JANE’S ADDICTION – Up From The Catacombs – The Best Of Jane’s Addiction

This LA-based quartet was composed of Perry Farrell on vocals, Dave Navarro on guitar, Eric Avery on bass, and Stephen Perkins on drums. In 2002, however, Avery was replaced by bassist Chris Chaney in order to create their fifth album, Strays, that was released in 2003. It was around 1985 when the band found themselves and formed Jane’s Addiction. In 1987 they released their self-titled debut album Jane’s Addiction. By 1991, it was all over. Talk about come-and-gone… what the heck was going on here? How can such a talented force give it all up after being a family for only five years?

It seems that there was too much internal strife going down, along with some other problems not worth mentioning or even knowing about. That is the problem with bands that have so much talent between individual band members. Each member is so creative, full of ideas and pent-up energy that it is hard to tame and keep everything/everyone under control. Even though they’re weren’t many studio albums produced, Lollapalooza did come to fruition under Farrell, and was even resurrected years after the band’s break-up.

This collection contains music from all five USA-released albums by the band. After their debut came Nothing’s Shocking (’88), Ritual De Lo Habitual (’90), the rarities collection Kettle Whistle (’97), and the much-anticipated reunion album Strays (’03). It was apparent that the band did not want to come to terms with the fact that they were indeed broken up. They were willing to try once again to put out a new LP and go on tour to promote it. Unfortunately, in 2004, the same ole song-n-dance stuck its nose in the middle of things again. The rest is history, as they say. It wasn’t because the band couldn’t put out quality material. Quite the contrary… as one could see when watching them tour and by listening to “Just Because.” If that song doesn’t have Jane’s Addiction written all over it, what does? Dave hadn’t lost his touch, Perry was still Perry, and the others sounded just as consistent.

There are sixteen songs on this compilation. Their debut self-titled LP is represented by “Whores” and “I Would For You.” “Ocean Size,” “Ted, Just Admit It…,” “Had A Dad,” “Summertime Rolls,” Mountain Song,” and “Pigs In Zen” come off the second LP Nothing’s Shocking. “Stop!,” “Ain’t No Right,” “Been Caught Stealing,” “Three Days,” and “Classic Girl” are all from Ritual De Lo Habitual. The fourth LP was more of a rarities collection, and only had one song taken from it, “Jane Says (Live).” The band’s final reunited attempt came up with Strays and was representative of two songs, “Superhero” and “Just Because.”

The more popular songs (or fan favorites) seem to be part of this group: “Ocean Size” — it’s a good thing that Dave didn’t waste his time by practicing his guitar playing or anything stupid like that. He is just freakin’ incredible on this song; solos within solos, acoustic and electric, etc. Give someone else a chance will ya Dave? “Whores” has a great opening bass line that turns into a real hip guitar riff. Perry’s vocals are outstanding, but is that really saying much considering he’s usually on the mark anyway? With lyrics like “Give me some more … motherfucker,” and “Oh how I love them … Whores,” how can he go wrong? “Been Caught Stealing” is an ode to shoplifting and has a funky Caribbean island sound to it. This happens to be the band’s most popular and recognizable song. “Just Because” turns out to be a great song off the out-of-retirement-one-more-try-LP also known as Strays. A very strong effort by the entire band. Dave hasn’t lost his touch by any means. “Three Days” is an 11-minute masterpiece that covers a very important topic of the band’s (to be sure) ménage a trois escapades. “Classic Girl” features some Zeppelin-esque qualities about it. “Stop!” has that twangy guitar sound that Jane’s Addiction has been known for throughout their career. The song has strong guitar, bass, and vocals, making it an instant Live favorite. “Ted, Just Admit It …” is a spacey and freaky song — almost psychedelic. To say that “Sex is violent” is really saying something. What the hell goes on behind closed doors with this band? Too much going on in this tune. “Mountain Song” is one of the band’s heavier tracks. It has more Hard Rock/on the verge of Metal sound to it than the other songs included in this collection, except for “Just Because.” “Pigs In Zen” has a ZZ Top thing going on. Catchy!

Overall, this Best Of collection is quite good, and better than most Best Of or similar type compilation sets. Each song on here is listenable as well as enjoyable, which is rare nowadays. Usually when something is released that holds sixteen songs on it, one can rest assured that there will be some fast-forwarding going somewhere between the first and last track. Not here … hard to believe but true. What that says is that it is a sad and tragic loss for all fans of music to have such talent out there but unable to work past their differences for the sake of their art. The ones that suffer are the lovers of good music and the fans who have followed perhaps their favorite band for years, only to be left by the side of the road. Well, at least having a good compilation CD is better than nothing!