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.
Background
Writing and recording
The band's writing process was very different from the band's first album, Mer de Noms. With the first album, a majority of the album had been already written and recorded over a long period of time by guitarist Billy Howerdel, before a band had even been assembled. He had recorded it with a female vocalist in mind, but upon Tool vocalist Maynard James Keenan hearing it and offering to sing for the material, the content was then quickly finalized upon adding Keenan's vocals and re-recording the drums with band member Josh Freese.
Writing for the album started while Keenan was still touring with his other band, Tool, in support of their 2001 album Lateralus. Howerdel would write most of the music, while Keenan would write most of the lyrics. As such, Howerdel would send work in progress instrumental he would create, and Keenan would write lyrics in between shows, a process they found to be efficient, but ultimately more difficult to balance than they initially expected.
Once touring for Tool was over with, Keenan returned to the studio to work in person with the rest of the band on the album. The sessions were, as such, marked with far more collaboration, especially between Howerdel and Keenan, now that Howerdel knew who his vocalist was, and what types of ideas he'd support. White, relatively new to the band, often played the role of mediator between the two, being able to offer an outsider's perspective of the situation. <br>Lyricist Maynard James Keenan on the album's concept.|width=20%|align=right
Thirteenth Step is a concept album about the different aspects and perspectives of addiction, and the recovery from it. The album's title itself is a reference to the 12 step program of Alcoholics Anonymous.</blockquote>
Keenan, not having struggled with addiction first-hand, drew from experiencing it happen to others around him, such as Layne Staley, the lead singer of Alice in Chains, who died in 2002 due to drug addiction. Three singles were released from the album, "Weak and Powerless", which topped both the Mainstream Rock Tracks and Modern Rock Tracks, "The Outsider", and "Blue".
The band toured extensively for the rest of 2003 and in early 2004 in support of the album. Just prior to the 2004 Presidential Election, the band released Emotive, a collection of political war cover songs, which contained "Counting Bodies Like Sheep to the Rhythm of the War Drums", which was a reinterpretation of the track "Pet", and a remix album titled Amotion, which contained remixed versions of the tracks across their three albums, including the three singles from Thirteenth Step.
Critical reception
Media reception to Thirteenth Step was generally favorable; aggregating website Metacritic reported a rating of 74 percent based on 11 critical reviews. AllMusic strongly praised the album for having "the sound of a musical and lyrical maturity that normally doesn't occur until a band's third or fourth albums", and concluded that "Lyrically, musically, sonically, the Thirteenth Step is proof positive that mainstream rock has plenty of life and vision left in it."
Track listing
Note
- The Japanese version of Thirteenth Step includes an exclusive extended version of "The Package" (9:23).
Personnel
- Maynard James Keenan − lead vocals, executive producer, artwork direction
- Billy Howerdel − guitar, backing vocals, production, engineering
- Josh Freese − drums, backing vocals (on "Pet")
- Jeordie White − bass, backing vocals (on "Pet")
- Troy Van Leeuwen − guitar (on "The Package", "Vanishing" and "Gravity")
- Paz Lenchantin – strings (on "Gravity")
- Danny Lohner – guitar (on "The Noose"), additional production
Additional musicians
- The Section Quartet – strings (on "The Nurse Who Loved Me" and "A Stranger")
- Jarboe – vocals (on "The Noose" and "Lullaby")
- Devo H. Keenan – backing vocals (on "Pet")
- K. Patrick Warren – instrumentation on "The Nurse Who Loved Me"
- Jon Brion – instrumentation on "The Nurse Who Loved Me"
Production
- Steve Duda – digital engineering assistance
- Andy Wallace – mixing
Charts
Weekly charts
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! scope="col"| Chart (2003)
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!scope="row"|Spanish Albums (PROMUSICAE)
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Year-end charts
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! scope="row"| US Billboard 200
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