A Perfect Circle primarily lets other artists (by way of their vintage recordings) do the talking on “eMOTIVe,” the protest album it purposely released on Election Day. Ten of its 12 songs are covers, ranging from Joni Mitchell (“Fiddle and the Drum”) to Black Flag (“Gimme Gimme Gimme”). A Perfect Circle reinvents them as mournful hymns for the apocalypse, emphasizing the lyrical poignancy that casual listeners may have missed in songs like Depeche Mode’s “People Are People.” Its restructuring of John Lennon’s “Imagine” transforms the uplifting original into an anguished lament, and the despairing but compassionate reading of Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On” attests to that masterpiece’s timelessness. The titles to the originals “Passive” and “Counting Bodies Like Sheep to the Rhythm of the War Drums” are all the explanation those songs need.—CLT
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