Opinions: A Perfect Circle - Thirteenth Step

[halo19]

I don't know what took me months, but I'm starting to really love this album. I don't care what their fans are going to say about how it is compared to the first album, this is for those with a truly open mind. It is like a mini-Fragile for them. The atmospheric tracks like "The Noose" and Failure cover "The Nurse Who Loved Me" show that this direction was not a mistake at all, while there are still tracks like "The Outsider" and "Pet" which sound like their signature sound.

One of my fav. tracks right now is the closing track, "Gravity". It sounds really cool, and I like the bass on this. This track is over five minutes for a reason.

Speaking of which, "The Package" is a great start of the album, since it pretty much shows what's to come on the album, even though it's almost 8 minutes long. There are different sides to this one. One that fits the mold of the album, and there's also the heavier part of it.
And the other four tracks are pretty good too. "A Stanger" is still growing on me, and I still do enjoy "Blue" a lot, as well as "Vanishing", even though that's not my favorite. Not as big of a WAP fan as I am of the other tracks on the album, although that one is pretty good. But the other tracks show better of what they're capable of on Thirteenth Step.

"Crimes" and "Lullaby" are interesting, even if they aren't like full songs.

[Walking Contradiction]

In my humble opinion, Thirteenth Step completely blows away Mer de Noms, and I don't understand why more people don't feel the same way.  I mean, don't get me wrong, MDN is a very good album, but this one is just so much more creative, unique, and artistic.  APC really find their own sound on here, whereas on their first album they kind of came off as a more accessible version of Tool at times.  This album really feels like a finished work that you have to listen to all at once to truly appreciate, even though many of the songs on here are still brilliant individually.  In fact, while MDN had its share of masterpieces like 3 Libras, Thirteenth Step completely outdoes it in that category, with masterpieces like The Package, Blue, Pet, and The Nurse Who Loved Me.  This album is truly a brilliant work of art and has taken APC to the next level.

[halo19]

Here's how I'd rank the tracks:

1. The Noose
2. The Package
3. The Outsider
4. Blue
5. Gravity
6. Pet
7. The Nurse Who Loved Me
8. Weak and Powerless
9. Vanishing
10. A Stranger
11/12: Crimes/Lullaby