| A Perfect Circle - Mer de Noms |
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| Music Disc Reviews Audio CD | ||||||||||||||||||
| Written by Bryan Dailey | ||||||||||||||||||
| Tuesday, 23 May 2000 | ||||||||||||||||||
A Perfect Circle is the new band from Maynard James Keenan, the lead singer of the Los Angeles progressive heavy metal group Tool. After hearing the first single "Judith" from A Perfect Circle’s album ‘Mer De Noms’ on the radio, there wasn’t much there to lead me away from thinking this album was going to be "Tool, the Next Generation." The press information that was provided with this album aggressively stressed that this is not a side project for Maynard, but rather a full-fledged band that will stand on its own musical legs. Please don’t get me wrong, I think Tool is one of the most interesting and talented hard rock acts in the last 10 years, but I don’t want to hear a watered-down version. I am here to tell you that A Perfect Circle creates an identity of its own with ‘Mer De Noms.’ Many of the songs are mid- to low-tempo and feature lush orchestral instrumentation. More balladesque than anything that Tool has ever done, A Perfect Circle mixes hard music with a string section very effectively. Metallica and Michael Kamen could learn a lesson or two from this album. There are a few moments when the album becomes a tad monotonous, but at no point was I ever compelled to stop listening. Sonically, ‘Mer De Noms’ is above average, but it is by no means stellar – its sound is a little too bright for me. I would have liked to hear this album mixed with more emphasis on the low end. This could be compensated for in a good system with a bit of EQ tweaking. This won’t be one of the top demo CDs of 2000, but overall it sounds better than many of the hard music CDs that I have heard this year. I have never seen such an aggressive street ad campaign for an album since Puff Daddy’s horrible flop of an album ‘Forever.’ ‘Mer De Noms’ debuted at #4, selling over 200,000 copies, the highest first-week sales total for a rock record. The following week, it remained in the top 10. Word must have gotten out that A Perfect Circle is very much a viable band and not just another side project doomed to find its way into the bargain CD bin. Like this article? Bookmark and share with any of the sites below.        |
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