Review Summary: "Smile From the Streets You Hold" is 61 minutes of the most choatic and disturbing music i've ever heard.
John Frusciante’s second solo album “Smile From the Streets You Hold” is probably one of the hardest albums to review. On the first listen, all I could think was “How was this ever released?” It’s a poorly produced mix of painful, torturous howls and often fractured, yet still at times brilliant guitar work. This is an album that takes several listens to even digest, but the reason this album is so evoking because it’s less of an album, and more of a trip into the depth of Frusciante’s dark and twisted, drug-addled world.
It’s a struggle to get through all 61 minutes of it at all, but even though the album is essentially the ramblings of a man in dire need of help, a few moments of beauty shine through the turmoil. The opening song ‘Enter a Uh’ is a prime-example of this. It could be said that this song epitomizes the entire album. It’s just over 8 minutes of screams and awkward guitar riffs, and on the most part is almost intelligible, but every so often through out the song for a brief moment, a few seconds of beauty will surface. For example, in the closing seconds of the song, Frusciante plays an outstanding riff, and from moments like this a listener could see where his totally revitalized guitar work on later RHCP albums first begin to form. The real question is though, are these moments of beauty really worth trudging through the *** to get to? I can’t possibly answer that, but I believe everyone should try to listen to this album at least once. This album can’t be judged on musical merit, as musically, it would be reasonable to say it’s awful. However, it really is as close as you’ll get to a mind addled by hard drugs, and I’m sure there are plenty of people out there who will call it art, or will say things like “this is the best album ever released”. To say something like that would be pretty ridiculous, but listening to it is an experience.
It would be wrong to think the entire album is just a big mess of screeches. There are several songs throughout the album that could stand up on some of Frusciante’s latter solo releases, however these songs are sparse. “A Fall Thru the Ground” and “Femininity” are two examples of conventional songs, and “Poppy Man” is a demonstration of Frusciante’s innovative and creative guitar work.
So in conclusion, this album is worth a listen at least, just to have the chance to really be a guest in the mind of a drug user at the very peak of his addiction, but on the whole musically, this album is dire. The production is terrible, the guitar work is patchy at best and the vocals are indescribable. As I’ve already said, they’ll be a lot of people who say that to really appreciate the brilliance of this album you’ve got to be an intellectual or whatever. I strongly disagree with people who say that, as I think that as a piece of music, this album isn’t very good, no matter how original. However, as a diary of hard-drug addiction, or an insight into what was at the time, a very tortured mind, this album is as good as you can get. So take it as you will.
