"I'll Hit You Back" is full of subtext and soul. The track exudes depth with apologetic lyrics and, as Farrell calls out to "the better man," the allusion to Pearl Jam's "Daughter" is hard to ignore.
The album takes a mellow turn in "Twisted Tales" but not for long. "Ultimate Reason" opens with a kitschy lyric and acoustic sound, only to burst into a rockn’ track. The last track, "Words Right Out Of My Mouth," kisses the crowd good-bye with yet another angry, bouncy, punky, anthem.
The Great Escape Artist is sure to satisfy all those impatient Jane's Addiction fans who have suffered through the recent degradation of the punk genre. What is more, The Great Escape Artist is sure to find fans among the younger audience who, hopefully, are starting to see through the three-chord, eyeliner, pseudo-punk all-stars dominating the current scene. And for those of us who thought altrock was dead, The Great Escape Artist is cause for us to scream out, "FINALLY SOME REAL F$#KING PUNK MUSIC!" Thank you, Jane's Addiction, and welcome back.
Article comments
1 - El Bicho
Are you using some different meaning of "punk"? Because it doesn't sound like the Jane's I have followed since 1988 or the new songs I have heard off this album.
Also I went to Lolla in'91 (in this galaxy), and was wondering what "nouveau punk bands [were] gathered"?
2 - JDPineCoffin
punk [puhngk] = a style or movement characterized by the adoption of aggressively unconventional and often bizarre or shocking clothing, hairstyles, makeup, etc., and the defiance of social norms of behavior, usually associated with punk rock musicians and fans. (from Dictionary.com)
Sounds like the Jane's Addiction I've always known and loved.
As for punk bands on the '91 Lollapalooza line-up: Siouxsie and the Banshees, Rollins Band, Butthole Surfers.
3 - El Bicho
Jane's blends many genres into their sound, and that definition doesn't describe the music. It describes a look, which is so generic KISS, Marilyn Manson, and Slipknot could fall under it, and they aren't punk bands either.
4 - Christopher Rose
If Jane's Addiction are a punk group, I'm a lesbian!
The definition quoted in #2 is totally generic and could fit almost any youth movement of the last 50 years so is utterly useless.
5 - Dr Dreadful
You're a lesbian trapped in a man's body?
6 - Christopher Rose
If Jane's Addiction are punks I am.
7 - Dr Dreadful
Are you feeling lucky? :-)
8 - Christopher Rose
Don't quite get what you mean but the literal answer is yes. I've had some terrible bad luck over the years but generally always had fairly good luck, although I've yet to win the lottery.
I'm also reminded of a remark attributed to the slutty Tiger Woods who, in response to remarks that he was a very lucky golf player apparently responded that he practised a lot and the more he practised, the luckier he got...
9 - JDPineCoffin
Well guy's let me say this about this little punk controversy: I remember the 1990s well and back then Jane's Addiction was considered punk, not just punk, punk divinity! They may not have sounded like the Sex Pistols, and they didn't sound like NOFX, that didn't mean they weren't punk.
Perhaps I would be more convinced that my friends in the 1990s and I have miss categorized Jane's Addiction if you were to tell me why it is you think that Janes is not punk? Go ahead, criticize my boiler plate definition all you want, but I don't see anyone offering a more precise one. The analogies aren't convincing either; how do I know you're not a lesbian? Or a punk? Or a 12 foot Amazonian, for that matter?
10 - Christopher Rose
Punk was a movement that started almost a generation earlier and anyone who thought of his or her self as a punk in the 90s was basically either utterly tragic or a complete dickhead.
If you read their Wikipedia entry, the word punk doesn't appear at all whilst on Spotify it says their music was a "hybrid of rock music: metal with strain of punk, folk and jazz".
Finally, you only have to actually listen to them to perceive that they are about as "punk" as Green Day, although a lot more interesting of course ;-)
As to me, yes, of course, I am a 12 foot Amazonian punk lesbian :-p
11 - zingzing
i would have to say that jane's fits in more with the spirit of punk than the sound of punk music. then again, other than the hardcore leftovers and a few piddling og punks that hadn't yet died, there wasn't much real "punk" to be found after the mid-80s.
12 - Dr Dreadful
Labels change, you know. For example, my dad used to get quite upset when DJs would refer to a pop song as "rock 'n' roll", since in his mind that term referred to a very specific type of music played in the mid to late 50s and early 60s by the likes of Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison and the Beatles.
Nowadays the usage of the term is vastly more broad, and I've heard it used to describe almost any type of pop music.
Then there's what nowadays is called "R&B", a genre that is actually derived from soul and Motown and has very little to do with the classic rhythm and blues played by B.B. King, J.J. Cale and other luminaries.
In that context I don't see why there should be any objection to calling Jane's Addiction a punk band, although "punk" did originally refer to a very intense and aggressive type of music that was itself a manifestation of a particular social movement, and didn't just mean dying your hair green, cranking up the amps and screaming.
13 - Christopher Rose
I don't agree with this trend towards definition revisionism. It nauseates me every time a member of some lame, limp vocal group talks about being in a band.
If words don't have clear meanings, Doc, then I'm gonna start calling you a Yank!
14 - Christopher Rose
PS: Your dad was right!
15 - roger nowosielski
@13
Touche!
16 - Dr Dreadful
You must have been talking to my brother, Chris. He already calls me a Yank.
Does the word "revisionism" have a clear meaning? :-)
17 - roger nowosielski
Here's a picture. There are words, and then are their meanings which kind of trail along as though the shadows of words, not exactly the words themselves yet somehow inseparable. On this picture, "meanings" acquire a metaphysical quality apart from the words themselves, something you can only intuit but can't really touch.
What's the meaning of a demonstrative pronoun such as "this"? Surely, it must be the object that's pointed to. This procedure leads to ostensive definition of meaning and the correspondence/representational theory of truth. Meanings are what the words point to, and the structure of reality is represented by the logical structure of the proposition. (Wittgenstein, Tractatus
But as Wittgenstein later pointed out, "meaning is use."
18 - Christopher Rose
Doc: Sure, some times some terms need revising as their meaning becomes clearer, but other times it is a snide, weasely practice designed only to make the beneficiary look better or, in the music examples above, steal credibility.
19 - roger nowosielski
"faking it" is another term