(a Chilean website 2)
source uknown, help would be appreciated
thanks to Jordi Domenech Montane, for the translation
The Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist unveils his latest solo work, an album full of melodies that stay in your head going around, together with an emotional language perfectly transformed into sounds, that denote a clean and spiritual calm. Simply, don’t miss it.
When you talk about the Red Hot Chili Peppers icons, two names immediately come to the brain: Anthony Kiedis and Flea, and then in a somewhat third place would appear John Frusciante, who’s played with the Peppers since he was a teenager, with the exception of the parenthesis that supposed the One Hot Minute album. But even though many people might not know, Frusciante also has a solo career, which has produced 4 albums so far. It is precisely in this solo role that he become the leader and main musician, leaving Flea or Chad Smith, who collaborate in his albums, in the background.
Frusciante’s solo career is as important or more than the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ own, because in his four albums he has let go all his creativity, leaving in every one of his songs his thoughts and inspirations in some kind of trips to his inner side.
Under this perspective, we can differentiate two albums of his initial epoque, a bit rebellious, psychodelic and drugged as are Niandra LaDes and Usually Just a T-Shirt and Smile From The Streets You Hold. A second period after his rehabilitation, a lot more calm and melancholic as it can be heard in To Record Only Water For Ten Days and a third period that gets started with this album Shadows Collide With People, filled with rock mixed with synths, electronic sounds and darkness.
Shadows Collide With People has a special touch, different from the previous ones, as if it signified a new birth as an artist – those reinventions of the geniuses, who are not happy with just the succesful album, but with going even further – a catharsis of uncontrolled inspiration that transforms itself into varied songs, melodic, very inspired choirs, impossible fusions, surrounding moments and innovative pieces. The best example of this last quality is “Chances”, a song marked by the simple and delicate Frusciante riff together with electronic whistles and female voices.
From the long and disquieting “Carvel” (where the electronic and distorsioned start and finish serve as an ambient) until the slow sad and sticky “The Slaughter”, we’ll find 18 inspired and innovative songs that play with that attractive idea of mixing classic and melodic rock with the distorsions, the synthethisers and the newest electronic.
From all the songs “Omission” stands, a song that reminds us of the quieter Red Hot Chili Peppers, where the falsettos, the almost goth voices, the rhythm changes and the keyboard give a special dimension to the song. Also deserves a special mention the third song “Regret”, a simple acoustic guitar-based melody with the addition of the ragged, melancholic and sad Frusciante voice, always in a intimate tone. Another song that stands out is “-00 Ghost27”, which plays between the electronic and the instrumental and would perfectly feature in any European industrial album, which goes to show that the ideas and the genius do not run out at Frusciante’s. But we should not forget talking about other songs like the fast and frantic “Second Walk”, “Wednesday Song”, “Failure 33 Object” and “23 Go Into End”, two continuations of “-00 Ghost27”, “Song To Sing When I’m Lonely” or “The Slaughter”.
Now that the Peppers are in some kind of rest period, John Frusciante shows on his own that he has enough quality to sweep all with this great Shadows Collide With People. A lot of intimism, lots of melodies and innovation is what this album offers and it raises Frusciante’s profile as a composer and modern rock star.
