Lyrics, first magazine feature and Uncut review
Written on January 15, 2009 in General, Press stuff & with 29 responses
Tags: album reviews, clueless, lyrics, negative, the empyrean, uncut
This is an improvised update, what's most important at the moment, as other things can wait, given the server load and the site owner's work commitments. More to come, as soon as possible.
First of all, a reader who'd like to remain anonymous has submitted scans of the whole February 2009 Guitar Magazine Japan feature. Please, once again, if you happen to live in Japan or have a way of getting this magazine, buy it. Support the people who are working hard on creating magazines. And, needless to say, help with translation would be great, so if any of the Japanese or Japanese-speaking Invisible Movement readers would like to give it a go, contact me.
Thanks to Joanne, a super-nice person amongst those who already got their pre-ordered copy of The Empyrean, all the lyrics pages for the album have been completed. You can access them from the album page itself or from this list:
- Song To The Siren
- Unreachable [now fixed]
- God
- Dark/Light
- Heaven
- Enough Of Me
- Central
- One More Of Me
- After The Ending
A gentle reminder: lyrics to Today and Ah Yom have been around for quite a while. Forum members have already created threads for each of the songs, and, as it was stated last week, our own experiences of the album will probably be miles away from the original story, but might end up being interesting, too. So, everyone's welcome to join the discussions. Just please be nice. And don't forget to buy the album if you don't have it yet, especially if you've "borrowed" it. There's no way in heck you'll get the same sound quality from a real album and a bunch of mp3s.
Many thanks to Tom for having dug out the first review of the album, from the Uncut magazine. I assume everyone who actually knows what RHCP demos sound like and who's had a chance to listen to 44-second previews or who eventually got the album by now will find this review a bit funny. Also, do note how it's the least eccentric album.
Chili Pepper's least eccentric solo album
Frusciante has now recorded twice as many solo albums as he has Red Hot Chili Peppers LPs, projects that have generally been widly experimental. Unusually for him, his 10th album (featuring Johnny Marr and old muckers Flea and Josh Klinghoffer) sounds like a collection of Chili Peppers demos: one can easily imagine Anthony Kiedis singing the spooky, piano-led ballad "Dark/Light", likewise "Unreachable", "God" and "Central" (all which tone down the usual funk-rock bluster with an electric piano). More interesting is his version of the "Song To The Siren" and the baritone-voiced, string drenched spookfest that is "One More Of Me".3 out of 5 stars
- John Lewis, Uncut, Take 141, February 2009
29 Reactions to Lyrics, first magazine feature and Uncut review
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amazing solo album
"One can easily imagine Anthony Kiedis singing the spooky, piano-led ballad "Dark/Light", likewise "Unreachable", "God" and "Central""
-what?! There's no way I can imagine AK even thinking about singing those songs, that's just stupid...
They got Josh Klinghoffer right. Yay. But still a crappy review, indeed.
AK on Central?
Uh....?! Not in a million years.
Not that AK is a bad singer. I love his voice and his lyrics but... it's John's album. It has nothing to do with Chili Peppers. What a dumb review... Jeez
I'm impressed again. I haven't heard the album yet, but I read all the lyrics and they are just awesome, so sad, upset, but great. Quite sad to hear such sad lyrics comming out from him
Though, I love them 
3 out of 5 stars is not bad at all, magazines are never very generous.
And no, I can't imagine Anthony singing any of those tunes and it does not sound like Chili Peppers one single bit.
First of all:John has been the love of my life_I mean musically_ ever since I realized the value of music,so don't take a defensive approach towards me when you read the following lines.I guess we can even criticize our beloved ones if we look at their actions through an unbiased and fair perspective.
