Quote:
Originally Posted by jsaliga /img/forum/go_quote.gif
I like Frusciante's work with the Peppers, but never got around to checking out his solo material. I will make it a point to do so.
--Jerome
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Hey, sound dude, I'm sure you'll you'll find it interesting, at the least! Frusciante is renound for living, eating and breathing music and I always find it interesting to see him explore his own ideas and directions that might not make it into the Pepper's ouevre!
Having said that, some of his work- namely, his first two solo albums- is very dark and tortured (recorded and released, primarily when he was a heroin addict, at least partially to fund his habit) and is unfocused and very much reflective of someone in throws of serious drug addiction and whom is not really with it at all! There are some good pieces of music on those albums and some neat ideas but, as you can probably imagine, they aren't, for the most part, pretty or overly acessible (they are actually home recorded on some basic redording equipment). I'd advise against aquiring those to start with and look at his later working, ie from
To Record Only Water For Ten Days onward. I'd personally recommend
Shadows Collide With People and/or
Inside of Emptiness, to start with. Shadows is a more heavily produced and musically dense album, with alot of studio attention and creative craft applied in that sense, but it chock full of interesting ideas and almost poppy musical passages and/or chord arrangements (that sits oddly with Frusciante's deep, almost train-of-thought lyrics, thinking and observations). Inside of Emptniness is quite similar lyrically, but musically, it is more raw and live feeling, with less studio souping. Both display a great sensibility for what sounds good, musically, even if his lyrics aren't so acessible (I, personally, can relate, but they are unconventional and are often just accounts of his inward thought patterns and wondrous nature).
The Will To Death is also very good, and even rawer than Inside of Emptiness, but I just don't think it's as good of a place to start. And, of course, I can't vouch for
The Empyrean, but it's his first attempt at a concept album and is bound to be abundant with interesting ideas and progressions!
