Review:

on 2011-06-05 CharlesMartel Said:

Take one mildly-entertaining if ultimately uninspiring funk rock band who always seem to deliver less than the sum of its parts. Throw in lashings of fame and fortune over a long multi-decade career. Stir vigorously for a decade or so and sprinkle individual members with heroin. Leave to settle.

Such is the recipe from which the potent brew that is John Frusciante emerges. Recovering from a life-threatening heroin addiction is one hell of an achievement, and he found his particular nirvana in a sort of spiritual awakening and mystical search for the divine. The guitar hero who was saved from self-inflicted death by music is almost too much of a cliche to repeat, but in Frusciante's case it happens to be true. This persona manifests itself in a series of solo albums, of which "The Empyrean" is the tenth, as different from the Red Hot Chili Peppers as you could imagine.

"The Empyrean" is an ambitious album, as its title suggests. Two years in the making and made with the assistance of fellow Pepper, Flea, Johnny Marr and a host of talented musicians, the title references Dante and Milton as the dwelling place of God in Heaven. It is, perhaps appropriately, also derived from the same Greek word for burning flesh. Whether you believe Frusciante has achieved the ambition he set himself is really one for the individual listener, and all that this review can hope to do is to indicate some of the signposts on the way to a conclusion.

The first signpost points backwards to 1971. If I never hear a closer match between two tracks, I will not be surprised. Apart from the vocal introduction, this is pretty much a copy of Funkadelic's "Maggot Brain". Curiously, it is probably the best track on the album and while it is a rather peculiar way to open an album, the guitar-free second track, a cover of Tim Buckley's "Song to the Siren" merely adds to the growing idea that this is not an ordinary piece of work.

More conventional tracks (at least conventional in the sense that they comprise a recognisable musical format for a rock guitarist) follow on. "Unreachable" and "Central" are both tracks which sound as if the Red Hot Chili Peppers could have done them, if only they had the creativity and the balls. As it is, Frusciante makes both tracks alternately crawl and soar as he needs to.

But there are two tracks which seem to sum up John Frusciante and his raison d'etre as a musician these days. "God" may be simply titled and reflect an over-simplification of his motivation, but the structure of the song, with its fading in and out vocals, seems to echo the struggle of man, and Frusciante in particular, in the approach to his spiritual goals, nearing and fading but never quite getting there. Then there is "Dark/Light" which is dominated by a superbly played bass line. Vocally this largely consists of a choral like effect which provides a nightmare-ish element to contrast with the Elysian impression conjured up by the instrumental components of the track.

I had not encountered much of John Frusciante's work before this. A few snatches of stuff from his earlier albums suggested to me a tortured individual seeking justification as much as redemption. On "The Empyrean" Frusciante has come the closest to finding it yet. This is not an easy album to listen to. It challenges you at all times and often forces you to re-evaluate your own values. A more different musical approach to the Red Hot Chili Peppers you could not hope to find, and for that we should all be thankful.
Rating: 7/10

Review:

on 2009-01-21 kennyscheldt Said:

Since the Chili Peppers have gone on hiatus with no plans to return anytime soon, it's great to see guitarist John Frusciante plugging away in the studio to bring us his latest avant-garde solo album titled The Empyrean.

Frusciante joined the Red Hot Chili Peppers when he was only eighteen, first appearing on band's 1989 album Mother's Milk and then Blood Sugar Sex Magik which has sold more than 13 million copies worldwide. However, Frusciante had a difficult time dealing with success at such a young age. He quit the band while on tour in 1992 and entered into an extended period of drug addiction. It wasn't until 1998 that a more focused, mature Frusciante would rejoin the Peppers after rehabilitation, just in time to lay down the guitar parts for the album Californication, which has since gone on to sell 15 million copies.

He has also received critical acclaim for his guitar playing, ranking him eighteenth on Rolling Stone's list of "The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" in '03.

So what does a true guitar genius do when he has a chance to do whatever he wants? He makes The Empyrean; a guitar journey of vintage and modern sounds with Frusciante's pleasant singing spaced somewhere in between.

The opening track "Before the Beginning" starts with just one rhythm guitar track and builds, adding more and more trippy guitar layers to tell his six string story. On "Song to the Siren," he covers the Tim Buckley song delivering a heartfelt vocal over a bed of shimmering electric guitars. Frusciante uses with great success, the very psychedelic "auto-pan" or a "left-right delay" effect on many tracks including "Unreachable" that slaps his vocal back and forth between left and right speakers (very evident while listening on headphones).

Overall, Frusciante excels in creating unique soundscapes with effects laden tracks that float his vocals along the pulsing bass lines provided in guest appearances by Flea and Johnny Marr.



Not Rated