Mer de Noms
AMG AllMusic Guide: Pop Albums:
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Mer de Noms
- Artist: A Perfect Circle
- Rating:
- Release Date: May 23, 2000
- Total Time: 44:25
- Type: Contains explicit content
- Genre: Rock
Review
A Perfect Circle is one of those bands that nobody realized was needed until it happened. A grand claim, perhaps, but there's little question that the addicting combination of Keenan's aching voice and Howerdel's accomplished songs and production skills made for one of 2000's best splashes in whatever was left of "modern rock." That the band had in its initial pre-debut album tours performed an audacious, entertaining medley of Ozzy Osbourne's "Diary of a Madman" and the Cure's "Lovesong" -- regularly matching one's words with the other's music and vice versa -- indicates where Mer de Noms ended up. Howerdel's earlier work with Billy Corgan makes perfect sense as a result, since the Pumpkins regularly fused the extreme theatricality of metal and goth just so, but Howerdel's work is no clone. His guitar work operates on setting the mood rather than driving everything before it, balancing sheer power with a textured approach that's quite beautiful. Nine Inch Nails-inspired touches crop up in the distorted percussion of many songs, such as "Rose," but for all the derivations everything becomes its own smart fusion, with Keenan's vocals the killer touch. His abilities in delivering on-the-edge emotional collapse had long been clear thanks to Tool -- here, with a slightly different musical bed to carry things, he often holds back from complete explosiveness, but it's still clearly him, just about to crack. His astonishing call-and-response exchange on the single "Judith" makes another high point in his career. The choice of who else to make up the band was a smart one -- Lenchantin's violin and string arrangements add even further to the air of dark, moody mystery, while Josh Freese's abilities on drums once again come to the fore. Alan Moulder adds in some fine help on mixing, polishing the glowering sheen of Mer de Noms to a hard, sharp edge. ~ Ned Raggett, Rovi| Mer de La Sérénité (2000 Album by Various Artists) | |
| Mer de Noms [Clean] (2000 Album by A Perfect Circle) |
Wikipedia on Answers.com:
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Mer de Noms
| Mer de Noms | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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| Studio album by A Perfect Circle | ||||
| Released | May 23, 2000 | |||
| Recorded | 1999 - 2000 | |||
| Genre | Alternative rock Alternative metal |
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| Length | 44:25 | |||
| Label | Virgin | |||
| Producer | Billy Howerdel | |||
| A Perfect Circle chronology | ||||
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| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   [1] |
| Entertainment Weekly | A−[2] |
| Melody Maker | [3] |
| MTV Asia | (8/10)[4] |
| NME | (7/10)[5] |
| Q | [6] |
| Rolling Stone |  [7] |
| Sputnikmusic | [8] |
Mer de Noms (French for "sea of names") is the debut album by American rock band A Perfect Circle. The album was released under Compact Disc format on May 23, 2000. It was certified platinum by the RIAA on October 31, 2000. The album entered the Billboard 200 at No. 4, making it the highest ever Billboard 200 debut for a rock band's first album.[9] It sold over 188,000 copies in the first week, and stayed on the charts for 51 consecutive weeks.[10] The album peaked at No. 27 on the Billboard Top Pop Catalog Albums on October 4, 2003, three years after the album's release. Mer de Noms has since been released on vinyl record format.
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Contents
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Overview
Most of the album's lyrics were dedicated to various people that lead singer Maynard James Keenan knew. The track listing consists of various names such as "Judith", "Breña", "Rose", "Thomas", "Magdalena", "Orestes", and "Renholdër" (for musician Danny Lohner).
The symbols on the front cover of the album can be translated to "La Cascade des Prenoms," which translated to English means "the waterfall of first names".
Track listing
All songs written and composed by Billy Howerdel and Maynard James Keenan.
| CD | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Length | |||||||
| 1. | "The Hollow" | 2:58 | |||||||
| 2. | "Magdalena" | 4:06 | |||||||
| 3. | "Rose" | 3:26 | |||||||
| 4. | "Judith" | 4:07 | |||||||
| 5. | "Orestes" | 4:48 | |||||||
| 6. | "3 Libras" | 3:39 | |||||||
| 7. | "Sleeping Beauty" | 4:10 | |||||||
| 8. | "Thomas" | 3:29 | |||||||
| 9. | "Renholdër" | 2:24 | |||||||
| 10. | "Thinking of You" | 4:34 | |||||||
| 11. | "Breña" | 4:24 | |||||||
| 12. | "Over" | 2:21 | |||||||
| Japanese Edition | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Title | Length | |||||||
| 13. | "Orestes (Demo)" (Bonus Track) | 3:24 | |||||||
- The vinyl version contains "Sleeping Beauty" with extended intro (04:57) and alternate mix of "Over" (03:07).
Symbols
Inside the insert the track names appear to be randomly spelled out in symbols. One way to decipher the symbols is to match the song titles using the normal alphabet with the song titles inside the insert.
The symbols which have popularly become known online as “APC Text”, “Mayan”, or “Elegant Mayan”, have become widespread, appearing in tattoos, computer fonts, and independent artwork.
Inside the insert there are twelve pictures (one for each song) and next to each one a song title, and beneath that a portion of the song's lyrics all written out in the symbols shown above. An example of this would be the drawing of the red octopus, which has the song name "Orestes" and "Sever this umbilical residue" beneath it.
Personnel
- Maynard James Keenan - vocals
- Billy Howerdel - guitars, background vocals, keyboards, piano, production, mixing
- Josh Freese - drums, percussion
- Paz Lenchantin - background vocals, bass guitar
- Alan Moulder - mixing
- Frank Gryner - drum engineering
Charts
- Album
| Year | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Billboard 200 | 4 |
| Top Canadian Albums | 5 | |
| Top Internet Albums | 5 |
- Singles
| Year | Single | Chart | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | "3 Libras" | Mainstream Rock Tracks | 12 |
| Modern Rock Tracks | 12 | ||
| "Judith" | Mainstream Rock Tracks | 4 | |
| Modern Rock Tracks | 5 | ||
| 2001 | "The Hollow" | Mainstream Rock Tracks | 14 |
| Modern Rock Tracks | 17 |
References
- ^ Allmusic review
- ^ Entertainment Weekly review
- ^ Melody Maker review
- ^ MTV Asia review
- ^ NME review
- ^ Q review
- ^ Rolling Stone review
- ^ Sputnikmusic review
- ^ "A Perfect Circle Storms Onto Chart with Highest Debuting First Album Ever From a Rock Band". NY Rock. June 2, 2000. http://www.nyrock.com/worldbeat/06_2000/060200.asp. Retrieved 2009-11-12.
- ^ Billboard.com
External links
- Mer de Noms symbols font
- "Worldwide chart info A Perfect Circle Mer de Noms". www.ultratop.be. http://www.ultratop.be/en/showitem.asp?interpret=A+Perfect+Circle&titel=Mer+de+noms&cat=a. Retrieved 4 September 2011.
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AMG AllMusic Guide: Pop Albums
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