Listening to The Empyrean is just a waste of time people...John's tendency towards being a singer rather than a guitarist has destroyed his brilliant approach to music...I had told you guys that having this destructive musical relationship with that guy-Josh Klinghoffer- would totally distract him from his essential taste of music which has resulted in an album full of boring sound effects,plagued by plentiful use of keyboards and synthesizers at the expense of putting his precious guitar skills aside.It's a shame that not only is he trying so hard to ruin his unique musical aptitude with albums like this one,but also he's once again trying to dismantle the greatest rock band in the world as a result of his selfishness and his unpredictable character.He did this once back in 1992 and now after all these years,when everyone expects him to have become more mature both in terms of behaviour and music, he disappoints people like me(I'm not generalizing) by his words and his long anticipated album which turned out to be a failure.It's my opinion but maybe yours are completely different,but just think of the very first time that everyone of you fell in love with our man,Mr.John Frusciante.what impressed you the most when you were first introduced to his music?wasn't it about his great riffs or masterpiece solos?...c'mon people,react and reflect upon it...John is becoming a pop singer rather than a rocker...He seems so obsessed with singing that he does numerous vocal shifts in this album but he never does anything special on guitar except for the one and only noteworthy Unreachable....is this the John you guys want?...please don't insult me,and please don't delete this message.I just expressed my feeling...I love John,but rock music must be appreciated...and remember you guys,John-inspite of all his genius-would have been nothing without RHCP...so,he will never be forgiven if causes a split in the band,never-ever.
Labels are for kindergarten.
Clans are for kindergarten.
Classification is for kindergarten.
Revenge is for kindergarten.
John's singing is a window to his soul, lyrics are his curtains. It does NOT matter what instruments he's playing. Not at all. If anyone's immature here, it is you.
Hey you CMD313,you're not even worth being replied.you're the narrow minded person here.you're so shallow and mean that you didn't even respect what I had requested in terms of not insulting me for my opinion,and instead you proved how backward you are by calling me immature.if I'm insulting you right now, it is because you earned it yourself by insulting me,implying that i belong to a kindergarten....it's a shame that John has quasi-fans like you...you don't deserve to be one of his fans when you don't think of his works critically...persuation without rationality misleads an artist even of John's calibre...we love him,but we should not admire whatever he creates....he talks about spending hours and hours on creativity and he ends up with a guitar-less album...it's exactly a matter of guitar and rock when it comes to people like him...had he been a pop singer in the first place i wouldn't have dared to criticize him for this work,but now that we all know the genre of music that he's been involved in for his entire career we become totally shocked and disappointed by such albums as The Empyrean.............John is a guitarist...he has to respect his instrument....paying tribute to his magical sound must be his ultimate goal....just remeber songs such as LOOK ON,A FIRM KICK,ANNE and etc. and then compare them with these soft unprincipled songs.
I think that John is an artist before a guitarist. Therefore, I don't expect his solo albums to be filled with impressive guitar riffs, or solos. It's his opportunity to express himself as an ARTIST. That means exhibiting his tremendous vocal range, experimenting with different sounds, thinking outside the box and obviously playing guitar. You talk about him being selfish, yet your expectations of him reflect your own selfishness.
Also, I wish people would stop blaming Josh or Omar for John's change in behaviour. These guys have been in John's life for years and he was fine. If we had to blame anyone, I'd say the woman who came into his life, used him for her own career advancement and broke his heart is a likelier culprit. John's very own Yoko. Just saying.
behnood, I see your point and understand where you'r coming from, but you have to remember that the chilli's are only where they are because of John and therefor it is wrong to say that he is "trying to dismantle the greatest rock band in the world" as in reality he made the greatest rock band in the world and to this day he loves the red hot chilli peppers and would never do anything to dismantle them,and why bring 1992 up? That was a different time and a different stage in John's life, yes he did cause the band trouble but only because he had not come to term's with how his music would affect the band's popularity.On a final point John's guitar is his passion and as you said yourself he is an amazing guitarist and he still plays guitar so to call him immature and to say he is ruining his musical genious by SINGING.John is a very talented vocalist and his vocals express his feeling's in a very strong way.If you dont like his vocals then fair enough but there is no need for you to say he is tyring to ruin everything he loves just by singing.
