Jane’s Addiction’s ‘Ritual De Lo Habitual’ Turns 25: the band’s alt-rock masterpiece re-examined on its 25th anniversary.
This week (August 21st to be exact) marks the 25th anniversary of ‘Ritual De Lo Habitual‘, the second studio album from alternative rock progenitors Jane’s Addiction.
While Nirvana’s ‘Nevermind’ is seen as the album that broke alternative to the masses in the 90’s, that top honor really goes to ‘Ritual’, which went double platinum in the U.S. and proved that aggressive rock with weird, experimental overtones could be just as commercially viable as the L.A. based glam-metal scene. The fact that Jane’s hailed from the same town made the distinction even more striking.
The band worked with producer Dave Jerden, who also helmed their previous album, 1988’s ‘Nothing’s Shocking’, and ‘Ritual’ expanded on that album’s sonic blueprint. This resulted in some of their most accessible tunes (‘Stop’, ‘Been Caught Stealing’), while also providing challenging, unconventional opuses (‘Three Days’, ‘Then She Did’), fusing disparate elements of metal, goth, psychedelia and funk into a unique, hallucinogenic sonic stew.
Jerden aided their left-of-center sound with quirky soundbites including dog barks, jet fighters and close-miking an unplugged electric guitar.
(Speaking of Jerden, click here for Alice in Chains’ ‘Facelift’ Turns 25, another album he produced that oddly enough came out the same day as ‘Ritual.’)
Part of the album’s trippy quality is due to the band’s chemical intake at the time: both vocalist/lyricist Perry Farrell, guitarist Dave Navarro, and bassist Eric Avery have all commented on struggling with addiction during the album’s production (although Jerden stated in a recent article in L.A. Weekly that the band were on their best behavior in the studio).
This left Farrell coming from a creative space that was equally euphoric, provocative, and defensive.
Take the album cover for instance. Like the eyebrow raising ‘Shocking’ which featured a sculpture of nude conjoined twins, ‘Ritual’, features a sculpture of a ménage à trois involving Farrell, girlfriend Casey Niccoli and lover Xiola Blue. To get around any potential censorship by retailers, the album was shipped in a white cover featuring the first amendment.
Click here for Jane’s Addiction’s ‘Nothing’s Shocking’ Turns 25
Likewise, his lyrical content was equally confrontational, be it the thrill of shoplifting (played for laughs in music video for ‘Been Caught Stealing’), lambasting prejudices against interracial dating (‘Ain’t Nobody Leaving’), and most notably, the eerie, staccato intro to ‘Ain’t No Right’, where he lets off a tirade against record company management demanding he get drug tested:
my sex and my drugs and my rock and roll…
all my brain and body need…
sex and my drugs and my rock and roll…
are the only thing that keeps me here,
alright, so get your fucking piss-cup out of my fucking face…
Just as Farrell was pushing for artistic freedom, his band mates were expanding their musicianship forging cacophonous soundscapes, but also allowing for moments of somber nuance.
While ‘Ritual’ only has 9 tracks, it feels like a double album: one half abrasively funky and metallic (most notable the slamming ‘Ain’t No Right’), and the other half more romantic, muted and gothic in tone (such as the languorous album closer ‘Classic Girl.’)
But the best song on the album splits the difference: ‘Three Days’, a 10 minute and 48 second track which chronicles Farrell’s relationship as depicted in the album cover.
It starts off with Avery’s hypnotic Gothic bassline, which meshes perfectly with Farrell’s disembodied vocals. The song continues to twist and contort, driven by drummer Stephen Perkins tribal percussion, building slowly into an aggressive assault of power chords and one of Navarro’s finest guitar solos. The fact that it was recorded in only one take is jaw-dropping given the complexity and length of composition.
As Farrell noted in a recent interview with Rolling Stone, his notion of ‘Three Days’ was to make an anthem with the slow burn intensity of ‘Stairway to Heaven’. Mission accomplished.
Another song with an unusual sonic atmosphere and tempo, is ‘Then She Did’, a wistful, sorrowful tune that acts as dual tribute to the suicide of Farrell’s mother, and the drug related death of Xiola Blue, which he also mentioned in the Rolling Stone interview:
My mom took her own life when I was four, and Xiola — who was an incredibly talented artist, and who I loved so much — died of an overdose. “Then She Did…” is speaking about both Xiola and my mom; I sort of saw them as similar people. I saw my mom in her, which is probably why I loved her so much. Years later, I found out that Xiola was my cousin, so maybe I really did see my mom in her.
It’s ‘Ritual’s’ mix of savagery and unabashed romance that made it such a landmark album upon its début, and why it holds up so well 25 years later. It was a cultural touchstone during my college years, and became further immortalized when the band took it out on the road on the inaugural Lollapalooza tour in 1991 (before the original lineup broke up). It sounds as mysterious, strange and timeless as ever…
The band will be performing the album in its entirety on various festivals this year (including Austin’s Fun Fun Fun Fest.) Click here for full details.
And click here for the full list of my Albums Revisited series.
Own ‘Ritual De Lo Habitual’ on iTunes and Amazon:
