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Rating: John Frusciante. Guitarist of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. You love them, you hate them. You love him, you hate him. Even by changing the position of the aforementioned. I appreciate them, and I adore him, and this is one of the essential albums in my collection. There’s Dylan, there are Radiohead, there are Pink Floyd, there’s Hendrix, there’s SYD... and there’s him. Perhaps unjustly for many, but it is so. I believe that all of us, among our idols, have one that is not appreciated by the majority, or we delude ourselves that they are not understood, because we feel them as ours, more than others, who perhaps cannot understand.
This album is my favorite in his discography... perhaps my judgment is not very objective, because I love all the nuances of Frusciante... from the crazy, heroin-addicted, visionary one, to the pop of the Californication era... this album positions itself in the center. Experimental but with taste, without being excessive like "Niandra LaDes", which was a masterpiece yes, but perhaps too disorienting. Synth and drum machines with an eighteen flavor take the lead, seasoned by the Frusciante falsetto, which I love, combined with his almost baritone timbre, and the Strat, simple, that doesn’t overdo it in unnecessary solos, but that wonderfully integrated, leaves space for the pads and electronic beats... there’s experimentation, there’s rock, there’s pop... There’s "Going Inside" that opens the album, with the guitar that tears your soul, and I don’t know why, but it has always reminded me of Native American atmospheres... maybe it’s the Jack’s in the mix... There’s "Remain," drum machine, acoustic, and falsetto... and you’re already traveling... it brings to mind the psychedelia that you loved so much, but which we find here in electronic sauce... And then above all "Murderers", the piece that introduced me to John Frusciante solo... a pop instrumental... a definition that to many might seem almost a blasphemy... but just shut your mouth and open (yes I know, it sounds awful as a term) your ears...
Jimy is distant, unbeatable, and unreachable, but if I think of a current guitarist, with a damn genius and the desire to experiment, I think of John... I know that many will not understand me... perhaps I don't even understand myself, but it is so...
Tracklist Lyrics Samples and Videos
06 Remain (03:57)
I'm crowded when I'm gone
I live here to seep thru this song
Hey la
I can't go on
I'm lost
I'll be there running on & off
Hey la
And when you reach that point
You're a wall
And when you bleed sight
You receive a call
Oh please take us
We're wrong
We live now to relive on & on
Place my paces
Pave my way
We only remain
The same way as the sounds on a tape
And when you draw a line
It goes where you want
And when shadows step ahead of you
They start and stop
With these riches we walk & walk
We give to this time all that we got
We play it this way cuz this is how we feel
It means so much to me when the pretend becomes real
07 Fallout (02:10)
Carried thru the road so far alone
Days glue themselves to what is wrong
And soon the hills will swallow us up
Plans will pass her
Land on the walls is laid out
I know you're in pain
Train for the cause is staying down
It plays you out
Fall out of love again
Your dreams all end
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14 Saturation (03:03)
Saturation
I feel that wheels are turning 'round
Replay
We made you what you were
We bought them up to that hill
We bought them up to roll them down
In the morning, light must clean you out
I'm sad that time escapes me
It pushes ahead of me all day
Remind me what I could've been
I feel the faster I'm going
The more I am slowing down
I'm the focus of bring down
I'm the one who captures what he lost
And turns it around
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Other reviews
By joe strummer
“To Record Only Water For Ten Days” is a good pop rock album, enriched by John’s particular meditative and introspective vein and the original use of the synth.
Frusciante, having found serenity, gives free rein to his creativity, creating an exquisite interplay between intimate melodies and polychromatic rock.