um... so you're saying because he's focusing on singing he's selfish?
okay... that... sounds enlightening.
personally, i don't give a fuck about his guitar skills. i'm much more into his voice.
also, behnood, you make it sound as if josh was yoko! distracting him from RHCP.
thanx for this honest viewpoint behnood.
just by reading your review, i can already tell im going to like the record -just based upon what you said he DIDNT do.
behnood, I could not disagree with you more. I have been a fan of John's ever since Niandra came out, and I have never given a crap about RHCP whatsoever. What drew me to John was his lyrics and the intensity of his "dark sounds". That he happens to be a good guitarist is an added bonus, but doesn't really matter to me all that much. It's his artistic sensibility that keeps me coming back, and that hasn't diminished in any way, even if particular projects aren't to my taste (Ataxia, for example, I could do without completely and be perfectly happy).
This album, however, is the zenith of everything I love most about his work. I can understand that we all will have different reactions to anything he does, but that doesn't give you or anyone the right to be such a self-righteous jerk about it, and especially not to attack his friends, collaborators, lovers, or whatever. I'm particularly put off by the people blaming some ex-girlfriend of his. I don't follow anybody's love-life but my own so I have no idea whom you're referring to, but I think it's inappropriate for anybody to denigrate the people in the life of somebody you don't even know.
I understand it must be frustrating to hate an album this much that so many other people are loving, but I do think respect for other people's view points, and for John's own decisions as an adult man and artist, is paramount.
Well I hooked on John after I had listened to Going Inside a few times and To Record Only Water for Ten Days is my favorite album.
But dude, that's John. Always changing himself. You won't see another simillar record of his. It's John. If he doesn't use his guitar that often does it mean his music isn't mature? To me music is not about instuments it's about the feelings it evokes (art in general). Again I don't know the songs of The Empyrean, but its about the feeling not about stuff he can do with a piece of wood.
Josh... he's awesome don't you like electronica? Don't you like pianos? John is a avant-garde aartist he's looking for new, unexplored stuff that's why he starts using his vocals more or going to electronica.
I doubt John is a rock star He's more of an artist.
That's my opinion. Cheers.
I hate people that review albums.
haha me too. it is a waste of time.
behnood - I disagree. I think it is better that he does music he is passionate about, whatever it is. You seem insistent that he play more guitar stuff, but he may want to do something completely different. He played a lot of guitar on Stadium Arcadium. And it's almost 20 years since BloodSugarSexMagic - if he's cool with it as an inspiration, fine, but it may get a bit tiring when people want him to recreate something he did when he was 20 or however old he was. It's not surprising he wants to do something different, and maybe when he done with this stint he will want to do something completely different again, and you might like it. So you don't like this one...there are tons of other musicians out there, or you can play his old albums.
And what attracted me to his music - he has amazing sensitivity. He may have done some immature things when he was young but musically he was very mature. Flea plays some aggressive bass, and my first favorite Chili Peppers song, Soul to Squeeze, I was amazed at how well the instruments work together and he could back off and let Flea shine through. Even Under the Bridge, he gave his all to a ballad, some pretty delicate instrumentation at times, it was for the sake of a song he knew was good despite it not being their typical fare. It's more than just being good at the guitar technically, what he contributed was more than that. As someone above said, he's an artist. He can certainly apply those traits that make him an awesome guitarist, knowing what to put when and what this needs there and portraying emotion, to his voice and other instruments. You don't have to like it, but to me, if he enjoys the challenge and variety, I think it's cool.
And Fraoula - glad you're sticking up for the very awesome Josh and Omar. They are great musicians and seem like good friends to John. I wouldn't go so far as to blame someone else instead, though. It just seems mean and spiteful. But I'd take being called a Yoko a compliment, I think she's cool.
