Not your usual review…and it also reviews just one song.
This is a review of Running Away Into You, the song from John’s first solo album, from Tiny Mix Tapes. I thought it would be a…well…different read.
“Run Away Into You,†by John Frusciante from Niandra Lades and Usually Just a T-Shirt, 1995
Ever seen that Behind the Music episode on the Red Hot Chili Peppers? There’s that part where they talk about John Frusciante’s descent into heroinism (look it up, cracka) and show pics and video clips of him looking all spider-monkey-ish and ready to scratch-scratch-scratch his forearms raw. OH, SWEET SMACK indeed; as bad as those years were for Frusciante as a person, he made wonderfully jittery junkyard music that perhaps only emerges when one’s veins are full. “Running Away Into You†represents a future genre that I can only imagine will be HUGE someday. It starts with Frusc’s pale, frail voice purring over an acoustic guitar. Pretty, sure, but then he starts fruit-looping his voice up, down and sideways while the guitar dutifully keeps time and things get dank and disturbing. As his now-Alvin & The Chipmunks voice sprawls, it suddenly stops and repeats several times. Then a little more guitar and we’re done. Although it only employs a few minor tricks to get its point across, “Running Away Into You†is so much different from just about anything else out there I’d shudder to even call it music. But music it is — albeit music that shuns history and looks unflinchingly into what the kids might be listening to in 2222 if technology regresses over the coming decades. Much like “My Smile is a Rifle,†this Frusciante track held my attention so steadfastly I wondered what planet he was from … and where I could get some of the shit he was on when he made this.
