A Perfect Circle has a ton of great songs across their brief catalog, but there's one that really stands out to vocalist Maynard James Keenan. In an interview with Revolver, Keenan named "The Contrarian" from Eat The Elephant as his favorite A Perfect Circle song, saying it was a big challenge for him and guitarist Billy Howerdel to both write and perform.
"Just even the first three songs on Eat the Elephant was a very difficult task to do because it was an exercise in Billy and I showing restraint. It's hard to do a very restrained, focused song with a lot of space. It's actually harder than filling in all the space. Especially with that song because there's a subtlety attached to it and a lot of space."
"[Vocally] it was in a range that's not necessarily comfortable for me, and to maintain character in those unfamiliar spaces is a challenge. And I think Billy, too. He had to not reinvent what he was doing but take a step back and not put forward his first reaction or his second reaction. He had to really dig deep and find how he served that song rather than just bringing Billy Howerdel to that song.
"Same for me. 'How do I serve that song and that vibe beyond just bringing what I normally do to that song?' So I just really enjoyed that song. It was a challenge."
