The Empyrean – a review
Written on January 21, 2009 in General, New releases & with 16 responses
Tags: album reviews, review, the empyrean
This review is going to be a bit less conventional, a bit more honest, a bit more personal. As a long-term casual listener of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, I discovered John's solo work earlier in this decade, with "only" three officially released albums and some demos available at that point. Given that those were the good old days of 28.8 Kbps dial-up, I stumbled upon songs' lyrics weeks before I actually had the albums in my hands. And some of them felt like stunning poetry. Later on, it turned out that such poetry fit perfectly with the harmony of the music. Either way, here I am after more than five years, here you are, so let's give this 10-song Odyssey through an artist's mind and soul a spin. And hold tight.
The first couple of listens to the The Empyrean were pretty much like travelling without moving - as if someone was replaying a movie or a theatre play with many special effects, sudden changes in the script, improvs, incredible highs and incredible lows on and on throughout the night; and suddenly I felt like I had a minor supporting role added to the script in messy handwritten footnotes. And, as if it was a kaleidoscope or a painting a wave would leave in the sand, experience was never the same. At some points, it was giving me goosebumps, at some points, my heart was beating faster; and then, it would calm down to a state where I would have to be really calm to make through the whispers. It ended just the way it started: abruptly, with a single loud drum beat, fading to ten seconds of total silence. And then it begun again. And, frankly, I could repeat it until my modest audio device's motor blows out.
Delicate piano would suddenly be overlapped with heavy guitar riffs, to further become a colourful solo, to end up drowning into a sea of strings, with the voice varying from Mephisto-esque baritone on One More Of Me to almost angelic falsetto leads sung in front of a gospel choir on the Light park of Dark/Light. There were howls and screams too, but given the dramatic story the album appears to be telling, each one of them was necessary and each one of them was in a properly calculated spot and fine-tuned to cause just the right reaction from the listener. Or, at least this particular listener.
The Empyrean might be an ecletic, hurricane-like story, a dense avalanche of emotion packed into a little more than an hour; the highest point in heaven taken centuries and light years away from how Dante imagined it to be and in a completely different context. Close your eyes, sit comfortably and allow yourselves to be taken to a whole new different world. My advice would be not to skip any of the songs and to try to listen to The Empyrean in its entity, from (before the)beginning to (after) the end(ing). The feeling is completely different when you let them flow into one another and allow all the curves, bumps and vortexes take you for a ride. And, as the sticker on the Japanese version of the CD says...turn it up!
If you're expecting the super lo-fi sounds from the first two albums and the internet album, the electronic vibes of To Record Only Water For Ten Days and A Sphere In The Heart Of Silence, alt rock stripped to its basics of DC EP, The Will To Death and Inside Of Emptiness, the acoustic tenderness of Curtains or the almost-mainstream perfection of Shadows Collide With People; you'd better stop right there. If you have refrained from listening to song previews or if you'd just heard Unreachable, you should stop right there, too. The best possible option would be not to predict, not to expect and just let it surprise you. The versatile back catalog of a musician as prolific and creative as John should make you realise this even before picking up this CD: he never repeats himself, each one of his albums is different and, even though The Empyrean has its own story, the others were telling stories in some way, too. This is a little bit of everything, but in a way it was never put together before.
Favourites? Central, Song To The Siren, God and After The Ending. But don't let that influence your opinion.
Least favourite? No such a thing.
Disclaimer: Nothing I can say should matter to you, you should give it a listen yourself.
16 Reactions to The Empyrean – a review
Pravila za komentarisanje:
Thank you Iva for your review. It's refreshing to hear someone put into words how I often feel when listening to John's music. I have refrained from listening to any of the leaks, with the exception of Unreachable which I heard on his Myspace and I'm holding out for the vinyl to come in the mail, as I want to be able to hear something for the first time on that medium, which I've never been able to do before.
The wait is killing me but I figure it's been almost 4 years since Curtains, what's another week or so.
Thanks again for all you do.
John is a miracle.
Only him could set up this beautiful trip for us,
Many thanks to him and to you Iva for leaving your heart take a pen (a keyboard, actually) and make this awesome review.
with love,
Rodrigo
"The Empyrean" will inspire so many people around the world, I can feel it.
PS- As you can see, I hate long paragraphs
PPS- Ne znam da li je iko ikada ovako dobro osetio ijedan muzicki album... Vise ljudi bi trebalo da procita recenziju i shvati neke stvari.
fantastic review!!! the same feelings ran through me also.
It's really an amazing album, I can't describe the feeling, it just brings you into some harmony and to an other dimension...
This review is really amazing, I feel it nearly the same way...
