Review Round Up

[leviticus]

From Spin 6 out of 10

For their previous temporary-reunion album, 2003's Strays, these dark alt gods created a superslick din seemingly designed for radio, but definitely not your heart. Here, the same three vets (still minus bassist Eric Avery) team with TV on the Radio's Dave Sitek and Muse producer Rich Costey with results that slam like vintage, drug-addled scuzzbag rock (opening whammy "Underground," closing raver "Words Right Out of My Mouth"). Between those poles, 21st-century Jane's morphs into something resembling U2 on fastidiously uplifting anthems that clash fiercely with frontman Perry Farrell's anti-charisma -- particularly when he's lying to get laid or bragging about his ability to inflict scars.

[leviticus]

And just for the record, we have 2.5 stars from RS, 4 out of 5 from Mojo, 4 out of 5 from Metal Hammer and a few positives from unreliable sources.

[Hokahey]

The Spin and Rollingstone reviews are about what I have been expecting from this album. A mixed bag - middle of the road.

[Larry B.]

Jane's morphs into something resembling U2 on fastidiously uplifting anthems

spot on.

the chorus of "Irresistible Force" reminds me of that part in U2's "Vertigo" when Bono says "I can feeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeel!"

[JOEinPHX]

i am thinking the album is probably as follows:

- Wonderful instrumentally, but overpolished
- Big choruses, but crap verses
- A more subdued Perry (less wail, more lower register stuff)
- Less rawk/solos from Dave

In general, an effort that was meant to be moody, but comes across a little bit "meh"

You ever hear a song, and it's just a little off? Like, it COULD be good with some minor tweaks in how it was played, or how it was sung? I think that's how the whole album will be. We'll constantly be like "why did they go in THAT direction with it?"

We'll all probably like the same 4 songs, and the rest will be throwaways that we'll never mention or won't even be played live.

[Larry B.]

i am thinking the album is probably as follows:

- Wonderful instrumentally, but overpolished
- Big choruses, but crap verses
- A more subdued Perry (less wail, more lower register stuff)
- Less rawk/solos from Dave

In general, an effort that was meant to be moody, but comes across a little bit "meh"

[JOEinPHX]

Don't get me wrong, the songs will be "good".

It will just seem a very WTF kind of good. a "10 song album after a decade away" kind of good.

[Matz]

From Spin 6 out of 10

For their previous temporary-reunion album, 2003's Strays, these dark alt gods created a superslick din seemingly designed for radio, but definitely not your heart. Here, the same three vets (still minus bassist Eric Avery) team with TV on the Radio's Dave Sitek and Muse producer Rich Costey with results that slam like vintage, drug-addled scuzzbag rock (opening whammy "Underground," closing raver "Words Right Out of My Mouth"). Between those poles, 21st-century Jane's morphs into something resembling U2 on fastidiously uplifting anthems that clash fiercely with frontman Perry Farrell's anti-charisma -- particularly when he's lying to get laid or bragging about his ability to inflict scars.

that's all they've got to say about that?! It's Jane's fuckin Addiction and then they write ten sentences about it?

[embrace_the_darkness]

That's all they give anyone on their website.

After that description, I'm really worried that the album is going to be very 'chorus' oriented... like a Bon Jovi album.

The U2 thing, it wouldn't be a terrible thing if they were talking "zooropa" style. But I fear they are talking more Joshua Tree..

Oh noes!!

[Pure Method]

I find it funny (though not offensive) that there are Jane's fans who like U2 (because fuck U2). I always thought they were the opposite sides of the rock spectrum, so the more comparisons (and similarities a la IF) I hear, the less excited I am. whatever, it's been said before and I'll say it again: prove me wrong.

[leviticus]

A very positive review. Great song descriptions http://www.antiquiet.com/reviews/2011/1 ... st-review/

[AdmitI]

A very positive review. Great song descriptions http://www.antiquiet.com/reviews/2011/1 ... st-review/

Jane’s Addiction Defy The Odds With ‘The Great Escape Artist’
By Johnny Firecloud
Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Perhaps there’s some magic in the fact that The Great Escape Artist was recorded through the same console that helped give birth to Nothing’s Shocking and Ritual de lo Habitual. Maybe Perry Farrell, Dave Navarro and Stephen Perkins needed some new creative blood in Jane’s proverbial veins, a kick-to-the-system motivator to double down and do that voodoo that they do so well once more.



Whatever the cause, they’ve succeeded inspiringly. Recorded with producer Rich Costey earlier this year, Jane’s Addiction’s fourth proper studio album and first in eight years is as intoxicating, daring and seductive as one would hope from a band whose legacy and impact have remained constant through two decades of domination, destruction, breakups, reunions, relapses and a revolving door of bassists that have both buoyed and anchored the band’s longevity at varying times.

