Review: Jane’s Addiction – The Great Escape Artist

“Underground” opens the proceedings with a minor key intro and the often imitated but never duplicated voice of Perry Farrell before a shuffling groove assumes its place as the prime mover of the song while Farrell proudly declares: “I’m a hustler.” Track two, “End to the Lies,” has already been released and is one of the strongest tracks with some old-school Farrell bitterness on display instead of the more blissful persona he has adopted in recent years. A meaty rhythm from guest-bassist Dave Sitek from the band TV on the Radio opens “Curiosity Kills,” which later spawns a trippy but restrained interlude anchored by quasi-Goth chords from guitarist Dave Navarro.

“Irresistible Force (Met the Immovable Object)” has also been previously dropped and is the single best song on Great Escape Artist; classic Jane’s with its clashes of psychedelia and metal power, Farrell’s trademark wailing that transports one to cosmic mountaintops and lyrics striving above the everyday. Though it's interesting to note on “Force" that Farrell asserts: “God is a real man, God is a dad” – a cleverly phrased contrast from his pronouncement on Shocking’s “Had a Dad” that “God is dead.” Perhaps the change of lyrical heart some 23 years later stems from Farrell becoming a real-life father himself over the years, coupled with his study of Jewish mysticism found in the Kabbalah, a topic more deeply explored on his 2001 solo album Song Yet To Be Sung.

“I’ll Hit You Back” is interestingly titled, given that it’s also the long-time name of Farrell’s music publishing arm, though the subdued song itself doesn’t match expectations. “Twisted Tales” offers an all-over-the-kit beatdown from drummer extraordinaire Stephen Perkins and respectable Farrell rhymes like: “Told you white lies, I used white magic / Need you to know, I’m not a reject.”

Another band that would be in the discussion for popularity disproportionate to the number of albums released would be Guns N' Roses, so it’s fitting that ex-GNR bassist Duff McKagan – who was a “permanent member” in Jane’s for just six months in 2010 – gets songwriting credit for three tracks on The Great Escape Artist, including the driving solemnity of “Ultimate Reason.”

“Splash A Little Water On It” has a lyric for the partiers and stoners: “We’ve been drinking and smoking till four…five…or six in the morning.”  Every JA album has a ballad, and “Broken People” with its topical setting, moving Farrell chorus vocals and solid tempo shifting from Navarro to Perkins, is the best by the band since 1988’s untouchable “Jane Says.”  LP closer “Words Right Out of My Mouth” has a spoken word intro between Farrell and “Dr. Joe Adams” before splashing into a rollicking riff that wouldn't be too out of place on “Appetite for Destruction,” suggesting McKagan's influence and a hint of the direction the band might have taken had the blonde bassist remained.

Overall, The Great Escape Artist is the softest and most lushly crafted Jane’s album to date (production by Rich Costey and Farrell) and a successful effort, though we’d like to have heard more blistering Navarro leads and see the band as a whole take a stab at writing another ten-minute+ epic – and maybe we will when the next Jane’s Addiction album comes out sometime in the 2020’s.