Emotive (album)

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. 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.

Background

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. 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. At the performance, Keenan announced that A Perfect Circle would be releasing a collection of political cover songs. During the beginning of the touring cycle for Thirteenth Step, Howerdel and Keenan discussed potential ideas for a third studio album. 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.

Writing and recording

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. 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. 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. Most songs were radical reinterpretations of the original, sometimes unrecognizable compared to the originals. Keenan explained the album's concept:

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. 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.

Release, promotion, and aftermath

The band's third album, Emotive, was released on November 2, 2004 – the actual U.S. Presidential Election Day. Two singles were released in support of the album, the first of which was a somber cover of John Lennon's "Imagine" 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.

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. 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.

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| rev2 = Blender

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| rev3 = E! Online

| rev3score = B+

| rev4 = The Guardian

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| rev5 = Rolling Stone

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Critical reception

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. or the radical liberties they had taken with the album's cover versions. In a three out of five star review, Mojo dubbed it "one of the most bizarre covers albums ever".

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." It was certified Gold by the RIAA on December 9, 2004, indicating half of a million units sold.

Track listing

Personnel

A Perfect Circle

Maynard James Keenan – lead vocals (1, 2, 4–6, 9–12), backing vocals (7, 8), piano (2), arranger, production (exec.), rearrangement (1, 2, 6, 9–12)
Billy Howerdel – guitar (1–6, 8, 11), bass (2, 4, 8, 11), piano (1), harmonium (6), keyboards (1, 7), programming (1, 3, 7), backing vocals (2, 5, 10), lead vocals (3, 4, 7, 8), production, engineering, mixing (5, 7, 12), rearrangement (1, 3, 7, 8, 11)
Danny Lohner – bass (5, 6, 9), guitar (5, 9), arranger; keyboards and programming (1), backing vocals (6, 7, 10), co-producer (2, 5, 6, 9, 10), engineer (10), mixing (10) rearrangement (4, 10), instrumentation (10)
Josh Freese – drums (2–9, 11)
Paz Lenchantin – piano (2, 5, 11), strings (2, 3)
James Iha – guitar, keyboards and programming (7)
Jeordie White – bass (7)

Additional musicians

Charles Clouser – programming (3, 4)
Josh Eustis – drums (10), engineering (10), Rhodes piano (10), mixing (10)
Jason Freese – baritone and tenor saxophone (10)

Production

Critter – additional engineering
Steve Duda – digital engineering
Steven R. Gilmore – design, photography, sleeve art, poster design
John Giustina – photography
David Mattix – assistant engineering
Matt Mitchell – digital engineering
Andy Wallace – mixing (1-6, 8, 9, 11)

Charts

Album

{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders"

! Chart (2004)

! Peak position

Singles

{| class="wikitable"

!Year

!Single

!Chart

!Position

|rowspan="4"|2004

|rowspan="2"|"Imagine"

|Mainstream Rock Tracks

|align="center"|26

|Modern Rock Tracks

|align="center"|26

|rowspan="2"|"Passive"

|Mainstream Rock Tracks