Can't wait to get the physical copy, I enjoy this album a lot
Oh lord!...it's just amazing to see that even the most dedicated fans turn out to behave as opposed to what John recently said in his interview in terms of not being taken away by the names of people and not judging them for the their reputation but instead to analyse their work neutrally,only focusing on the outcome of their creative procedure. And yet again I read this emotionally sweet but rationally biased review from the most dedicated Frusciante fan(Iva) and I start wondering where the justice is concealed!!!....this album is a stab in the hearts of John-rocker-Frusciante fans...I know it's a matter of different tastes but it's still hard to digest such amount of non-critical ever-pleasant lines as a review...
anyways, I guess it would be nice for the proponents of this album to read the review of Ultimate-Guitar.com although that ain't my favorite one....I think it'd be good to put it up on your website(just a recommendation)
behnood, what on earth are you talking about? You just stereotyped John's music so hard it's not even funny. Have you ever heard Sphere in the Heart of Silence? Ataxia? John has never been just about hard rock. In fact, even his hard rock isn't without a notable degree of experimentation, not to mention calling RHCP hard rock is a stretch (if not simply an incorrect description).
That the album is praised shouldn't surprise you; it's a fantastic album from any perspective (for Frusciante fans or otherwise). If it's not your cup of tea that's fine, but don't hold it against John like he's letting down rock fans somehow. The greatest gift for any music fans is something unique, so you ought to thank John, not condemn him for not striving to be like everyone else. Besides, if you don't like this album you're probably in trouble because the Speed Dealer Moms (John's latest project) surely won't be your cup of tea.
You should take your own advice. If you thought about the album as an album (in and of itself, unaffected by John's past work), you might realize that whether or not you agree with John's choice of musical direction, he's crafted a masterwork in the truest sense of the word.
great review thanks iva. that last paragraph makes me laugh at how much i thought about what this album would be like before i came out. although i did get one thing right, i guessed it would have lots of strings ages ago. haha
Thank you for your review, Iva!
Your describing this album as an Odyssey is quite accurate. It's definitely like taking a journey all over the place, but in a good way. 
To benhood, I agree that people should look at John's work objectively. Did you ever consider that perhaps some people DO enjoy this album? Maybe they actually DON'T have anything negative to say about it, not because of their loyalty to John Frusciante, but because the album might tug at their emotions, make them feel things....? I have a feeling you were anticipating something specific from John's 10th solo album, and it didn't deliver. Perhaps that's why you are so angry. I think you should consider that this is a concept album. When you look at each song as a separate entity, I agree, some of them are kind of WTF? But I don't think that's the way to approach this album. All the tracks are part of one story, and when you consider them as such, they fit together perfectly.
Thanks for your wise reply LNE!...your response really worked like water pouring on fire...yup,I'm quite pissed off...I have this bizzare defensive approach towards this album inside of me...the more I try to get closer to it,the more I repel it...I really wished I could enjoy it as much as others do, but I can't
....RHCP FOR LIFE,JOHN FRUSCIANTE FOR LIFE
Well, at least you're being honest. Hopefully Mr. Frusciante has a few more tricks up his sleeve for 2009 and maybe you'll get a nice surprise. I admit, when it comes to John's solo stuff, I'm greedy. I know he needs his time to relax, but more music is always better!
iva hey
im a huge fan of this site im on it everyday pretty much
also a huge fan of john of course:D
and the empyrean
one song i particulary loved was before the beginnng..i play it all day pretty much on youtube cause i havent got the album yet..soon hopefully(yn)
annnnyyway i really dont know where to leave this kind of comment so im jus leavign it here but the main point im saying is ive decided to tab before the beginning for everyone who loves johns guitar as much as i do and i know as soon as i heard it i couldnt wait to be able to play it..its a painstaking process as its obvioulsy a loong song so it will take me a while..i hopt to have it finished soon..and i hope not to dissapoint by giving up on it
so again thank you for this lovely site and the great job u are doing and hopefully ill be done soon
great review, thanks a million. i more than enjoyed reading it; now it's even harder to wait for the album to finally arrive in the mail
but is that correct? -> The Empyrean might be an ecletic, hurricane-like story, a dense avalanche of emotion packed into --> a little more than two hours <--
is the record really that long?! i mean that would no doubt be fantastic, but somehow i doubt it...
I like your review, Iva... you write well. I like the album too, but it still hasn't sunk in for me yet.
I haven't had the chance to listen to the whole album in consecutive order yet (due to work & other commitments)... although I have heard every song.
Most of my listening to the album has been done via my CD walkman on JR trains going to & from work...
I've yet to do the whole "listen to the album non-stop in the dark" thing... but I want to this weekend.
I tend to find myself repeating the second half of the album more than the first... although it's all good.
If I was gonna write a single word review for the album, I'd have to say: "Essential"......... or maybe "Epic".
That's two words. Hehe...
By the way, what's your review of the lyrics to The Empyrean...? Just curious...
I choose not to review lyrics. I don't want to hurt John's feelings or get people to think what I'm thinking, given that so many people visit the website; and god forbid, believe that it's what he thinks. Sometimes I think that, if he'd seen my stupid analysis of Dante et cetera, he could've gotten really annoyed and the last thing I would want to do is to annoy him or steer people away from his point about everyone having their own interpretation.
Probably my favorite from John so far, Song to The Siren was incredible, and One more of me nearly brings me to tears every time, the only way to listen to this album is with a good set of headphones, you get the full effect out of it... I love all of Johns music, and I hope he continues to thrive in his own way.