The Official Xiola.org review

[Warped]

Sonny is right that Jane's is dead, that is the old Jane's. This new cd needs to be listened to as a new band not the old Jane's.

that's why when anyone mentions this in context of being anything like old Janes I cringe

Do you actually cringe? Really? Some of you people have actual issues over this nonsense don't you.

Exactly.

[tubro]

i think maybe eric should interview sonny.

[Forge]

Sonny is such a rainy day.

[Pandemonium]

Well, it's obviously tainted...I just don't even see the point. If you don't think you're doing your best you shouldn't be doing it. On the other hand they are musicians and they have to pay property taxes for their mansions, so there's that. Regardless, I shouldn't lower my judging standards on my favorite band. Older musicians just aren't usually as good and it shows. That young creativity is gone and it's not the same. I'm not even trying to argue but I don't judge music by any special circumstances. What else are you supposed to compare Strays and TGEA too? They're earlier albums. At least that makes sense just like you do with any other band.

The problem with this line of thinking is that JA took a 13 year break between Ritual and Strays, then another 8 year break between Strays and TGEA so there's obviously going to be huge changes in style and quality of singing, musicianship, etc when your talking 3 albums spaced almost evenly over 2 decades. I don't know of any artist or band off the top of my head that has maintained any sort of consistency or original level of quality faced with that kind of gap between albums. Add to that, looking at these guys output, especially Perry's over the last 10 - 15 years if you wanna fill in the gaps between Janes albums and you can see a clear, almost straight line mostly downhill.

I think that's part of the reason why many people here are somewhat happily surprised the album turned out as well as it did in their opinion and a few others, myself included aren't going overboard whining how crappy it is considering there was a pretty real possibility it could have turned out a *lot* worse. Yeah, that's diminished (and informed, realistic) expectations, but frankly considering the odds, the band did alright.

[Diabolik]

Sorry, but that review gave me douche chills. It's embarrassing.

[Deconstruction]

Again, you're being a closed minded self righteous ass. So you are saying anybody who likes the new record isn't a real Jane's fan and can't grasp what Jane's is? Get off your high horse, we all listen to the records and no fan is better than any other fan. These guys are in their 40's and 50's, they're never going to make music that sounds like Ritual/Nothing's Shocking, even if Eric had made a new record with them. I have no problem with some pop influences coming, I think Perry has some killer melodies on the album, I don't give a fuck if they're pop or whatever. I like The Great Escape Artist, like I said it's fine that you don't like it, I disagree with some people here about their favorite/least favorite tracks, but you need to get over the fact that there are actually people who like the record. You aren't going to change anyone's mind, give it a rest.

Also Sonny, I'm not into many of the bands or records you listed (outside of the Chili Peppers, I prefer old Radiohead).

it's not about better or real fans. i wouldn't consider myself a real fan anymore. i always have to say i'm a fan of the original line up. which is a pain.

i'm saying how can you like ritual/shocking albums, and also say you like this album? forget all the excuses about it not being the original jane's or perry is 52 now, blah, blah, blah.

i'm not going to change anyone's mind, not trying. i'm only saying, do you really think this is a good album? or is it "good enough, considering the alternative is the panic channel and satellite party" or is it good enough compared to "applause for you"?

it's ok to not like this record. it doesn't make you bitter or a hater. it's just a matter of taste.

Because I like the songs. Words Right Out of My Mouth has a great riff and catchy melody, it rocks and I love the breakdown and Dave's solo. I love Underground, a creative melody from Perry with good lyrics, great playing from Dave. I'll Hit You Back has a beautiful riff from Dave and a really nice melody from Perry, and the story behind the song about Perry and his stepmother makes it an interesting story. I also like Twisted Tales, End To The Lies, and Broken People. IF is a good song outside of the lousy first verse, but the song sounds better in the context of the album. Ultimate Reason is decent, not big on Splash A Little Water Yet either. I don't like Curiosity Kills. Get it now? I'm not making excuses for any of them, this is an album of music, I listened to it and like quite a few tracks on it, the end. Your negativity and differing opinion won't change mine, just like my positive opinion on the album won't change yours. Why don't you accept this and just drop it and stop being so fucking self-righteous.