Ah Yom on Youtube!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CLoMpFDPsYg
Maybe the reviewer thought it reminded him of the Chili Peppers because of Flea's bass playing? I don't really think it sounds much like it could be some Chili Peppers demos; It's totally different and insanely beautiful from anything John's made before.
behnood, the awesome guitar work you like with RHCP stems from his sense of melody, talent as an arranger/composer and creativity. He is a muscian.
Most guitarists I know are musicians/composers/song writers....artists...not simple guitar operators. Like most musicians in bands John appears to feel the need to work on his own stuff. The RHCP, although they are a great band, will never have as much creative control as John can have solo. This is something most artists are attracked to BTW! RHCP is a multi million dollar company made up of 4 band mates. RHCP produces radio friendly hits and worldwide tours. CAN the opening track of their album be 10 minutes instrumental...it this point in their careers yes...will they jepordize album sales to do so.....umm so far they haven't! That's fine....this is what we call the music i.n.d.u.s.t.r.y. I've always considered The RHCP John's money gig / day job. It's a great day job (if you consider mine) he plays guitar for the coolest band ever. But my bone is that you seem to think he has to stick to his day job.
So John comes home after a 850 day RHCP tour with 14 notebooks worth of lyrics and 9 tapes of ideas. What should he do? Seems like you'd want him to trash them and resume practising the riff to Under the Bridge. But No! Instead he has the nerve to put in boat loads of effort, creativity and time to record tons of albums which he release on a smaller label...which since their is no tour...the money has to be way less then RHCP work!
Really? You really think John is more pop then RHCP? Really? Almost half the songs on The Empyrean are 7 minutes or more....that's not very radio/mtv friendly! And what is this about Klinghoffer being a bad influence...too many sound EFX....sound efx? John was making EHX demos when he was 21...he's always been about synths and gear.
It just seems to me you don't lilke John Frusciante. You say in your original post.... "since I realized the value of music"...What is the value of music? What did you realize?
Ponch, thanks for your modest reply...at least you didn't insult me as others did, but how can you say such things as "you're not a fan" to a person like me whose room is filled up with John's pictures and wallpapers and never spends a day without hearing John's touch on his instrument...c'mon ! we all love him, but I once again reiterate that this album is a pop work, and when it comes to pop it is the end of true musical spirit...Rock is the climax of music…John should not denigrate his well-deserved reputation as a guitarist to come up with tunes like "Dark/Light" which is a disgrace to rock music and as opposed is a salute to Hip Hop music. I have some friends, who only listened to metal/hard rock music (just like myself) and didn't even give a shit about RHCP, but I introduced them to their music and they gradually got used to John's style and started admiring his riffs and solos. I had told them that John's new album was on the way and I behaved in a manner that even they began anticipating the release of The Empyrean….but when they finally listened to these 12 shameful songs (I'm not Japanese), they ridiculed me for my taste of music, telling me that I had mislead them in terms of listening to John and RHCP… I wrote this story to let you know that even those not familiar with John would back off when hearing this album…just as a proof of what I'm claiming: I had given them a selection of his best songs (in my opinion) including ANNE, LOOK ON, THE WILL TO DEATH, A FIRM KICK, DISSOLVE, ASCENSION, SONG TO SING and some others and much to my surprise they'd all fallen in love with those song, but now that they've listened to The Empyrean, all of them have unanimously told me that the only track worth listening to is the Unreachable, which I do agree with too….my theory of rock is:
Rock=guitar+bass+drums….
.anything other than this is fake rock! that's why at the end of the day, I do prefer to have RHCP's john doing magic in my headphones rather than a mild John singing repetitious and boring falsetto in The Empyrean!!!
It's hard to imagine a man who has created masterpieces such as Readymade, My Lovely Man or Torture Me to bring up these Beyonce'ish songs!
benhood, i dont want to sound like im personally attacking you, and i respect that you are entitled to your opinion, but in my opinion you have the most narrow-minded view of music. but seeing as you and your friends are predominately metal fans that is hardly surprising.
