275. A Perfect Circle / eMOTIVe. 2004. 0.5/5

So a band comes into its third album, which for most bands indicates exactly how they are going to progress into the future. It is the turning point. It is the album that decrees that you are at that point where you have found your essence, and have a fan base that helps you progress down the road, or it decries your insufficiencies and suggests that the end is probably nigh.
The end was nigh.

The fact that this was basically a side project for the members means that there has never been a huge push on the timetable for releases. The fact that this album is actually only two new songs, and then ten songs which are cover versions of political songs, doesn't help the palate at all. It would be a tough enough ask for any band to pull off a version of John Lennon's "Imagine" without it coming across as indulgent or horrifying. The fact that the version of Led Zeppelin's "When the Levee Breaks" is almost completely awful also proves how hard it is to mess with classics. They have had a crack at a wide range of bands and genres here, and personally I think it comes off dreadfully. Perhaps that is unfair given that I only looked in to listening to the album on the insistence of one of my best mates that this was a band worth checking out, and not because I followed any of the artists involved or for the most part the other bands they are in.

In the end, neither most of the original versions of these songs, nor these versions, do anything for me. I find it dull and dreadful, and hardly worth a second thought.

Rating:  Imagine all the people... listening to this crap...  0.5/5