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Well, sort of.

I suppose I should begin this critique with what The Band mean to me. I was a big fan of Jane's Addiction during the latter half of my teenage tenure. Classic songs like _Three Days_, _Stop_, _Then She Did_, _Pigs in Zen_, _Summertime Rolls_ (etc. etc. etc.) practically defined that bygone era of angst and starry-eyed enthusiasm; as Farrell himself sung on _Classic Girl,_ "you know for us, these are the days!" --- to those with an iota of taste and/or passion, Jane's Addiction were _the_ sounding board for the pre-grunge, post-new wave flock: they rocked out like bandits and sung the essential themes of life, sex, death, "sensory enhancement"---all that good stuff. And they broke up before they could burn out, firmly establishing their status among the legends.

For the next twelve years, the separate members of Jane's teased us with side-projects, all of which contained elements of that primal flash n' fire, none of which fully captured the sound of Ritual or Shocking. Porno for Pyros strove hard but ended up as a ghostly echo; Deconstruction graced the edges but, to be honest, Avery's singing was cringe-inducing. Navarro flamed out (literally???) with the Chili Peppers, while Perry noodled around with Hasidic-inspired techno (!?). And then, suddenly, the boys were back together --- well, most of them --- and recording new material! It was too good to be true! Twelve years down the line... could the time spent, the hard lessons learned, give Farrell, Navarro and Perkins (and that new guy?) a new drive, a new message to convey to the corporation pop-glutted masses?

The message, apparently: Boys Just Want to Have Fun!

The song remains the same, sonically. The production is a bit glossier, but Ferrell and Navarro haven't sounded this fresh and inspired in a decade. Perkins slams the skins amiably enough, and the new guy apes the booming sound from before---and on a couple cuts, everything gels; it really sounds like Jane's is back in business: specifically, _True Nature_ and _Just Because_, killer tunes in the vein of _Mountain Song_ or _Stop_. Two other cuts, _To Match the Sun_ and _Price I Pay_, are decent, though both sound sort of unfinished. The rest is, unfortunately, fun-sounding and forgettable. It sounds like the boys were really enjoying themselves, and I suppose it is a nice change from wigger-rock and gloom n' doom heavy metal twaddle - but for this band, it ain't nearly enough. There's nothing on Strays to match Jane's former masterpieces like _Three Days_, _Jane Says_, _Ocean Size_ etc. etc.

This is not a terrible album. It has some shining moments, and potential enough that might find its way onto the next (??!) Jane's record. But, alas, for the most part it sounds like the principle members straying into AOR mediocrity. 3 stars.


No depth   August 1, 2003
 9 out of 13 found this review helpful

This new album from Janes Addiction seriously lacks the depth from Janes Addiction Live, Nothing Shocking, and Ritual. But I guess you can't blame them since they have cleaned up from the drugs. Honestly, they used to make such better music when they were under the influence. I think it's safe to say that the old Janes is gone and this is what we are left with. It's funny, the more I listen to "strays" the more I want to pop in the older janes albums. I was dead wrong when I initially thought it got better with repeated listenings. It really doesn't. I just caught a couple of good sound moments here and there and then realized, this doesn't even come close to the depth and sound of the old Janes. If you are big janes addiction fan, you will probably be disappointed as I was. There are, however, a couple decent songs and that hint back to their trademark sound. It just doesn't hold up to my expectations of what a Janes Addiction album should be.


Suffer Some   October 12, 2005
 9 out of 10 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.


Once were warriors....   August 5, 2004
 8 out of 11 found this review helpful

Jane's Addiction should have been the band that broke the alternative nation and took it to another level, rather than Nirvana. Jane's had a frontman who gleefully embraced the spotlight, while Nirvana had one who shunned it. They certainly had the chops, the energy and the rhythm section to rival Seattle's favourite sons. And to top it all off, Jane's always had a more uplifting, positive vibe (all the while still challenging rock's status quo) which begat the Lollapalooza festival and revived America's interest in music festivals, while Nirvana mostly wallowed in it's own misery, spawning a legion of cry-baby imitators that still represent America's 'alterna-rock' scene. Oh, how the mighty have fallen....I can't even begin to say how unbelievably unimpressive this album is. Underwhelmed is not the word....somehow these guys have just lost that thing that made them special in the first place. There's really only two standout tracks on this album; 'Strays' which starts off with a great bassline, like Jane's classics of yore, throws in some nice, atmospheric guitars, a la U2 (!?!) and kicks into gear when Perry Farrell lets rip with his trademark yelp. The other is the leadoff single 'Just Because' which, on first listen, seems like pretty generic alterna-rock, but kinda grows on you after a while. The rest of the album seems really lacklustre. Perry still has a great voice but the rest of the band doesn't have it anymore. What's happened to Stephen Perkins' drumming? This guy used to have these great beats and time signatures that made Jane's sound really unique and now his playing his pedestrian and unimaginative. The new bassist, Chris Cheney is adequate, but nothing special. Dave Navarro is still a great guitar player, but I get the feeling that he took over the bulk of the songwriting duties on this album, which was a mistake. Navarro's solo cd 'Rexall' was an extremely generic exercise in bland rock...it was as bad as Incubus or Creed, to tell you the truth. I can't believe how important Eric Avery was to this band. I read somewhere once that the basslines were basically the foundations for all of Jane's' great songs, like 'Mountain Song', 'Summertime Rolls', 'Up The Beach', 'Had A Dad', 'Three Days' and 'Then She Did...'. Farrell appearantly brought something to the table by adding great melodies and harmonies, while Navarro and Perkins were great musicians who just contributed and made the songs better. It actually seems like Farrell kinda let Navarro take on the songwriting responsibilities and telegraphed in his parts of the album. What a shame. I really can't recommend this, especially knowing what Jane's were once capable of. What happened to all the great funk-punk rhythms? The grandiose epics that propelled prog rock into the 21st century? Or the roaring metal tracks that put all the hair metal bands to shame? Jane's Addiction were once a band that inspired young people to view everything a little differently, but now they've settled into complacent mediocrity. People, don't trust that bands that re-unite. It just don't work. Mightiness is truly fleeting.