BTW Sonny, I don't get how you can like NS/RDLH and not like The Great Escape Artist

[trevor ayer]

(snip)

(snipe)




(sinep)

(pines)



i am surprised nobody posted (penis) yet .. i'd post a picture of mine to go with it but i don't want to give sonny another reason to start crying

[trevor ayer]

i do agree tho that it should be impossible to like both rldh and tgea .. 2 completely different bands .. one mind blowing .. the other pretty bad

it's not reasonable to expect another rldh but i know i check out all these new projects hoping for that one or 2 songs that still grabs me .. i can relate to sonny being super pissed at janes because there is not even 1 song that has the old magic .. seems that way for a lot of bands these days that used to be great .. there are only good ideas mixed in with bad ideas, but not one single truly great song .. and as someone who really loved the old music and how genuine it was, this new coorporate rock janes is very hard to swallow .. sure its more interesting than what is on the radio .. thats a given .. its also a given that what is on the radio is the absolute bottom of the barrell. The fact that janes sets its sights on the bottom of the barrel instead of say .. classic album material, is quite obvious. Lots of great artists have done so from time to time. The beatles went form psychadelic rock n roll masterpieces to strait pop shit in their solo careers. Robert plant went pop. Iggy pop, david bowie .. even perry and dave have already tried to become pop solo stars. ITs not right, not good for music, but its not like other musical heroes have not done the same thing. janes was going for that led zep iconic status .. now they are trying for that britney spears money .. should that make a true fan pissed .. hell yes!!!

this record will go over well with fans who don't mind blocking out the vocals .. everyone else will tire of this record fast

[Essence_Smith]

I feel sorry for some of you that it still means so much to you...I'm getting old...

[CaseyContrarian]

Look, I get why Sonny's pissed. I'd want to fucking clock someone who thought Page & Plant's "Walking Into Clarksdale" was as good as a Zep record, or was making excuses about how it's almost-kinda-in-the-right-light on par. It goddamn is not.

But this isn't quite as bad as that. It's more like that Who album that they made in the early '80s after Moon died. "Eminence Front" and "You Better, You Bet" are the IF and ETTL of that catalog. They aren't great compared to Who classics, but they aren't slit-your-wrists bad like Page & Plant's studio album (or Coverdale/Page, for that matter).

May I point to Killing Joke as a band form the olden times that is more or less pretty fucking good these days? How 'bout Swans?

[SR]

A whole thread to debunk Sonny.....

A thought....

It is very funny how Sonny, the mod, is treated SO dramatically different than Sonny, the raiser of Xiola (without notice), is.

[Matz]

A whole thread to debunk Sonny.....

A thought....

It is very funny how Sonny, the mod, is treated SO dramatically different than Sonny, the raiser of Xiola (without notice), is.

true that's a good point. The gloves have definitely come off

[Romeo]

i do agree tho that it should be impossible to like both rldh and tgea .. 2 completely different bands .. one mind blowing .. the other pretty bad

this is my point.
The entire album to me has been 'meh" to me as far as it being a new Janes Addiction. If it was a new band with Perry, Dave & Stephen then I would have felt differently about the new album. Janes is gone. Which is why i completely agreed with the NY Daily News review.

Which is why I am not in the least upset I am not attending (or got a ticket to) the two shows at Irving. If this was 09 and I was shut out of a ticket for NINJA I would have been very upset.

[tcrock]

i do agree tho that it should be impossible to like both rldh and tgea .. 2 completely different bands .. one mind blowing .. the other pretty bad

this is my point.
The entire album to me has been 'meh" to me as far as it being a new Janes Addiction. If it was a new band with Perry, Dave & Stephen then I would have felt differently about the new album. Janes is gone. Which is why i completely agreed with the NY Daily News review.

Which is why I am not in the least upset I am not attending (or got a ticket to) the two shows at Irving. If this was 09 and I was shut out of a ticket for NINJA I would have been very upset.

Again i cannot refute anything or offer my own take as far as the material goes........but that statement you made is what I disagree with, music is music, you listen to it, if it moves you it moves you........to me your listening with some preconceived notion of what you think it's supposed to sound like as opposed to just listening with an open ear and mind. Whether it's labeled Janes Addiction or not should have no effect on what you hear. If it was called something else you would like it better? is that what you're saying?

[tvrec]

Where are they in that photograph? Looks like some dog rough council estate.

Yeah, but at least they're crossing the road in a completely natural "look at us, we're just out for a stroll" way!!! Laughable... much like Sonny's review.

It looks to me like they are out by La Cita in LA... isn't that the lower entrance to Angel's Flight right behind them?

