Ritual de lo habitual

I've been a fan of Jane's Addiction for a long time, ever since I first heard "Stop!" on the Guitar Hero II soundtrack. In fact, I saw them perform the entirety of Ritual de lo Habitual back in 2016 at Lollapalooza, the very festival that vocalist Perry Farrell founded. Needless to say, my fondness for this record has grown since then.

This is quite the multifaceted record, with the first half chock-full of hard-hitting funk rockers, while the other half consists of extended, spiritually influenced softer jams. Both halves share Perry's soaring vocals, Dave Navarro's bright, eclectic guitarwork, Stephen Perkins's varied drumming, Eric Avery's popping bass lines, and the spacious production that Perry employed alongside Dave Jerden. There is a fullness to the sound of this album that the band accomplished alongside occasional embellishments like the strings that come in on "Then She Did..." and Charlie Bisharat's emphatic violin intro to "Of Course". Probably the shining crown of Ritual de lo Habitual is the nearly 11-minute "Three Days", sprawling over multiple movements as Perry's changes up his vocal delivery alongside Stephen's complex drumming and the revving guitars. The track never feels overly long, as the pacing and switchups are well-executed.

As for the lyrical content, there are some surprisingly deep philosophical reflections made throughout the experience. After the Spanglish spoken-word introduction, "Stop!" becomes a full-on cry for the world to slow down its aggressive pace toward self-destruction. Following that, we have the acceptance of different cultures and ethnicities on "No One's Leaving", the precarious views of morality on "Ain't No Right", and Perry's ferocious call to not be judged by others over appearances on "Obvious". Later in the back half, we have the aforementioned softer jams that are loosely themed around Perry's ex-girlfriend Xiola Blue, who passed away from a heroin overdose. "Three Days" saw Perry reminisce on the crazy amount of sex and drugs he had with Xiola and his partner Casey Niccoli, before giving way to mourning for both Xiola and his mother on "Then She Did...". The contemplation over the loss of these women in Perry's life causes him to unleash his hatred toward the cruelty of mankind on "Of Course", before coming back down and focusing on the now with Casey, his "Classic Girl," as he is in awe of her beauty.

Really, the only track that doesn't have a deep lyrical theme is the single "Been Caught Stealing". It's still a fun romp of a track though, and I could see Perry's argument for the song being autobiographical, insofar as his cheap thrill for stealing at a young age.

Overall, it was awesome revisiting Ritual de lo Habitual for my album journey. It sucks that Jane's Addiction ended the way it did, with Perry's onstage altercation with Dave. But at least we still got a classic record out of them with this.

Very groovy and very 90s, but not in a bad way. I enjoyed this, it's a pretty good mix of alternative rock and metal with funk parts on it. I can't say that I liked all of the songs but I enjoyed most of them.

Probably my favourite from Jane’s Addiction. Some absolute belters on here. The only thing stopping this from getting five stars is I’ve always hated Been Caught Stealing.

Top Track - Then She Did

Favorite track(s): Been Caught Stealing, Three Days

surprisingly much better than nothing’s shocking

The Good: We are warned that this is all usual!
The Bad: What if we don’t like usual?
The Ugly: Still not knowing what Jane’s addiction is, after all these decades…

I recall when “been caught stealing” hit MTV… Don’t hold me to it, but I think that this was also when “the real world” was being launched. We were all enjoying our Gen-X status!
The tune was catchy, to say the least… I can also recall thinking that Perry F was a bit of a dickhead…

Then came Porno for Pyros… and really, that was the end of that one…

I am certain that there he is not the only one, but how many artist can say that they were a 2-time One-Hit-Wonder?
He did give us Lollapalooza, which, if memory severs me, was a cluster fuck of festival that managed to gather people of all sorts and creeds and backgrounds together. Good for him.