With TV On The Radio’s Dave Sitek lending a hand on both bass and contributing songwriter duties, the fourth-member concern has been at least temporarily abated. Adding electronic textures, synths, MIDI and various new effects, Sitek’s presence as the new low-end flavor and color man acts as an illuminating B-12 revitalizer for a band facing the nearly insurmountable odds of honoring and building on their own legend. He serves the sound tremendously well, a welcome and fascinating accelerator for the band’s continuing evolution.

Yes, Jane’s has changed. Celebrate the new horizons. The freak carnival is no longer flaunted as a lead flavor, but rather flexed as a naturally recurring thread in an upgraded sonic tapestry. A new spell is cast on these ten tracks, reconnecting with the gypsy eroticism that may have been lacking from Strays (though the album was terrific in its own right), while moving the fuller focus to sound expansion and seasoned existentialist perspective that’s free of the awkward nostalgia that burdens some of the band’s contemporaries.

On their own as lead-ins to the album, tracks End To The Lies and Irresistible Force sparked concerns of a Sting-era transition, where the ethereal took a front seat to the dangerous gravity, and the impact of the group’s dynamic spark seemed diminished as a result. In context, such is not the case with either. Free of the weight of representation of the whole, neither track ask to be skipped as the album proceeds. For the otherworldly elegance of End To The Lies, the band collaborated with the master musicians of Joujouka, Sufi trance musicians from northern Morocco.

The attentiveness to arrangement is a true asset to the record, shifting tempos and rhythms alongside instrumental focus to keep the listener engaged. Curiosity Kills comes in like an unseen chopper, dropping a deep bassline cargo before Perry and the pianos arrive, setting the imminent-danger atmospheric groundwork for a thundering-percussion chorus that literally dissolves into a revved-up second verse. The keys morph to the forefront, the chorus circles back quickly, and the riptide has us locked long before we realize, before the drowning embrace of the tremendous bass-led breakdown takes total control on the way to a finish that would make U2 nervous. There is no overstating the simplistic, hypnotic power of that bassline.

[imail724]

A very positive review. Great song descriptions http://www.antiquiet.com/reviews/2011/1 ... st-review/

"A new spell is cast on these ten tracks, reconnecting with the gypsy eroticism that may have been lacking from Strays (though the album was terrific in its own right)"

[creep]

that review is highly suspect....oh and i hate that overly descriptive writing style.

[JOEinPHX]

that review is highly suspect....oh and i hate that overly descriptive writing style.

i know, it's like a freight train barreling down upon us, glaring it's omnipresent light in our direction with the hint we will be trampled to bits, before swiftly (and gracefully) changing tracks a mere inches from us, sparing us the destruction of our earthly shells.

[embrace_the_darkness]

Thats the best review I have read of the new album so far.

Im anxiously awaiting Broken People now.

[Tyler Durden]

I find it funny (though not offensive) that there are Jane's fans who like U2 (because fuck U2). I always thought they were the opposite sides of the rock spectrum, so the more comparisons (and similarities a la IF) I hear, the less excited I am. whatever, it's been said before and I'll say it again: prove me wrong.

U2 (before the 00s) and Jane's ('86-'91) are two of my favourite bands of all time. They are definitely at opposite sides of the rock spectrum. I don't want to hear a Jane's that sounds like U2...at all.

[Pandemonium]

The U2 thing, it wouldn't be a terrible thing if they were talking "zooropa" style. But I fear they are talking more Joshua Tree..

Problem is, at least with IF, it's the U2 of their last two albums.

[Larry B.]

[CaseyContrarian]

that review is highly suspect....oh and i hate that overly descriptive writing style.

Yes, that was some of the worst writing I've seen in a while. Fucking Internet.

[embrace_the_darkness]

http://rabbitsblack.com/2011/10/album-r ... ape-artist

New review dudes... Just like the others really

[creep]

yesterday on dark matter dave was talking about how rolling stone "killed" them. unfortunately rolling stone is the place people probably go to first for their reviews.

on an unrelated note someone called in and asked for one of the ibanez guitars (he has three) that dave played on ninja and he gave one to him. wish i would have thought of that. that was nice of him.

[Tyler Durden]

on an unrelated note someone called in and asked for one of the ibanez guitars (he has three) that dave played on ninja and he gave one to him. wish i would have thought of that. that was nice of him.

Hey Dave, remember that chick you married? I think you called her "Carm"? Will you give her to me? Great, thanks.

[JOEinPHX]

yesterday on dark matter dave was talking about how rolling stone "killed" them.

Hey, imagine that.

Dave was all "Fuck Rollingstone. I'm not doing it. Fuck the media" for 2 solid weeks, and then they get a bad review.

I, for one, am SHOCKED.

[imail724]

Dave just retweeted this one:

http://ology.com/music/album-review-gre ... -addiction