The first song on the album is "Underground". This is a good song to open the album with as it starts with typical vocals standing alone before the pounding bass riff hits the listeners hard. Navarro's playing on this song consists of a heavy use of guitar effects giving the song a very spacey and bold essence. Overall the song has a great groove lead by the slow but firm bass riff that ties the song together.
The second track "End to the Lies" is a very good follow up track. This song is lead by lead singer Farrell's aggressively infectious vocals. Perry Farrell has hardly sung this well since songs like "Mountain Song" off Nothing's Shocking. at the end of the first chorus Navarro has a very cool guitar interlude where he really expresses the frustration that can be felt throughout the lyrics and vocals of the song. This song, while dark, is a very good song to capture that specific "done with it" attitude that we all experience from time to time.
By the time the third track, "Curiosity Kills", comes on the audience thinks they are adjusting to the obscurity of Jane's Addiction; they realize that they are wrong. This song is very beautiful in it's own sort of way, as it is quite psychedelic and features keyboards and important backing vocals. Towards the end of the song it hits a very cool breakdown of bass followed by piano, then drums, then Farrell's lone voice. The song then picks up and finishes off with Navarro detailing with interesting guitar melodies.
The fourth track "Irresistible Force" was the lead single off the new album. I will admit that at first I was not completely thrilled with it as the single, but after listening to the song in the context of the album, it has grown on me greatly. The song starts again with a very entertaining bass riff accompanied by shuffling tom drum rhythms. Perry starts out practically talking into the microphone, but as the song builds the vocals build up along with it. The one thing this song lacks is guitar as Dave Navarro's tracks are very subtle up until the guitar solo at the end.
The fifth track "I'll Hit You Back" picks up as the album seemed to be slowing down. The song opens with the bass and drums in a very modern but tasty groove, soon Farrell joins in and the audience sinks in. After the first verse Navarro finally kicks it up with some distorted electric guitar building it up and leading into a very pleasing guitar melody. This song seems to have a very typical modern sound, but fans of Jane's Addiction can find peace in the aggression and life that can be found in the band's classic albums.
The sixth track "Twisted Tales" is exactly as it sounds. The song opens with bass melody, drums, and guitar arpeggios. When the vocals come in, Farrell is using effects to lead the audience into another psychedelic and offbeat sort of song. This song is not bad, it just does not contain any of the greatness to make it memorable.
"Ultimate Reason" is the seventh song on the album, and it provides a refreshing change to the formula of the first half of the album. The song starts with only bass and guitar drawing the listener in to be impacted by Farrell's voice. What makes this song so successful is that the drums don't come in until the second verse and the song picks up and Navarro's track comes out more.
The ninth song "Broken People" follows the same formula as the last track. The exception to this song is the keyboards combined with Perry Farrell's voice that truly make this ballad great. Everyone has experienced that e=feeling that they are broken inside and this song, this band for that matter is excellent at capturing that feeling. This is an example of Jane's Addiction doing what they do very best.
The final track "Words Right Out Of My Mouth" finally reaches the peak of energy that the rest of the album is lacking. Dave Navarro finally gets to play a funky riff of obscure chords that in my personal opinion is where he excels in this band. The bass although typical rock line, is very fun and keeps the steady energy of the song. The break down in the middle brings in some acoustic guitars which sound really cool, before picking up into a decent guitar solo. Throughout the whole song Farrell does a good job of not being overzealous and grinding(which his voice does from time to time), but rather complementing the already supreme music.
Jane's Addiction is definitely not a typical rock band, and anyone interested in that kind of music needs to look elsewhere. However, this band is like a fine exotic dish, that once in a while is a great taste to the musical palette. The one thing this particular album lacks is a really funky jam such as previous hits "Been Caught Stealing" "Wrong Girl" or "Idiots Rule". This album has some very deep and dark secrets that are truly written from the sound