Anyway, I listened to this album, trying to get back into my ‘90s mode… and all I wanted to do was listen to other artists from that era who, in my opinion, were more talented yet achieved lesser fame…

3*

This is a goddamned classic. There is just nothing like Jane's Addiction, man. They can rock as hard as anyone, they can slow it down. Navarro is at his peak here. Jane's had no constraints, borrowing liberally from bands that came before them but creating something completely new and fresh, a sound from which many subsequent bands borrowed/stole.

True groundbreakers, true legends.

While this is really good in the grand scheme of things, I actually don't think this fully captures the magic of Nothing's Shocking. Ritual De Lo Habitual expands the band's sound and has several great songs, but loses the lightning in a bottle aspect. Shocking had an acerbic quality that added some real edge to even it's most melodic moments. And some of that edge *is* still here, but Jane's Addiction definitely sounds less at war with itself; which is ironic because they broke up like a matter of months after this came out. Side A is largely the distinct alt rock sound that the band is known for, but again, a little less dark. Stop! and Get Caught Stealing are heavy, but at the same time, they do make sense as hits, and aren't afraid to have fun. And Side B is pretty much all epic rockers. Three Days and Then She Did... are some of my favorite songs here, and *absolutely* capture the tension and unease of their earlier material. But I also think that Of Course and Classic Girl are among the weaker songs here. Ritual De Lo Habitual ends up as a really great alt-rock album, but it's just a little less even than Nothing's Shocking, and doesn't quite harness Jane's Addiction's fire as effectively.

Better in small doses, that whining wailing screeching voice is headache inducing

Not sure why I didn’t get that much into Jane’s Addiction when I was younger but this album rips.

Ritual de lo Habitual by Jane's Addiction is a really great indie album and one I found very easy to listen to from start to finish. The album has a cool, laid-back energy to it while still sounding creative and different throughout.

The guitar playing is excellent and really drives the album forward, while the lyrics are clever, interesting and full of personality. There’s a confidence to the sound that makes the whole album feel effortless. Even when the tracks stretch out a little, it never feels boring or overindulgent.

What I liked most is how natural the album feels. Nothing sounds forced and the band clearly know exactly what type of sound they want. It’s alternative rock with groove, attitude and strong songwriting, which makes it a very enjoyable listen overall.

Favourite tracks: “Been Caught Stealing” and “Of Course”
Least favourite tracks: Everything here is good and worth listening to
Album artwork: Cool album cover

Just kinda loud and drones on a bit, wasn’t much all that interesting here. The guy can’t really sing either

2

Guitar Hero strikes again! First song is a banger and it just keeps going. Better than expected.

The vocals are just so weak and whiny it is really difficult to enjoy this. Aside from Been Caught Stealing and the strings on Of Course this a bit of a slog.
The guitars are enjoyable and bit are reminiscent of mid career Chilli Peppers (not much surprise there) but lacks the personality they bring.

I knew precisely one Jane's Addiction Song going into this (Been Caught Stealing because they played the video a lot on MTV when I was a kid).

This was something that grew on me a lot over the course of the record. I wasn't that fussed about the first half but then I found I was increasingly enjoying it. I really liked Three Days, Then She Did, Of Course and Classic Girl. The instrumentation was far more varied and experimental than I thought it would be.

Ultimately I suspect liking Jane's Addiction comes down to whether you like rock music and whether you can stomach Perry Farrell's rather screeching voice. As I very much like the former and am ok with the latter, this was a pretty good time for me.

3/5

This is the band's second album in this project. It's okay, but it doesn't really blow me away. For some reason, I remembered the band's music differently. I don't need to listen to this album again. 3/5

I liked this slightly more than Nothings’s Shocking. The instrumental and vocal performances here were all really great. Three Days is an epic song that earns its length. Favorites were Stop!, Ain’t No Right, Been Caught Stealing, and Three Days.

3.11

eu achei que seria bem mais paioso. não to falando que eh bom nao, eh mediano no máximo. uma pegada de hard rock meia boca que não me agrada muito. MAS EI, pelo menos não é red hot!!!

Generic and simply uninteresting