Only Love Can Conquer Hate

The new A Perfect Circle album eMOTIVe came out on November 2nd especially for the controversial presidential election and anti-war movement this year. The album is comprised of original material combined with covers of protest songs, spanning approximately thirty years of music, and representative of many different styles.

The album starts out with an interesting juxtaposition of Crucifix’s “Annihilation” followed by legendary Beatle John Lennon’s “Imagine”. With covers like “What’s so Funny About Peace, Love and Understanding” by Nick Lowe (famous from Elvis Costello), “What’s Going On” by soul master Marvin Gaye, Black Flag’s “Gimme Gimme Gimme”, Devo’s “Freedom of Choice”, and Fear’s “Let’s Have a War”, all adapted in APC’s mournful and melancholy style which emphasizes the sorrow of the atrocities in Iraq, the frustration about the war is blatantly expressed in the hardcore turn of the music in the middle of the album. It is topped off by the acapella version of “The Fiddle and the Drum” by Joni Mitchell, which is a surge of chanting, urging the listeners to act as their consciences command.

Each one of the songs has its own lyrics and meaning, whether to illustrate the harm of greed or the good of love. Together as an album, they proclaim that “peace, love, and understanding” are what the world sorely needs, that “only love can conquer hate”. Every song tries to prompt open hearts and minds, to show how acceptance is the only real option. eMOTIVe is the perfect title for this album, as every song on it evokes some sort of empathetic feeling, making it hard to ignore the basis for this collection of protest songs.