A Perfect Circle - The Package

Riff mark: 4:54 

I can tell you how many times I’ve attempted to listen to Mer De Noms but can’t tell you how many times I’ve rotated this perfect circle. Maynard and a cluster of guys from other bands who don’t seem to mind him return after three years of head-tapping to seemingly make the most tortured, seductive, and downright fucking beautiful mainstream hard rock album to slip and crawl through airwave cracks like the banana millipede wriggling along its front cover. Just a bit of rearranging and contemplating, APC managing to shut up and dig in the dirt for resource, uprooting every emotion, and waxing them like rosin to everything unplugged. Maynard, sober, nailed to the earthly perch, un-stoned and not flying like some spaced-out Alex Grey third eye, is left relying on his gift of voice in full essence, a steady talent, pushing forward with gusto on brooding, Deftones-assimilating The Package, a 7+ minute opener that spans every dynamic and volume; a great song. Very few tracks understandably reach its forte yet by deliberate choice; most prefer to shake away leaves and hair from hushed, acoustic nudity (Blue) or echo away into the shadows of bushes (Vanishing). Some decrescendos are as obvious as name (Lullaby, performed by Jarboe of The Swans). A surprise in 2003, a major label peach not squeezed into a cup of deadline. Worth your time. Begrudging gripe: it’s too over-the-top depressing. The Disney rendition of that Failure cover makes a listen of Fantastic Planet feel like a sunshine ray. Weak and Powerless was the only radio hit, though somewhere The Outsider made waves, despite better songs existing here.