Three years after the release of its debut Mer de Noms,
A Perfect Circle's Thirteenth Step sees the light of day.
By that time, Troy van Leeuwen and Paz Lenchantin
had left and been replaced by bassist
Jeordie Osborne White, formerly of Marilyn Manson, and guitarist James Iha, formerly of the Smashing Pumpkins
(though he doe not appear on the album).
While van Leeuwen appear on part of the set, guitarist Danny Lohner helped out after he departed.
Amazingly, despite the changes,
the sound is still very much the creation of Billy
Howerdel with the unmistakable vocal of Maynard
Keenan from Tool. Produced by Howerdel and mixed
by the inimitable Andy Wallace, Thirteenth Step is a moodier,
tenser, and more atmospheric (if that is possible) recording than its predecessor.
Written mostly by Howerdel and Keenan, the songs
traverse a particular associated with surrender,
loss, having the nature of a person stripped away,
and turning in the twilight of those feelings
toward a kind of slow transformation into something that can
only be called "other." There are no easy outs and
no easy answers, only hard questions throughout "Weak and Powerless,"
where surrender is necessary but far from desired. The title bitingly refers to the 12 Steps of Alcoholics
Anonymous,
but this is not your average recovery outing. Tracks like "Blue," "Vanishing," and "Lullaby"
(one of two tracks featuring the amazing Jarboe on vocals)
feature a kind of barely restrained menace caught in a
trap by rock & roll vu...