Just how important and groundbreaking are Jane’s Addiction is something well-known to everybody (including those who don’t keep close track with the band’s course) and naturally you don’t need this writer for a quick reminder. On the other hand, it’s a really strange case of an outfit as it chooses to release new material once in every decade! Well, we didn’t expect anything different from an innovating artist like Perry Farrell who walks his own path and is not musically restrained by anything or anyone.
“The Great Escape Artist” is not by any means an exception to the rule but it doesn’t reach the magnitude of the band’s three previous records. That doesn’t mean of course that it’s mediocre or indifferent. Quite the contrary! It’s that when you have such a shining and top-class back catalogue, then your efforts become harder.
A bunch of 10 mid-tempo songs that reveal a more mature side of Jane’s with Farrell standing in the foreground and Navarro accompanying him (with not so many guitar outbursts this time around) could be an accurate description of “The Great Escape Artist” that might not be a typical Jane’s opus but nevertheless is quite remarkable and absolutely inspired. “Irresistible Force” is one if the better songs that Jane’s has ever delivered and personally I wouldn’t hesitate to put it right beside the most brilliant songs of all time by Jane’s. Just listen to it!
Highlight: Stephen Perkins plays some of the most interesting drum patters of his career.
