby.  Howerdel worked in the '90s as a guitar tech for several huge bands, including Tool.  He roomed in Los Angeles for a while with Keenan and was able to personally play the demos of his music for Keenan.  The songs were originally written for a female singer, but Keenan observed that he could imagine himself singing these songs.  And thus was A Perfect Circle born - a supergroup having included such musicians as Troy Van Leeuwen from Queens of the Stone Age, Paz Lenchantin from Pixies, and Tim Alexander from Primus and Arizona band Major Lingo, also currently including James Iha from Smashing Pumpkins.

I have been a Tool fan since the early '90s, but I remember the first time I heard A Perfect Circle in 2000.  "Mer de Noms" became kind of the soundtrack for that year.  It had an edge like Tool, but it was more dreamy, more gothic - in other words, my kind of music.  There have been two albums since then, but honestly I didn't listen to those much until preparing for this review, and I was missing out.  They are all great.

Between albums, Keenan secludes himself in his wine business in the Verde Valley of Arizona (not too far from me).  He has aptly said that having something to do with his life other and music gives him fodder for writing music, otherwise life is just being on the road.  When his bands - be it Tool or APC - are finished writing their music, they will send their recordings to Keenan, and he will play the music in his truck, looking for inspiration.  When it comes, he will wrestle with it until a song emerges.

Keenan has said with "Eat the Elephant", he said that Howerdel sent him a collection of noisy, guitar-driven power pop songs.  Keenan sent the recordings back and told Howerdel to strip the songs down to their most basic level - just piano.  And that works; that's how they left the album - most of it circling around Keenan's voice and a piano, giving the whole album more of a primal feel.  There are a few aggressive moments, but most of the album has the opiate haze of the impetus of a fever dream, the music ebbing and flowing, which makes Keenan's lyrics even more disturbing.

There is a very obvious political slant to this album.  It's obvious that Keenan is not a Trump fan.  But let me give you a hint - he's not a fan of the Democrats, either.  Keenan is very careful to keep his political affiliations out of his interviews, but here, Keenan is evidently critical of both.  This album is a dismal portrait of how screwed our society is.

My favorites are the title track, "Eat the Elephant" - whose meaning is perfectly clear.  We are all clearly eating the elephant right now.  The song starts out with a smoky, jazzy piano and a cymbal.  Keenan's voice is almost weeping, and the guitars are fuzzy and pulsating.  "Disillusioned" is one of my favorites - the song, a lament against technology, has movements and changes that take you through the proverbial gamut of emotions.  Subdued.  That is the word that describes this album.  And yet it works.  "The Contrarian" builds up to a pulsing wash of sound - a shoegaze song if I have ever heard one.  "So Long, and Thanks For All the Fish", a bubbly, caustic tribute to Douglas Adams.  "Talk Talk" continues Keenan's obsession, a love/ hate relationship with Christianity and has a poignant message for me as a Mormon - try walking like Jesus, instead of just talking the talk..  My favorite is "Hourglass", a catchy electronic song in the vein of Nine Inch Nails.  Keenan breaks tradition and croons in his best imitation of Howard Devoto.

All in all, this album is genius.  As everything Keenan does.  It makes me hunger for the Tool album, sad to think about how long it will be before another release.  But I maintain my argument - in mainstream music, no one is more important than Maynard James Keenan.