Kerrang
From Kerrang (UK)
thanks to Sophie
Oh to be a fly on the wall of that record company meeting.
“I’d like to release an album a month,” requests Mr.Frusciante to looks of bemusement and horror around the room.
“Well, he is the guitarist of the Chili Peppers,” think the suits. “We better let him have his way…”
Thankfully, John Frusciante is a man who obviously lives, breathes and seeps music from every pore and ‘Sphere…’ differs from previous albums in the series in that it draws infulences from the ground-breaking ambient and experimental sounds of Can and Tangerine Dream to create an album of dark and moody electronica-fused rock.
DOWNLOAD: Afterglow
FOR FANS OF: RHCP, Can
Kerrang
? February 2004, Kerrang (UK)
thanks to Nick
Prodigal Son: Chili’s Guitarists’ Midas Touch Graces Solo Album.
John Frusciante
Shadows Collide With People
(Warner Bros.)
KKKK (4/5)
The Lowdown: John Frusciante’s reinstatement to the Chili Pepper fold was a great story – prodigal son returns to administer a size nine to an inflating arse – and with hindsight, it’d be difficult to picture the band as the stadium-hogging colossus it’s become without his soaring harmonies and sinuous guitar lines.
They’re all hallmarks that pepper the fourth solo album from the Chili’s most likeable character, an album that betrays all the traits of his persona. ‘Shadows Collide With People’, then, is steeped in a fragile humanism and a touch on the barking side.
It’s an album for fans that held ‘Scar Tissue’ or ‘By The Way”s gorgeous ‘Tear’ close to their hearts: an album from music lovers with the merest hint of a soul. Of course, it’s far from straightforward: Frusciante’s ‘everything but the kitchen sink’ approach to instrumentation is both epic in scale and charmingly homespun. His love of bleep merchants Aphex Twin and Squarepusher also surfaces to mixed success.
It’s an album that will suprise many – not leart Anthony Kiedis who should certainly be feeling insecure – and bewitch countless more, like his return to the Chili Peppers, ‘Shadows Collide With People’ is something worthy of celebration.
Best Tracks: ‘Carvel’, ‘Wednesday’s Song’, And ‘Omission’
