1) As Can Be; 2) My Smile Is a Rifle; 3) Head (Beach Arab); 4) Big Takeover; 5) Curtains; 6) Running Away into You; 7) Mascara; 8) Been Insane; 9) Skin Blues; 10) Your Pussy’s Glued to a Building on Fire; 11) Blood on My Neck from Success; 12) Ten to Butter Blood Voodoo; 13) Usually Just a T-Shirt #1; 14) Usually Just a T-Shirt #2; 15) Usually Just a T-Shirt #3; 16) Usually Just a T-Shirt #4; 17) Usually Just a T-Shirt #5; 18) Usually Just a T-Shirt #6; 19) Usually Just a T-Shirt #7; 20) Usually Just a T-Shirt #8; 21) Usually Just a T-Shirt #9; 22) Usually Just a T-Shirt #10; 23) Usually Just a T-Shirt #11; 24); Usually Just a T-Shirt #12; 25) Usually Just a T-Shirt #13
Rough, rambling, drug-addled rudimentary demos. For hardcore fans only, and even then there's likely little to cherish beyond the curio factor.
Key tracks: "As Can Be", "Curtains"
There’s no way I can comfortably say that this is a good album, let’s make that clear from the get-go. Niandra LaDes and Usually Just a T-Shirt was recorded on and off during the months leading to John Frusciante’s first departure from Red Hot Chili Peppers, crushed by anxiety and wasted on the drugs he took to combat it. Frusciante’s adventures with drugs are far from the rock-romantic tales of hedonistic craze and the man you hear on this album is a complete mess heading towards even worse. To combat Peppers’ ever-increasing popularity Frusciante’s first solo releases were barebones bedroom recordings, but the only thing the lo-fi nature of the album achieves is not leaving him any room to hide his deteriorating health.
From a fan’s point of view this is an interesting album though, because you can hear Frusciante’s style evolving. There’s a big gap between the funk rock riffs he wielded during his first stint in the Peppers and the more melodic signature style he came back with in the late 90s, and Niandra LaDes and Usually Just a T-Shirt shows the first steps on that path of change. There are some neat instrumental parts scattered throughout the abundance of tracks that aren’t far away from his later lo-fi recordings, and you can even hear his songwriting style starting to take shape. Frusciante’s first two solo albums tend to be isolated from his later records - and for a good reason - but Niandra LaDes makes a decent point about not being quite as far from them as you would have expected. In fact, as a collection of instrumental early demos this could have been a far better curio: Frusciante’s voice is largely shot and he alternates between mumbling, wailing and occasionally shrieking – none of which are particularly comfortable to listen to.
The more fascinating material is largely restricted to the album’s first, Niandra LaDes half. These songs were purposedly recorded to be released as a solo album, with Frusciante taking time to develop each song before he saw it was fit for release. You can easily hear potential for a genuinely good, fleshed-out version in a number of them and even in a rudimentary state like this they still make for a decent, even if not completely enjoyable listen. It’s only really Frusciante’s voice and haphazard performance letting them down. When the Usually Just a T-Shirt half switches on is when the album begins its decent into a patience-grinding crawl. The thirteen untitled songs that make for the second part were recorded in a seemingly semi-improvised manner in a single take during Frusciante’s last tour with the Peppers, this time far more drugged out. The nondescript songs are largely aimless and sound terrible, and they’re such a struggle to get through that the faint positives of the first half vanish completely from memory. Even when it’s not outright terrible it’s just terribly dull, and that’s not much better - in any case, it’s largely incoherent rambling.
Even without the second half Niandra LaDes in itself still wouldn’t be anything that would ever receive actual proper listening time - in its own way it’s fascinating to hear much like any embryonic demos are for a big fan, but in musical terms it’s closer to the dump pile. The best description for it is that it’s a mess, and the only reason why it’s not a case study for why drugs are bad is because the follow-up took it way further. At least with this one Frusciante had some artistic motivation, claiming he recorded it because the world needed more “interesting music”. That, unfortunately, doesn’t automatically equate to decent.
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