Jane's Addiction - Nothing's Shocking
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Artist: Jane's AddictionBrand: JANE'S ADDICTION
Edition: Music CD
Audio: English (Original Language)
CD Release Date: 1990-10-25
Music Label: Warner Bros / Wea
Soundtracks:
- Up The Beach
- Ocean Size
- Had A Dad
- Ted, Just Admit It...
- Standing In The Shower...Thinking
- Summertime Rolls
- Mountain Song
- Idiots Rule
- Jane Says
- Thank You Boys
- Pig's In Zen
Music reviews of Nothing's Shocking
Music Review: The only alternative band that made having a good time into art.
Rating: 5 Stars
Jane's Addiction was the last band that could write a brilliant guitar solo. Nothing's Shocking has many of them; check out the unusual, oscillating pitch of the solo in "Standing In The Shower...Thinking." The solo is technically proficient, but also concise and very memorable rhythmically, sounding nothing like the standard guitar tones and templates of, say, eighties hair-metal. "Idiots Rule" has an equally great solo, and plus it's one of the few rock songs to successfully incorporate horns to create a jubilant party sound without over-emphasizing them and going into half-baked "jazz experiments."
The focus on soloing and guitar skill comes from classic rock, but Jane's Addiction also had an arty, melancholy underside. Perry Farrell was a Cure fan, and you can see it from the very first track, the near-instrumental "Up The Beach." After a very low-key bass intro, it suddenly explodes in a burst of dense, yet atmospheric distortion. It's like a metal version of the intro to "Plainsong," which was actually released a year later. And the bass line in "Mountain Song" sounds a lot like the one in Joy Division's "Isolation." By picking up some production ideas from this sort of moody eighties rock, the album sounds much more modern than seventies guitar albums.
Nothing's Shocking also has a certain "underground" element. This is manifested more in the art direction and overall "attitude" than in the music. Jane's Addiction was a hedonistic band, like most eighties metal acts, but Perry Farrell sounded like someone who partook of hedonism because he actually lived the marginal lifestyle and had nowhere else to go, rather than using it to show off and become famous. "Jane Says" is probably the most sympathetic rock song ever written. Heroin addiction and prostitutes are both common subjects for rock songs, but never has there been such a compassionate portrayal. Yet it's entirely convincing -- the song doesn't sneer, but it doesn't offer any rosy pictures of redemption, either. "Jane says she's never been in love / she don't know what it is."
Farrell was the genuine article, the sensitive marginal who probably should have gone to art school, but was too fascinated by sloppy, dangerous living and seedy, kinky sex. The iconic arty nude sculpture on the album cover, the song that uses serial killers as evidence that "sex is violent," and hilariously vacuous phrases like "some people should die, that's just unconscious knowledge." One song advocates urinating while in the shower, and many songs consist of nonsensical disjointed phrases. And yet, this also comes with affecting sorrow in "Jane Says" and the lovely idyll "Summertime Rolls," a love song expressed in the awkward language of a slacker youth ("I love her, I mean, it's so, so serious"), but all the more touching because of it, very gentle and sweet.
Dave Navarro lights the album on fire with incredible guitar work. I mentioned the solos and the dense, Cure-like production, but there's also quite a bit of variety in moods and tempos -- loud, hard, razor-sharp riffs in "Had A Dad," "Pigs In Zen" and "Mountain Song," gentle acoustic guitar in "Jane Says," horns in "Idiots Rule," a fragmented, multi-part progressive-rock composition in "Ted, Just Admit It," and furthermore, every solo sounds different and original. Even the one-minute throwaway jazz instrumental "Thank You Boys" is fun. There is not a single generic filler song on this album.
Fun is the best aspect of Jane's Addiction. What really set them apart was their incredible lust for life. They inspired many nineties hard-rock bands, but they had a totally different tone. They weren't always happy, but at least they sounded like they fiercely wanted to be, like they knew it was something valuable. For this reason, Nothing's Shocking is best played on bright sunny days, and is a great summertime album.
If there's a hard rock album that captures the experience of being young, rather than being a product marketed to young people, this is it. It's a shame that after something so exuberant, emotional and uplifting, the band quickly broke up, but at least it added mystique to their short career. The followup Ritual De Lo Habitual (1990) is similar in spirit (and also good summertime listening), but much more formless, without the tight and concise rhythms and solos. It was inevitable; the marginal life exacts a price...but in the right hands, that life makes for great stories.
Description of Nothing's Shocking
Perry Farrell & Dave Navarro. Col. House version. SM.Alternative Rock CDs
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