Maynard James Keenan is one of the best living voices in music. He's up there, way up there, right next to all the other voices I like, if not technically better than them (which I can't list now because I can't think of 'em) if only lacking due to the style of music he makes. My Tool and A Perfect Circle phase (which was also my A System of a Down phase) ended only a year or two out of high school---once I was no longer tapped into "the source" of popular music, I lost sight of it. Over time my attachment to APC, Tool, and SoaD diminished... but A Perfect Circle still gets plays in my car, mostly because it is ridiculously fun to try to sing along with Maynard and marvel at how he sings unlike anyone else in music today.

This is mostly because underlying every really heavy "in your face, bitch!" rock song there's something poetic, powerful, and melodic about it. The Outsider, a pretty clear rant against attention whores and people who say things like, "I am going to kill myself! Don't you care?" (which I've heard in various forms over the years, including one recent occurrence of "I'm still in love with you and I may or may not have swallowed a whole bottle of Xanax. Do you care?"), contains vast swooping swirls of guitar (this is my "technical jargon" in top form, but when Wikipedia can have "ambient doomscape" written on it, I think I can say whatever the hell I want) that somehow turn anger and rage into a beautiful thing.

That's really the primary strength of A Perfect Circle, all across the album they take things that are menacing and angry and craft these absolutely beautiful songs around them. With nearly 1,000 reviews on Amazon with a rating of 4.5 stars, I don't really think I need to say a lot as it's all already been said.

Now, if only Maynard James Keenan would make an folky indie album...

This song is dedicated to my friend Becca, who I told today I no longer wished to sustain our friendship after she lied to me about having cancer in an attempt to guilt me into hanging out with her more often.