With another exuberant shout of "Here we go!" the alternative band that was cool before grunge exploded lights the fuse of its third studio album, which has emerged at last after an astonishing thirteen-year hiatus. On Strays, Jane's Addiction is as sexy and powerful as ever, but this time has tapped a divine source for its inspiration.
Jane's Addiction is the quintessential band of rock legend. Its 1988 debut studio album Nothing's Shocking established it as a band that defied conventional pop-metal of the day, blending funk and hard rock with Led Zeppelinesque sensibilities that paved the way for many other alternative bands that hit the big time in the years following. It is no coincidence that it was lead vocalist Perry Farrell who was the brains behind the phenomenally successful Lollapalooza tours of the last decade that conclusively brought alternative music into the mainstream.
The two key members of Jane's Addiction have trod a rocky personal road since the band's enormously successful 1990 album Ritual de lo Habitual. Riding on the commercial success of the jangly funk jam "Been Caught Stealing," Farrell and guitarist Dave Navarro lived the cliché of sex, drugs, and rock'n'roll, claiming dwelling in a perpetual purple haze so cloudy that they would wake up with strangers daily and not know where they were.
However, according to some recent music news reports, the band members have experienced a redemption from that life, are committed family men with wives and kids, and are more interested in helping others through their music. It appears they owe it all to God, with explicit thanks expressed in the liner notes, and the lyrical content of Strays reflects a more philosophical direction for Jane's Addiction and a fascinating, poetic, socially-responsible spirituality.
Part yowling alley cat, part kid hollering in the playground, Farrell's voice is certainly one of the most distinctive and unforgettable in modern rock. He sounds as full of glee at being alive on record as he always looks in concert, which gives the opening track "True Nature" a particularly refreshing comeback punch after the long break. Hearing these words, appearing to be a voice of conscience speaking truth to power, I wondered if Farrell had been reading the book of Romans recently.
Scoring points with God
Get no perfect marks
But your grades keep falling
How you treat the weak is
Your true nature calling
For all the money in the world
We'll go to war for you backward heroes
Please believe, we still live and breathe
Through native tongue and poetry
("True Nature")
Soaring over a monster riff that out-grunts Linkin Park and most other young bands who were still in short pants when Jane's Addiction was first around, this opener is an awesome prophetic anthem calling the listener to accountability. It is also apparent immediately that Jane's sound benefits from improvements in recording equipment over the past decade. There's a pile more presence and layered dimensions to the music, produced this time by Bob Ezrin, who guided breakthrough projects by Alice Cooper, Kiss, Lou Reed, and Pink Floyd in the '70s.
The softer bass intro of the next song, the title track, with piano and gentle guitar building to a huge rocking climax, immediately brings to mind the classic Jane's sound. However, at just over four minutes it seems to end just when it gets going. This can also be said for many of the other tunes on Strays. There are no seven- to ten-minute epics here like "Three Days" from Ritual (which itself is arguably an enigmatic reflection on the Jesus story). Perhaps the band realizes that tastes have changed over the last decade and stoner jams might not be able to compete with the shorter attention spans of new-millennium listeners. It doesn't hold Jane's Addiction back, however, as the next track "Just Because," the first single, rips into its blistering opening riff courtesy of Navarro, bulleting immediately into my top five songs to wake up to in the morning. The pure happiness and energy of this song, apparently written after all the others were completed, best reflects the new purpose in life that the band has found.
As the album steadily progresses, it becomes clear that the band isn't trying to push too much new ground, but perhaps is just trying to reestablish itself on the scene. The only acoustic ballad is nothing like its classic radio hit "Jane Says" but rather like the more downbeat "Everybody's Friend." Lyrically, the themes continue to center around taking responsibility for one's life, working at relationships, and making the world a better place. Farrell is never conceited, but speaks with the voice of one who has hit the bottom and risen a wiser man.
I always do the wrong thing
But for a very good reason
Forgive me now and forgive me later
I could have had it, but I walked away
Now I won't miss out, not even one day
("The Price I Pay")
I'm never looking over my shoulder again
Want to buy my time and finally own my fate
Let's talk about our plan, you can count it's gonna work
Carry one, feel immortal at the risk of getting hurt
I'm praying that it rains so one day we'll be sowing
Living through a little pain, no complaining as we're training for the riches
I'm happy that the sky is blue and the earth is green
And that there's lots of fresh clean air sandwiched in between
("The Riches")
Sit with me now, we'll watch the dusk sun falling on the two of us
Let's set our hearts to match the sun
In the wind I wander, I don't know where I'll end up
Do what I can to get home.
("To Match the Sun")
Like the lyrics, the rather plain cover art (which for once doesn't feature full-frontal female nudity) is perhaps also part of this growing sense of social responsibility in Jane's Addiction. The die-hard fan might see this as selling out, but the reality is an album that never falls flat. The drugs are gone but the energy and the passion are not. People still love to hear a good story of redemption and Jane's Addiction has written its own now. Ultimately, it is simply a pleasure to hear another album from this timeless band that is so life-affirming and positive. I just hope Jane's Addiction doesn't wait another thirteen years to release the next one.
4.5 tocks
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