Review Summary: Frusciante records his mind, heart and soul simultaneously on an old eight track, and heroin.
I'm sure as you browse your music collection in search of something to listen to, there are a select few albums you hover over. Some albums you only listen to when it's
right to do so. Nostalgia, emotion, even perhaps the weather are factors that can change when an album feels right to listen to at the time – albums you try to steer clear of 'overplaying' in an attempt to preserve your appreciation for it.
Niandra LaDes and Usually Just a T-Shirt is an album that I personally will only listen to when I'm in a perfect mess. Which is precisely what this album is; a perfect mess.
From the desolate ghost-like whispered '
One, two, three, four' of "As Can Be", it becomes clear there is something undeniably truthful about
Niandra LaDes' skeletal feel. A result which can only have been achieved through similar life stories akin to Frusciante's; a near death experience in the preceding years from a spiralling drug addiction. Akin to album, at the time of its recording, he himself was actually described as a 'skeleton covered in thin skin'. "As Can Be" demonstrates this feeling well, Frusciante bleeding his innovative guitar work over a growing acoustic pattern, climaxing with dismal sarcasm – '
Do you see? There's no more me, I'm happy as can be'.
The simplistic yet mesmerising "My Smile is a Rifle" sways on its elusive melodies and 3/4 timing, but is veiled in mystery. A clear interpretation can barely be strung together out of any of the album's lyrics for that matter, however the imagery John conjures up are more than enough for a listener to interpret their own meanings. John's vocals on this such song range from smooth and passionate, but ultimately build to a shrill shriek, perhaps laughable and off-putting the first time you hear it, however on closer inspection it becomes one of the most vital moments in the piece – a moment of true experimental expression from Frusciante.
A trademark effect used on both sides of the album (though
Niandra LaDes and Usually Just a T-Shirt are technically two separate albums), is the use of reversed guitar, which is done so to a multitude of outcomes. For example in the instrumental "Untitled #2", the slow attack of the reversed guitar makes the melody enticingly pretty, letting your mind meander in its own wonderland, whereas on "Untitled #5" it sounds like a circus out of a horror movie; the reversed notes a malicious puzzle. That being said, the majority of the tracks on this collection widely differ from one another, yet at the same time are all branded with the same feeling. "Your Pussy's Glued to a Building on Fire" also uses this technique, however is a song worth noting in itself because it has such a crude-but-beautiful, realistic-but-eccentric feel. This acoustic ballad, laced later on with a distorted lead and a reversed guitar takes you through a cave of emotional one liners of loneliness and self deprecation.
The second half of the album,
Usually Just a T-Shirt is a completely different tale from the first, songs often carrying a more optimistic trait. With every song 'Untitled', it already gives off a suggestion of being more experimental and more of a self-release rather than a cohesive album itself. Much more tuneful than
Niandra LaDes, listeners who were put off by Frusciante's extreme vocals before would probably find this half much more appealing, as vocals are kept to a minimum, and the tracks' interesting melodies sound much more aesthetically pleasing. There are wild moments on this half however, such as in "Untitled #8", with some very strange vocal samples used indeed, including multiple people making senseless noises.
It's stripped-down Frusciante, his guitar, an abundance of multi-tracking, and you. It's extremely introspective. The fact that friends had to encourage him to release this hints at this. Or maybe in fact it hints that he was almost embarrassed to release such an inconsistent ramble. Oh yes,
Niandra LaDes and Usually Just a T-Shirt is quite the controversy, it's entirely up to the listener to decide whether to embrace it, or to shun it. One way or another, it's an album that truly leaves you emotionally drained at its end.
