John Frusciante's return to the Red Hot Chili Peppers fold coincided with a wholly unexpected return to form and their most successful period in their career to date. After ditching Dave Navarro and his guitar hero posturing, it was arguably Frusciante's way with a melody, his restraint, that allowed the songs on ‘Californication’ and ‘By the Way’ the space to breathe. This, his fourth solo album, goes some way to providing more insight into this revitalisation.
There is not much doubt that Frusciante is a fantastic guitar player but as with other side projects by great guitar players the first obstacle to stall their solo work inevitably is the voice. That huge gap left by the ego up front is never an easy task, just ask John Squire. Frusciante, however, is the owner of a fine voice, full of emotion and raw, it is closer to Eddie Vedder than Anthony Kleidis. When he let’s rip as he does on ‘Water’, probably the closest the record comes to the signature RHCP sound, it switches between funky falsetto and a gruff, seen it all, rock voice.
The majority of the album is more down tempo, edging towards lo-fi in places, experimental electronica in others, it doesn’t give up it’s treasures easily and benefits from repeat listening. Tracks like ‘Cut Out’ show his talent for harmony and melody to the full with a melancholic lilt that prevents the record from turning into breezy West Coast rock. Opener ‘Carvel’ starts with a minute and half of electronic bubbling and fizzing before transforming itself into and acoustic stormer. Although lyrically dark in places it is always balanced with a sense of hope ‘Heaven receives you and throws you back / Sending a dummy to my God’ he states half way through before finishing with ‘All the good times are on the way’.
That’s not to say it’s all great, clocking in with a hefty 18 tracks it could have done with some judicial pruning and some of the electronica veers too close to self indulgence for this reviewers liking. When the electronica works as on ’23 Go in to End’ it is as though Vangelis has reworked his ‘Bladerunner’ soundtrack with some of the odder noises from the Orbital library of sounds. As other worldly in execution as it sounds on paper. ‘Double-O Ghost 27’ on the other hand is closer to the ‘Eraserhead’ soundtrack, all industrial noises and white noise, that spoils the overall feel of the record. ‘Regret’ also needs singling out due to some ill-advised vocoder action.
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These moments are worth wading through though as on the whole it is John Frusciante the songwriter that wins out. It is on songs like ‘Omission’, a bitter sweet, beautifully harmonised piece that his fellow band members must be cursing about missing out on, that he shows what a great talent he is. Like a lot of side projects he has roped in several familiar faces, including fellow Chili Peppers Chad Smith on drums throughout and Flea on closer ‘The Slaughter’. Vincent Gallo, the actor / sometime singer, contributes the sleeve photography and proves that he made the right choice in pursuing acting as a career. An interesting diversion from the day job then, occasionally threatening to disappear up his own arse but on the whole making a rather beautiful record that highlights the contribution John Frusciante makes to one of the world's biggest rock bands.
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