FilboidStudge's Full Review: Ritual de lo Habitual by Jane's Addiction
Like a huge swarm of groovy locusts, here comes Jane's Addiction, and they're hungry for kicks. If there was ever a best album to play truant to, this is it. Singer Perry Farrell comes across like a cheeky schoolboy with a bag of mind-altering chemicals, out with his mates and causing havoc during a full moon. This record packs a tremendously exciting punch; its songs speed about and take fast, fast corners: it's a thrilling ride.
A Hispanic conchita announces the band before they kick in with 'Stop!' which bounces about relentlessly and then breaks down into a slow groove peppered with "Hurrah"s before screaming back. The pace of the music and the ideas is so extraordinarily invigorating, it would make a corpse start headbanging. In 'No-One's Leaving,' Farrell delivers a highly individual plea for racial tolerance: "My sister and her boyfriend slept in the park/ Had to leave home 'cos he was dark/ Now they parade around New York with a baby boy/ He's gorgeous!" Dave Navarro's guitar screams round the edges of songs with ferocious feedback, but always melodic and right on the money.
It's not hard to see why 'Been Caught Stealing' was released as a single; it's totally to the point and full of great hooks; however, it's the meandering, changeable songs which give "Ritual De Lo Habitual" its real charm. 'Three Days' seems to be a diary of an epic bender undertaken by the frontman; its upbeat guitar riffs are interspersed with hazy moments of calm, and Farrell's lyrics go some way towards explaining the album's front cover which shows a naked, pseudo-religious Trinity of clay figures he'd modelled, all apparently sharing his face.
'Then She Did...' is a brilliant come-on to an artist friend. It builds slowly, with a superb backing of found sounds, swelling with an unobstrusive, perfect orchestral backing towards the end. It highlights the strengths of this excellent album: each song is bursting with ideas; the music and vocals are delivered with intense enthusiasm; and the lyrics are unendingly imaginative and supremely visual.
Once you've scraped yourself off the ceiling, you'll put "Ritual De Lo Habitual" right back to the start and blow yourself right back up again.
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