[Kajicat]

The problem with this line of thinking is that JA took a 13 year break between Ritual and Strays, then another 8 year break between Strays and TGEA so there's obviously going to be huge changes in style and quality of singing, musicianship, etc when your talking 3 albums spaced almost evenly over 2 decades.

Indeed. If RHCP broke up after 1989's Mother's Milk, then came back 13 years later to release By The Way, it's not hard to see how time completely changed how they write and play music. Those albums are 13 years apart and sound nothing alike, just like Ritual and Strays.

Or if RHCP broke up after 1987's Uplift Mofo Party Plan, then reunited with 1995's One Hot Minute. Those albums are just as different as TGEA is to Strays. A lot can happen in 8 years

[Hokahey]

The problem with this line of thinking is that JA took a 13 year break between Ritual and Strays, then another 8 year break between Strays and TGEA so there's obviously going to be huge changes in style and quality of singing, musicianship, etc when your talking 3 albums spaced almost evenly over 2 decades.

Indeed. If RHCP broke up after 1989's Mother's Milk, then came back 13 years later to release By The Way, it's not hard to see how time completely changed how they write and play music. Those albums are 13 years apart and sound nothing alike, just like Ritual and Strays.

Or if RHCP broke up after 1987's Uplift Mofo Party Plan, then reunited with 1995's One Hot Minute. Those albums are just as different as TGEA is to Strays. A lot can happen in 8 years

I made that same point during the Strays era. The various members of Jane's did make some pretty stellar music in the interim though. The drop off from '96 to 2001 was the most startling to me. GGU and the resulting tour were both mindblowing to me. Then came Jubilee and everything after which has all been mediocre at best.

[Pandemonium]

May I point to Killing Joke as a band form the olden times that is more or less pretty fucking good these days? How 'bout Swans?

I can't speak about The Swans as I'm completely unfamiliar with their stuff but as far as Killing Joke goes, they are one of the most erratic bands on the planet both as far as personal issues and musically.

[Easton]

May I point to Killing Joke as a band form the olden times that is more or less pretty fucking good these days? How 'bout Swans?

Killing Joke is indeed still an awesome band. Their last album was really good and I loved the one they did with Grohl a couple of years back.

Don't know what the new album will sound like, but I also thought Ministry's last two albums were their best. So I guess it's possible for "older" bands to still sound great.

[Romeo]

i do agree tho that it should be impossible to like both rldh and tgea .. 2 completely different bands .. one mind blowing .. the other pretty bad

this is my point.
The entire album to me has been 'meh" to me as far as it being a new Janes Addiction. If it was a new band with Perry, Dave & Stephen then I would have felt differently about the new album. Janes is gone. Which is why i completely agreed with the NY Daily News review.

Which is why I am not in the least upset I am not attending (or got a ticket to) the two shows at Irving. If this was 09 and I was shut out of a ticket for NINJA I would have been very upset.

Again i cannot refute anything or offer my own take as far as the material goes........but that statement you made is what I disagree with, music is music, you listen to it, if it moves you it moves you........to me your listening with some preconceived notion of what you think it's supposed to sound like as opposed to just listening with an open ear and mind. Whether it's labeled Janes Addiction or not should have no effect on what you hear. If it was called something else you would like it better? is that what you're saying?

No what i hear is over produced Muse-like music with marginal lyrics.
If the name of the band was something other than Janes then I would think it was marginally interesting music that I would listen to a few times and never again. It's not something I would popping in my CD player for the next 20 years.

[tcrock]

i do agree tho that it should be impossible to like both rldh and tgea .. 2 completely different bands .. one mind blowing .. the other pretty bad

this is my point.
The entire album to me has been 'meh" to me as far as it being a new Janes Addiction. If it was a new band with Perry, Dave & Stephen then I would have felt differently about the new album. Janes is gone. Which is why i completely agreed with the NY Daily News review.

Which is why I am not in the least upset I am not attending (or got a ticket to) the two shows at Irving. If this was 09 and I was shut out of a ticket for NINJA I would have been very upset.

Again i cannot refute anything or offer my own take as far as the material goes........but that statement you made is what I disagree with, music is music, you listen to it, if it moves you it moves you........to me your listening with some preconceived notion of what you think it's supposed to sound like as opposed to just listening with an open ear and mind. Whether it's labeled Janes Addiction or not should have no effect on what you hear. If it was called something else you would like it better? is that what you're saying?