"Rock=guitar+bass+drums….
.anything other than this is fake rock!"
imagine how boring music would be if we only stuck to three instruments. is a band such as Led Zeppelin a "fake rock" band as they used keyboards and mandolins? are the Stooges "fake rock" for featuring saxaphones? is any band that uses strings (and there are plenty) also "fake rock"? that is ridiculous.
and to claim that the Empyrean is pop... i dont get it. how is an album with abstract lyrics, vocal/synth treatments, 7+ minute songs, a nine minute guitar solo on the same level as Beyonce?
and your story about your friends' reaction to the Empyrean implies to me that you listen to music to impress others. i suppose John's fallsetto isnt 'hardcore' enough for you or your metal head friends
i agree with andy, benhood is very narrowminded. Someone once said "it is the purists who ruin music." what kind of narrowminded asshole only wants to hear guitar, bass, and drums.
not to mention the fact that he does use tons of guitar on this album.
not to mention this is NOT a pop album.
not to mention that the songs you do list as being good "ANNE, LOOK ON, THE WILL TO DEATH, A FIRM KICK, DISSOLVE, ASCENSION, SONG TO SING" are far popier than anything on this album.
I respect you opinion benhood, but seriously fuck off man.
I dunno I just don't hear Beyonce on The Empyrean! I do agree that Dark/Light gets a litte repetative towards the end ...Personaly I just think there could of been a twist....vocal melody somewhere in that hypnotic 5 minute coda. But I still get chills listening to it. Yeah it's definetly something to dance to...call it a wink at Hip Hop or whatever. I thinks that's cool. Incorporating differnt feels to an album is something I really appreciate....as long as it comes through as honest and is pulled off properly. John is by far my favorite artist. Shadows collide, Will to death, Smile and by the looks of it The Empyrean are by a long shot to me the greatest things I've ever heard. Buts it's funny I listen to Rihana's Umbrella and I always feel like I'm listening to John. Im not a Hip Hop R&B guy but there's an honesty in the production, the minor melody is simply beautiful and there's just something about it that gets to me the exact way John does. I guess what Im trying to say is that I think that truely talented composers are able to get the energy across regardless the style or feel of music....infact they are able to pick the style needed to fully get there. I dunno you seem to consider Rock to be the pinacle of music. That's cool but I really don't think it's to fully understand an artist to criticise his/her choice to push the Rock Genre or do something different all together.
In the end you're right in a sense...cause it's really all POP. Rock...hip hop...country....it's all popular music....music for the people...music that people can understand and feel...not cerebral compositions based on strict math and crazy theory...it's simple...it's human emotion...and I wouldn't have it any other way!
well said andy. how can you call an album that has taken 2+ years to make, features johnny marr, includes synths piano and fuck loads of distortion on the solos like beyonce? just because john doesnt wear matalica t shirts, a bandanna and nod is head to the disgustingly repetitive beats of ACDC. doesnt mean hes gone pop. but i suppose its your opinion? to bad your opinions wrong? haha
john's singing is the one of the most emotional, sincere, REAL, and musically talenented things he has ever done. he puts more into his music, especially his singing, than any other artist i know. the thing that makes this man so incredibly amazing and breath taking is that he can handle these two equally amazing lifestyles-the one with the commercially successful, but also uniquely successful RHCP, where he can create sounds on the guitar that no one has ever done before (w/ the exception of Jimi), and also have this solo career, that is essentially so hidden form most people, especially hidden form mainstream, and so personal. if you want to learn something about john frusciante, it's through his solo material. i have tried to get almost everyone i know just to listen to a few songs, and they almost always brush it off with the usual "weird voice, strange music" bullshit. if anyone spends some quality with john's music, even if you can't bring yourself to enjoy it, then i guarantee that they will still be able to recognize the sincerity and pure love of music that goes into it.