Jane's Addiction: *The Great Escape Artist*

[vvv]

Sat down and listened to this through, twice.

Killer sounds, great vox, arrangement, writing; highly reco'd.

(Tape Op's Dave Sitek is onnit, too.)

[Rolsen]

I believe Ritual De Lo Habitual is one of the best rock albums, ever! I am a huge JA fan, including all the spinoff projects like Deconstruction, Porno for Pyros, Polar Bear, Avery's new solo stuff, Farrell's solo stuff, etc. That said...

Eric Avery was a critical element in JA, and without him, Navarro's butt-rock tendencies are no longer in check. Further more, is Stephen Perkins playing drums? I almost can't tell, as he is so restrained. Unfortunate. The album is kinda predictable as a whole, kinda average. Replace Farrell with someone else and I would've thought this was just another 'dark-alternative with top 40 leanings' sort of production. I don't hate the album, its just not very exciting to me, and it really pains me to say that.

Anybody getting this album should do themselves a favor and buy Eric Avery's latest album, 'Help Wanted,' to see why JA without Avery is almost not worth doing.

[vvv]

I strongly disagree - as you might guess!

The drums are excellent, IMO, and the guitar is cool.

The arrangements are really interesting, including the loops and keys. It's less guitar heavy in many ways, altho' not lacking.

The sound is awesome; there is some major bass in my subwoofers from the kicks, as well as the bass guitar and keys.

I love the psychedelia of it, and McKagan's contribs are both obvious and cool (much better than his most recent solo record - speaking of "butt rock".)

And Fairy Parrell has become an excellent singer; I know not if there's autotune here but he's distinctive, original, and right on it. Excellent lyrics, also.

FWIW, I saw JA in about '87 or '88. They played 2 shows at Cab Metro, one night as a kinda hard-core punk band, the next as Led Zep. Amazing.

I went and bought the XXX label original release right after.

I have distinct memories of me and my bassist and drummer, wasted, walking down the street singing at the top of our voices, "Gimme some more, mother f*cker, goddamn you, gimme some MORE!"

[BassGuy87]

They fell off a cliff. Without the original elements, I am at a loss for JA. Don't get me wrong, I love them. They are amazing live as well. I saw them with NIN a few years ago and they were amazing--but they were also mostly playing the old stuff. The new stuff just sounds like everyone else in my speakers. As was said above, take out Perry and you'd think it was any other alternative band.