Nothing’s Shocking

I have now listened to this album four times, heatwave is frying my brain and perhaps this is not an easy album to listen to when you have not slept. Having said that I did like it. The energy was good and through the punk/grunge/thrash metal tunes there were distinct melodies and an added bonus of an eastern influence. High 3.

I knew Jane Says going in but had you asked me I thought that was a mid 90s song so I was surprised to see this is from 88. But the rest of the album does sound more 80s rock.

For an album with a title like 𝘕𝘰𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨’𝘴 𝘚𝘩𝘰𝘤𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨, not much here really surprises me. The band clearly has energy and attitude, but most of the album just doesn’t leave much of an impression. A lot of it feels more concerned with sounding provocative than actually being memorable.

𝗠𝗼𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗮𝗶𝗻 𝗦𝗼𝗻𝗴 is the big exception. That’s the one moment where everything clicks and the album finally sounds as intense as its reputation suggests. Outside of that track, though, I mostly struggle to stay interested.

The star system is failing me here. I don't really care for this; there is only one song I thought was good. But I don't know if this is truly as bad as all of the albums I have rated two stars.

I get why people would like this— but it's a crime to throw it in with some albums that I thought were actually good.

I’m at a 4.5 that I’ll bump up to a 5.

Honestly, not too much to say about that one. I’m not sure if I hear all of the “most important alt rock releases” or “one of the greatest albums of the 1980s” hype after listening, but it’s a really strong album regardless. Maybe I’m just a bit desensitized after hearing a lot of highly influential alt-rock stuff that goes just a little harder for my tastes, or maybe I’m just not as mesmerized by this album’s pre-grunge / glam metal approach to everything. Perry Farrell’s songwriting & vocals are both good, but Dave Navarro & friends really steal the show here instrumentally. The basslines are great, the guitar solos are slick, and while the percussion never gets a huge moment, the power & the pulse of it feels strong throughout. It’s a tightly composed 45 minutes with some good variety throughout & not a bad track here.

So, why a 4.5 and not a flat 5? I think I’m just thrown off by the mixing more than anything else; it’s got a super dynamic range to it that emphasizes certain instruments over others on each & every track, and while I’m not opposed to the style at all (it does a great job of creating certain ‘distance’ on some tracks that enhances them), I just can’t help but feel like certain things got TOO de-emphasized in the mix, most specifically, Perry Farrell’s vocals. They take a back seat on a lot of the mixes here, and as such, it’s harder to connect with the lyricism in a way that doesn’t feel super satisfying to me. If you can’t grab the singer’s emotions, it just feels like he’s along for the ride, and I think that’s a bit of a disservice. Past that, there are times where tracks just feel a bit too muffled or quiet overall; “Had a Dad” feels like it suffers the most from this, but it pops up often enough that it just leaves a slightly hazy cloud over the whole album.

Ultimately, everything here is strong enough to warrant bumping this up to a 5; I’m not quite as dazzled as I hoped I’d be compared to expectations, but I’m impressed enough that I’m looking forward to whenever we get “Ritual De Lo Habitual”, especially if it cleans up some of the mixing nitpicks I had about this one. I hear all the bands they influenced, at the very least, and it’s a great ground floor for a lot of ‘90s bands to work from. It’s a 4.5 that I’ll bump up to a 5.

tribal

Pretty neat.

Feel like I could probably have copy and pasted yesterday’s review again, maybe a little better but still quite noisy and edgy and the guy can’t really sing

3

Better than Coldplay

Boring.

I wasn’t into Jane’s Addiction during my teens (80s/90s) and I’m still not into them! Pretty, Pretty, Pretty Bad!

I have hated Jane's Addiction since the 80s. I make a concerted effort to listen to 100% of every album. I can say that from my long-standing hatred of this band and the first three tracks, that's highly unlikely this time.

Perry Farrell's voice is grating and shitty, his delivery only accentuates his vocal shittiness, and listening to him and his bullshit concoctions is what my "special part of hell" will be. Note to my FBI agent: I'll tell you whatever you want if you threaten to play any of this band's music during my interrogation.

Another review mentions ANOTHER Jane's Addiction album on the list? Are you fucking kidding me with that shit? Trash.

It's great when dictators are dragged out into the street by the people they oppressed and all, but this band disbanding was probably the single most important event for the betterment of humanity.

its pretty run-of-the mill 90s "hard-er" rock. Outside of the big singles, It kind of gets lost in decade of monumental releases

Mountain Song brought back memories of Guitar Hero. Overall a really good album. One or two bangers away from full marks

Very Jane's Addiction!

I was already familiar with the band Jane's Addiction. However, I couldn't have named an album or a song. After a rather interesting start to the album, I found it increasingly boring as it went on. I liked some parts of the album because the band incorporated brass instruments into their music. I found that exciting, but overall it wasn't enough to improve my impression. In my later music stream, I heard newer songs by the band that I liked much better. 3/5

not bad i liked the harder instrumentals but it was a bit samey plus the cover in the context of them all being men is a bit grim…

I personally love this album and quite like the band. Grew up listening to it and, somehow, it still feels pretty fresh in my ear after I over 30 years of listening. Not that it sounds new. Merely that it did not stale over time. I have nothing but joy of varying levels for every track.

Nothing's Shocking is definitely an album i have quite a decent bit to say about it. I've never heard this album before but i definitely have heard a couple of songs off of it. And my thoughts on the album are pretty much what you would expect if you have heard this album. The music here is great in a lot of places mainly when it comes to the guitars and some shifts mainly with Jane Says. The vocals are a pretty mixed bag with them sometimes sounding good but other times sounding not so good. And the lyrics have this dumb 80s hard rock flair to them which i enjoy and find pretty charming about this era. This definitely is a very good album even with it's occasional flaws.
Best Song: Summertime Rolls
Worst Song: Ted, Just Admit It...

Better than Ritual De Lo Habitual but I still find this band to be annoying, mostly Perry Farrel’s vocals. Hopefully now that I’ve had two in the same week I’ll be done with Jane’s Addiction for the rest of this list.