No what i hear is over produced Muse-like music with marginal lyrics.
If the name of the band was something other than Janes then I would think it was marginally interesting music that I would listen to a few times and never again. It's not something I would popping in my CD player for the next 20 years.

fair enough, time is indeed the best test......if i'm listening to this in 20 years i'll be in my 60's and the coolest cat going lol

[Pandemonium]

Killing Joke is indeed still an awesome band. Their last album was really good and I loved the one they did with Grohl a couple of years back.

You won't find anyone here who's a bigger Killing Joke fan then me, but they've have some major peaks and valleys even in the last decade. I agree that the 2003 self titled "reunion" album (the one Grohl played drums on) is among the very best albums in their career, no mean feat after a 8+ year breakup, but the one following it, 2006's "Hosannas From The Basements Of Hell" is among their worst albums ever. Then the one they released last year with the original lineup, "Absolute Dissent" was an excellent album. Pepper that with a live rehash album every year, a revolving door of bass players and drummers (the last show I saw, the guitar roadie played bass) and tons of postponed and canceled shows and you have a band that's far from consistent.

Don't know what the new album will sound like, but I also thought Ministry's last two albums were their best. So I guess it's possible for "older" bands to still sound great.

You're the first person I've heard say Ministry's last two albums ranked anywhere near their best work.

[trevor ayer]

i do agree tho that it should be impossible to like both rldh and tgea .. 2 completely different bands .. one mind blowing .. the other pretty bad

this is my point.
The entire album to me has been 'meh" to me as far as it being a new Janes Addiction. If it was a new band with Perry, Dave & Stephen then I would have felt differently about the new album. Janes is gone. Which is why i completely agreed with the NY Daily News review.

Which is why I am not in the least upset I am not attending (or got a ticket to) the two shows at Irving. If this was 09 and I was shut out of a ticket for NINJA I would have been very upset.

Again i cannot refute anything or offer my own take as far as the material goes........but that statement you made is what I disagree with, music is music, you listen to it, if it moves you it moves you........to me your listening with some preconceived notion of what you think it's supposed to sound like as opposed to just listening with an open ear and mind. Whether it's labeled Janes Addiction or not should have no effect on what you hear. If it was called something else you would like it better? is that what you're saying?

there are no preconcieved ideas other than to be impressed .. regardless of what the band name is .. there is not much on this new record that, had I not known who it was, i would still be interested in ... its not that its not the old janes .. its that it sounds like mediocre alanis morrisette .. and garbage (the band) .. its not as good tho .. janes is not good at being alanis morisette .. even eric looked really really really out of place being alanis morisette .. perry and dave and stephen dont sound so good trying to be her back up band .. i think alanis and eric should be the new janes addiction .. it would probably come out sounding more like janes addiction. so what makes an old janes fan pissed is when they sucker you in using that old band name and dont live up to the standard set by that name .. why compare to the the classics ns and rdlh? .. because janes should have listened and compared .. and tried to impress again .. instead of sounding like luke warm guns n roses or luke warm alanis or luke warm coldplay .. coldplay is actually better than twisted tales . so what is the point of janes trying to copy cat .. its much different when its your influences that you try to sound like instead of trying to sound like what is popular these days ..

[Easton]

Killing Joke is indeed still an awesome band. Their last album was really good and I loved the one they did with Grohl a couple of years back.

You won't find anyone here who's a bigger Killing Joke fan then me, but they've have some major peaks and valleys even in the last decade. I agree that the 2003 self titled "reunion" album (the one Grohl played drums on) is among the very best albums in their career, no mean feat after a 8+ year breakup, but the one following it, 2006's "Hosannas From The Basements Of Hell" is among their worst albums ever. Then the one they released last year with the original lineup, "Absolute Dissent" was an excellent album. Pepper that with a live rehash album every year, a revolving door of bass players and drummers (the last show I saw, the guitar roadie played bass) and tons of postponed and canceled shows and you have a band that's far from consistent.

Don't know what the new album will sound like, but I also thought Ministry's last two albums were their best. So I guess it's possible for "older" bands to still sound great.

You're the first person I've heard say Ministry's last two albums ranked anywhere near their best work.

Well, Jourgensen himself seem to think so as well. But yeah, I really think that especially Rio Grande Blood is one of their best albums. It definitely deserves to be mentioned in the same breath as Psalm 69.

[feathers mcgraw]

I disregarded everything he said after, on about page 2, he said that Dave wasn't really present on Strays. Really? You mean that dumb rock reocrd with all the meathead riffs and big guitar solos?