A Perfect Circle
Thirteenth Step

103,507,200 seconds, this is how long I've waited to listen to A Perfect Circle's latest work.

In these years (and yes, behind all these seconds hide several years), the band has undergone significant changes with the exit of bassist Paz Lenchantin and guitarist Troy Van Leeuwen, the first joining Zwan while the second joined Queens of The Stone Age. Jeordie White (aka Twiggy Ramirez) and James Iha, former Smashing Pumpkins, became part of the lineup.
With the very late addition of the new members of the band and with a Maynard engaged worldwide on his tour with Tool, the album was largely the result of the work of Billy Howerdel and Josh Freese, who composed all the music and prepared a good portion of the lyrics, which, however, Maynard put his hand on, and this is evident from the first listen (or reading).

The album begins unusually with "The Package," a voice as aware as it is harmonious seems to whisper a story that seems to want to capture three long years of silence: technically complex, it breaks with the past without ever becoming an exercise of "style," rather making complexity a vehicle of beauty and immediacy, confirming what is "A Perfect Circle" style. Absolutely noteworthy is Maynard's voice in singing the chorus: it becomes an indispensable part of the song itself just as much as the guitar or the drums, in a word: Hypnotic.
"Weak and Powerless" follows without letting us catch our breath, a splendid guitar riff reintroduces Maynard's voice which, even in this case, is indispensable: the song is a worthy successor to singles like "3 Libras" or "Orestes," and it's no coincidence the words leave you with a lump in your throat: "Little angel go away, come again some other day | Devil has my ear today, I'll never hear a word you say | He promised that I’d find a little solace and some peace of mind | Whatever just | as long as I don't feel so | Desperate and ravenous | I'm so weak and powerless", like much of the album, it speaks of love and in particular the difficulty of communication, paralysis, and the search for inner peace through dreamlike shortcuts.
"The Noose", in Italian "The Noose", in a certain sense is complementary to the previous track, taking up its themes: the atmosphere that emerges is chilling (and I swear it's not a figure of speech), certainly more evocative and introspective than the previous track, thanks also to the skillful mixing of the guitars and the extreme adaptability of the singer Maynard. It's like tuning the radio to a 1930s station while listening to "The Nurse Who Loved Me." It is absolutely the song you would never expect to hear on an album like this; it's the break from the past, it's visionary: it's like being in a lucid stream of consciousness. Love to madness, madness (or love, whichever you want to call it, does it change much??) that makes a woman the guardian of health... undoubtedly the best track on the entire album!

"Thirteenth Step" overall has no lows, and all the songs are thoroughly enjoyable: those looking for a break in this new album will find it in two or three tracks at most, while some offer something new without definitively breaking with the past, and others are very reminiscent of the old "Mer de Noms": honestly, in my opinion, it's not a flaw at all, the caliber of the tracks and the work done certainly withstands any possible critique from this point of view.
Another note of merit is having created and maintained a very personal style, which I mentioned above, that was not sacrificed at the expense of an innovative drive, but rather associated with it.

NB: Many will know that on the previous album, the symbols on the cover and booklet really had meaning, and precisely in this album, I had the pleasure of noticing a little mystery: if you observe the front cover, on the girl's arm, the numbers are tattooed up to 13, each linked to the respective song, 12 in total... and the 13th?? On the possible meaning, we can only speculate, even though the well-known love of singer Maynard for mathematics and esotericism (such examples abound in Tool CDs, especially in Lateralus) we can intuit the possible key to this mystery.
For any curiosity about the new lineup, interviews, comments, various reviews, I refer you to APerfectCircle.ORG where among other things you will find the video of "Weak and Powerless" and the new official website: truly unmissable...