I was really bummed out that Perry's artwork was not on the cover or involved with the CD at all. I have a feeling they rushed this album out so it would sell while they toured.

"True Nature" and "The Riches" stood out as classic Jane's adrenaline tunes with great lyrics. I feel like the more the CD spins, the more I get into the songs I initially thought were horrible. The only song that is truly idiotic is "Superhero". What were they thinking?

The album is not as insightful or groundbreaking as previous works, but it keeps us late 80's/early 90's "Jane's freaks" from travelling to Madagascar to find rare and unreleased material. I truly think that, although drugs seem to have broken up the band, they WERE the band. I was always so interested in what happened to Perry on the streets or on some sort of wacked out heroin vision. It added a mystical quality to the music.

I hate to see these old farts on MTV. I used to think they were so cool. It just leaves a bad taste in my mouth to see the father of alternative rock try so hard to fit in to the MTV idiot crowd. Navarro thinks he is some sort of fashion model. Perkins is the only one who is cool enough to know that they are JANE'S ADDICTION. They don't need to try so hard. They are already the coolest band ever.

Anyhoo, buy the album. Listen to it without reading the lyrics in the CD sleeve. Listen to it again and again. There are layers that begin to reveal themselves. It's like a magic eye picture. You can see some cool stuff in there if you look long enough.


The front cover says it all...   May 25, 2004
Chris (Vancouver, BC, Canada)
4 out of 4 found this review helpful

Jane's Addiction. How do you summarize the works of a band that effectively changed the face of alternative music in the 90's? These guys were there at the beginning, along with "The Pixies", and in their time, they were epic. Their records will forever be a part of my life, and the values they instilled in me will not soon be forgotten.

That being said, this album is a wash of overproduced and commercialized numbers that the band recorded, as far as I can tell, to nuture a mid-life crisis. Everything the band stood for in the past seems to have been in vain as they fail to heed their own words on this mainstream, done-a-hundred-times rock album. You can still feel the prescence of "Jane's Addiction" underneath the wreck, but it's not enough. As with "Gravity" by "Our Lady Peace", these are songs that A LOT of people are going to be able to enjoy, and get into, but it's not for previous fans of the band.


Nothing's Striking   November 27, 2003
Beau Yarbrough (Hesperia, CA)
6 out of 7 found this review helpful

This is an album I wanted to like more than I did: Intellectually, a Jane's Reunion is nothing but good, especially as Perry's had plenty of time to stretch his creative wings with Porno for Pyros and bring plenty of great new ideas back to the table.

Unfortunately, what we get instead is mostly bereft of new ideas, sounding instead like a mediocre band doing a very great Jane's impression. This may sound harsher than it's meant: "Strays" is a decent album, one most bands would be quite proud of. But for a Jane's album ... there's no flashes of genius, of inspiration. The album rocks along quite nicely, but it never soars and never really grabs the listener.

Mildly recommended for those looking for proof that rock isn't dead in the 21st century, although Jane's previous work still outshines this album by a large degree.


Suffer Some   October 12, 2005
D.K. Kosinski (Philadelphia, PA)
10 out of 13 found this review helpful

The songs on this album are like the new "Star Wars" films: they're made pretty well (if overwrought with studio tweaking), but no matter how many times you experience them, you just can't like them as much as the earlier ones. For long-time fans, this is an especially disappointing record because you really want to like it; you want to believe that Jane's had more than just three great records in them. But there is no danger on this album, and the musicians take no risks. The songs are as bland and un-provocative as the album cover. Unfortunately, for most fans JA were more than just a band, just as the original "Star Wars" trilogy was more than a few sci-fi flicks. Perhaps years of thinking and talking both things might have generated impossibly high expectations, and maybe that's unfair burden to put on the shoulders of the artists. That said, the product is (to use Dick Gephardt's favorite expression for our fearless leader), a "miserable failure" and I can't imagine it winning the band any new fans.


Alternative leeches   January 30, 2004
3 out of 3 found this review helpful

Just a message to all those 1 star ratings for this album who think it's not alternative enough. Well i don't see whats wrong with that. Is it 2 hard to be into alternative music and not like hard hitting rock songs as well? Is the problem that this album has some great tracks on it with a rather cathcy riffs which u got into too quickly so thought "wow a lot of ppl are going to like this i can't associate myself with the masses even if i do like it.. i'm a music guru i like things that aren't so obvious" I think this is a very good album and i like all of jane's releases. I'll admit this was the easiest one to get into though not necessarily the best, but it doesn't mean its crap either! I suggest that these alternative hipsters take a look at their cd collections, scrap half of it for not being alternative enough and then they can sleep easy knowing they are into stuff that most people don't like! Its not a problem to like stuff that sounds good... Go stand in the shower and have a think