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Mer de Noms
Studio album by A Perfect Circle
Released	May 23, 2000
Recorded	??
Genre	Alternative rock
Length	44:25
Label	Virgin Records
Producer(s)	Billy Howerdel
Professional reviews
All Music Guide link Rolling Stone link Metal Reviews 87 / 100 link
A Perfect Circle chronology
	Mer de Noms (2000)	Thirteenth Step (2003)

Mer de Noms is the first studio album by the alternative rock band A Perfect Circle. The album was released as a compact disc on May 23, 2000. The title means "sea of names" in French. It was certified platinum by the RIAA on October 31, 2000. The album entered The Billboard 200 at No. 4 with 188,000 copies sold.

Contents 1 Track listing 2 Symbols 3 Miscellanea 4 Personnel 5 Charts 6 See also

All music written by Billy Howerdel, and all lyrics written by Maynard James Keenan.

1. "The Hollow" – 2:59
2. "Magdalena" – 4:06
3. "Rose" – 3:26
4. "Judith" – 4:07
5. "Orestes" – 4:48
6. "3 Libras" – 3:40
7. "Sleeping Beauty" – 4:11
8. "Thomas" – 3:29
9. "Renholdër" – 2:24
10. "Thinking of You" – 4:35
11. "Breña" – 4:24
12. "Over" – 2:21
13. "Orestes" (Demo) (Japanese Import Bonus Track) - 3:24

Inside the insert the track names randomly appear spelled out in symbols. The symbols can be seen in the background of the front cover. 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 surprisingly widespread, appearing in tattoos, computer fonts, and independent artwork. The following is a key for ciphering and deciphering the symbols:

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.

• Most of the album's lyrics were dedicated to various people that frontman, Keenan, knew. For example, the song "3 Libras" was a song about nine people that Keenan knew that were under the Libra zodiac sign. He wrote the song about three of them, leaving them to have to guess which three it was about.

• The runes on the front cover of the album can be translated to "LA CASCADE DES PRENOMS", which translated to English means "The waterfall of the first names"

• The song "Judith" was about his mother Judith Marie Keenan, who was very religious. She suffered partial paralysis due to a brain aneurysm some 27 years before her recent passing. She took this as a test from God and held resilient in her faith that she believes He (God) would reward her for her efforts. Maynard's mother is also referenced in Tool's latest album 10,000 Days, in "Wings For Marie (Part 1)" and "10,000 Days (Wings Part 2)".

• The song "Breña" is about Keenan's former girlfriend Jennifer Ferguson, whose middle name is Breña.

• The title "Renholdër" is a backwards message: If you read the title (including the umlaut) backwards, it says Re: D Lohner. This is a nod to the Nine Inch Nails member Danny Lohner who was in an early version of the band. He works under the pseudonym Renholdër. Also, playing the song backwards, 22 seconds in, you can hear someone say in a high-pitched voice "Hallelujah, Danny Lohner".

• The lyrics in the song "Thinking Of You" refer to masturbating to the idea of anal sex. Keenan explains this in the commentary for the aMOTION DVD.

• The title of the album is French for "sea of names". The track listing consists of various names such as "Judith", "Breña", "Rose", "Thomas", "Magdalena". Some people consider this a possible motif for the album.

• Maynard James Keenan - Vocals, Gourd (Although incorrectly spelled in the album as "Gord")
• Billy Howerdel - Guitars, background vocals, lead vocals ("Renholdër"), bass, programming, keyboards, piano, production, mixing, engineering,
• Josh Freese - Drums, percussion
• Tim Alexander - Drums ("The Hollow")
• Paz Lenchantin - Violins, string arrangement, background vocals, bass ("Sleeping Beauty")
• Luciano Lenchantin - Viola ("3 Libras")
• Troy Van Leeuwen - End Lead Guitar ("Sleeping Beauty" and "Thinking Of You")
• Draven Godwin - Percussion ("Thomas")
• Kelli Shafer - Vocals ("Renholdër")
• Alan Moulder - Mixing
• Frank Gryner - Drum engineering
• Steven R. Gilmore - Sleeve art direction, design, digital photographic manipulation
• Sean Murphey - Photography

Album

Year	Chart	Position
2000	The Billboard 200	4
2000	Top Canadian Albums	5
2000	Top Internet Albums	5

Singles

Year	Single	Chart	Position
2000	"3 Libras"	Mainstream Rock Tracks	12
2000	"3 Libras"	Modern Rock Tracks	12
2000	"Judith"	Mainstream Rock Tracks	4
2000	"Judith"	Modern Rock Tracks	5
2001	"The Hollow"	Mainstream Rock Tracks	14
2001	"The Hollow"	Modern Rock Tracks	17

• List of works in irregular time signatures

A Perfect Circle
Maynard James Keenan | Billy Howerdel | Josh Freese | Jeordie White | James Iha
Danny Lohner | Paz Lenchantin | Troy Van Leeuwen | Tim Alexander
Discography
Albums: Mer de Noms | Thirteenth Step | eMOTIVe | aMOTION
Popular songs: Judith | 3 Libras | Weak and Powerless | The Outsider | Blue | Let's Have a War | Counting Bodies Like Sheep to the Rhythm of the War Drums | Passive | Imagine
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