ALBUM RECOMMENDATIONS |

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The old five-point scale has been retired in favor of just rating stuff 1-10, which allows me a much more nuanced final rating. Still don't take it that seriously. Most of these come from my own collection, so the grades skew rather high. Your results may vary if you send me stuff to review.

Each album is given three Essential tracks, my personal favorites, regardless of how weird and inconsequential they are. The Quintessential pick is the one I think best represents the album as a whole, so you can try one song instead of a whole album of songs. Non-Essential picks range from merely disappointing to outright unlistenable.

Jane's Addiction

[#] Ritual de lo Habitual (1990)

Reviewed December 17, 2021

Art without aim is no art at all.

(This is an album that was previously covered on the Rediscovering! Click the link in the table to read my first impressions, or read on for how they might have changed.)

"This is their peak album, where they really went out on a limb. [...] Sometimes I can't believe how strong it is. I wonder if this will have the same effect on some kid as Chuck Berry had on me." That was Alice Cooper talking about this album. Taking the piss doesn't begin to cover it. For all of Jane's Addiction's technical proficiency, for all the klezmer stomps and fiddle jitters, Spanglish intros and grandiose lyrical ideas, I cannot shake the feeling that Ritual is like listening to four consummate professionals JO. And listen--masturbation is good for you. That doesn't mean I need to be party to it though.

This album is an awkward split between more typical (and far more enjoyable) Jane's fare with opener "Stop!" and gigantically groovy hit "Been Caught Stealing" and an awkward, ambling suite of opioid haze art rock pieces that don't really communicate anything and certainly don't amount to anything. If you can tell me what I'm supposed to get out of "Then She Did...", would you please let me know? The sounds aren't all that pretty, nor are they interesting, dynamically, Jane's operate at exactly two speeds, there are no hooks beyond the singles, and Perry Ferrell has never written a single interesting lyric in his life, even when he's touching on weighty topics like the deaths of his mother and ex-girlfriend. Folks--ambition does not make you write good music. Simple as.

Essential:	Quintessential:	Non-Essential:	Rating:
"Stop!", "Been Caught Stealing", I guess "Ain't No Right"	"Classic Girl"	"Then She Did..."
Ritual de lo Habitual's Rediscovering entry

[#] Nothing's Shocking (1988)

Reviewed November 11, 2021

Yep, sure are naked ladies.

(This is an album that was previously covered on the Rediscovering! Click the link in the table to read my first impressions, or read on for how they might have changed.)

Perennial 90s radio rock favorites here in the States, highly respected, one of the artists on Rolling Stone's Top 500 Albums of All Time list--and I find Jane's Addiction's reputation slightly hyperbolic. Nothing's Shocking is a not-bad collection of 80s hard-rock-as-sound-exploration tunes with singer Perry Ferrell's sex-as-spirituality lyrical obsessions (alongside Ted Bundy and pissing on himself in the shower) over top. It's recorded big and clean with huge pneumatic drums and Dave Navarro's flashy, though not especially evocative, guitar solos, the band is tight, and they do occasionally hit on a good song--just not as often as they frankly should. I don't know if it's filler or an issue with sequencing, but your record probably shouldn't start four songs in.

On the positive end of things, the catchier louder songs ("Mountain Song", "Pig's in Zen") are the mindless fun that hard rock should be, and of their weirder ambitions, the gorgeously pulsating ode to nudity "Summertime Rolls" accomplishes in six minutes what they spend dozens of minutes trying elsewhere. Eric Avery, bassist and songwriter, is the key to all this--you can trace every good riff and bassline back to him. It's a shame more of the record couldn't be like the acoustic singalong "Jane Says". Not just its best chorus, but also its most compelling story, a sympathetic look at an addicted prostitute always on the cusp of fending off her demons. Otherwise, the only reason it's not all that shocking is because it's not all that interesting.

Essential:	Quintessential:	Non-Essential:	Rating:
"Mountain Song", "Summertime Rolls", "Jane Says"	"Ted, Just Admit It..."	"Ocean Size"
Nothing's Shocking's Rediscovering entry

NOFI | LOFI