The band's third album, "Emotive", was released on November 2, 2004 – the actual U.S Presidential Election Day.
(meta data) TITLE: A Perfect Circle Album Preview: Politics? They've Got It Covered - MTV (meta data) AUTHOR: Archive-Joe-DAngelo (meta data) PUBLISHED DATETIME: 2004-10-19 14:49 # A Perfect Circle Album Preview: Politics? They've Got It Covered Band puts its own spin on other songwriters' protests with eMOTIVe. archive-Joe-DAngelo In light of the current political climate, A Perfect Circle's Maynard James Keenan couldn't keep to himself any longer. But instead of expressing his outrage by writing a new album, the famously reclusive singer opted to put his stamp on other songwriters' sentiments. Ten of the 12 songs on APC's third album, eMOTIVe, are covers, and they range from recognizable to relatively obscure. The familiarity that resonates in John Lennon's "Imagine," Nick Lowe's "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding," and Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On" allows the listener to forgo concentrating too hard on the lyrics. Instead, the words they already know by heart take on updated meanings when juxtaposed with new, and oftentimes harrowing, backdrops. "Imagine," which serves as the album's first single, is hardly the delicate, happy-faced ode to utopia the former Beatle envisioned in 1971. Instead, eerie piano chords plod along dirgelike until a stark violin is abruptly introduced to emphasize the desperation inherent in having hope whittled down to its last thread. "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding," an angry pop-punk rave-up as performed most popularly by Elvis Costello, instead comes across as a helpless plea thanks to guitarist Billy Howerdel's high-pitched delivery. "What's Going On," which features layered synths and an angelic Keenan-Howerdel harmony, is another pleading call for help that seems to be sung from a disembodied, third-person standpoint instead of the vital wake-up call that was Gaye's original. Soaring, whining rock guitars, offset by a low-end fuzz, provide anthemic lift to Devo's "Freedom of Choice," which comes off as a pro-vote rally cry. Tolerance is preached through Depeche Mode's "People Are People," where the teetering sound of an alarm stresses its urgency. Black Flag's "Gimmie Gimmie Gimmie" tackles the topic of greed from the standpoint of an insatiable beast that doesn't know why it wants more, it just does. And should anyone or anything stand in its way ... we have bombs for that. "Let's Have a War," a 1982 Fear song, seemingly takes a cynical view of the Iraq conflict. "Let's have a war/ So you can go and die/ ... We can all use the money," Keenan deadpans above a skittering techno beat. And in "When the Levee Breaks," Led Zeppelin's famous cover of a Memphis Minnie blues song, a soft, piano-and-bass entwinement renders Keenan's ethereal vocals nearly indecipherable, save for the chorus: "When the levee breaks, you'll have no place to hide." It comes off less as a threat than an omen. Prefacing it all is a whispered recitation of "Annihilation" by early '80s punk band Crucifix, setting the tone for what follows with frightening effect: "Reject the system dictating the norms/ From dehumanization to arms production to hasten this nation towards its destruction," Keenan says in a hushed tone. "It's your choice: peace or annihilation." The two new songs on eMOTIVe, "Counting Bodies Like Sheep to the Rhythm of the War Drums" and "Passive," both extol the dangers of complacency. Where the former is an a industrial-rock march backed by an ominous bass line sung from the standpoint of a heartless dictator; in the latter Keenan expresses his angry disappointment at those who sit idly by and let the bad guys win. eMOTIVe hits stores on Election Day, November 2. A Perfect Circle Full Episodes Shows A-Z TV Schedule Shows News 2019 VMAs Are You The One? Catfish: The TV Show Double Shot At Love Ex On The Beach The Hills: New Beginnings Jersey Shore: Family Vacation Teen Mom OG TRL Top 10 Casting Calls Latest News Watch Live TV
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A Perfect Circle
History.:"Emotive" (2004).
Keenan emphasized that, despite his personal feelings on Bush, the album was less of an "anti-Bush" album, and more of a "anti-political apathy" – encouraging people to research things and become more involved. 
 The band rushed to complete the album in time to release it prior to the 2004 U.S. Presidential Elections in November, just barely a year after their prior release. Recording sessions ran from late June to early September. The sessions, largely the work of Howerdel, Keenan, and Freese, contained contributions from past and present members of the band, including Lenchantin, Lohner, White, and Iha. Keenan, aware of the time constraints and Howerdel's future intentions on doing solo albums, also encouraged Howerdel to contribute lead vocals to about a third of the album. A wide variety of different songs were chosen to be recorded, from Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On" to Led Zeppelin's "When the Levee Breaks". Most songs were radical reinterpretations of the original, sometimes unrecognizable compared to the originals. Howerdel explained that it was done on purpose, to make the song's their own, and conceded that he, as of 2010, still had not even once ever heard the original version of Crucifix's "Annihilation", another song re-recorded for the album. He also stated that some songs had started as original A Perfect Circle songs musically, until the band decided to use the lyrics of other songs over the compositions, in turn converting them into cover songs.