John Frusciante is best known as the guitarist for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, but he is also a very active solo recording artist. His newest release, The Empyrean, represents his tenth solo effort.
It features an array of collaborators and guest musicians including fellow Chili Pepper Flea, Josh Klinghoffer and former The Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr, among others.
Like previous albums, The Empyrean is an experimental, sparse, ambient album that places a lot of emphasis on space and song length, the latter quite evident when one looks at the running times of the tracks, several of which top out at eight and nine minutes.
One of the main weaknesses of the album is also one of the most unavoidable: Frusciante’s voice. In the Chili Peppers, the intricate harmonies that Frusciante’s voice provides is one of the most underrated and essential parts of the band’s later work. As a lead instrument, however, it sounds very fey and delicate, and is far too easily buried in mixes throughout the album, in tracks like “Dark/Light” and album closer “After the Ending.”
A notable exception, and not in a good way, is the oddball track “One More of Me,” in which he sounds like Mike Patton trying to channel Frank Zappa, and on more than one occasion Frusciante seems to fight with the meter changes of the track.
There is also judicious use of echo throughout, which renders large portions of the lyrics almost incomprehensible, which seems quite intentional, but can be frustrating to listen to.
However, there are some great moments on the album. A cover of Tim Buckley’s “Song to the Siren” sounds like the best parts of Radiohead’s “Kid A” with Peter Gabriel on vocals, which doesn’t sound like a fantastic mix, but it works really well here.
There is some great guitar work as well. “Unreachable” is a slow-building song, but when it starts to pick up the pace, the six-string commotion is really something to hear, and erupts into an almost orgasmic cacophony by song’s end. “God” is the hardest rocking track, and is likely the album’s standout track.
Those looking for something sounding like Frusciante’s other band should look to the track “Central.” The funk lever is set on medium, but like several of the tracks on the album, it sticks around for a minute or five longer than it probably should.
“Enough of Me” sounds at the opening like something one might hear on a merry-go-round (if your fairground was that cool), but then quietly starts getting the funk out before washing out in a wave of fuzzed-out guitar histrionics.
In the end, however, the little bits of light that pop up every now and then don’t take away the fact that, by and large, this album is kind of boring. There’s large amounts of repetitive jamming that doesn’t really go anywhere, droning synth warbles, and lots and lots of echo. If you’re in a certain kind of mood (and possibly on certain kinds of substances) the album may be quite enjoyable, and if you like his previous work, you certainly will like this. As for the rest of us, just listen to Stadium Arcadium a couple more times and wait for the next Chili Peppers album.