John Frusciante - Niandra Lades and Usually Just a T-shirt

`Niandra Lades and Usually Just a T-shirt' was Frusicante's debut album, released back in 1994. This was like in effect album with the first half being `Niandra Lades' and the second half being `Usually just a T-shirt'. Unlike many double albums, the 25 tracks are crammed onto one CD. In order to distinguish the albums on the CD, all the tracks belonging to `Niandra Lades' have real track names; while `Usually just a T-shirt', the tracks are named `Untitled #1' through to `Untitled #12. 

The best tracks on the album for me are Mascara and Been Insane. I feel these tracks show glimpses of what John is really capable of. The raw emotion and energy put into the vocals make these songs stand out, head and shoulders above the rest. You can feel the pain and hurt in his voice and with just an acoustic guitar accompanying the vocals, you get the sense of loneliness he was feeling at the time. At this point in his life he was going through a tough time; hooked on drugs and deep in depression. If only the rest of the album were up to this sort of standard, it would have been a cracker. 

Although there are plenty to choose from; the worst track on this album for me is `Your pussy is glued to a building on fire'. Personally, I feel that the comedy name is there to cover up how bad the song actually is. I think he did this to make people hone in on the lyrics so they forget to actually detect any sort of a tune. But even the lyrics are delivered in such an unappealing and grating way; I doubt many will be fooled by this charade. 

I think that fact that there are 25 tracks on the one CD sums it up. The average length of track is 2 minutes 50 seconds, this shows that over half the tracks at least don't even clock the 3 minute mark! In my opinion songs less than three minutes don't even constitute songs as by the time its start it's finished again. I don't mind a short filler track here and there, but this is way over the top. This is no more apparent than in the shortest track on the album is `Untitled #10' which is 24 seconds long and really just seems pointless. It doesn't act as a bridge between the two songs around it. The longest track on the CD is `Untitled #8' which does actually sound like a cat being strangled which makes for extremely uncomfortable listening. In my opinion the song lengths show a lack of proper structure, imagination and general song writing ability. We know what he is capable of because of albums with the Chili's such as `Blood, Sugar, Sex, Majic'. But anyone who has not heard any previous stuff would have never guessed. 

Overall this is a pretty bad album; with only a few bits and pieces, here and there to shout about. At points it's unbearable with the singing so out of tune you'll find yourself reaching for the skip button in a flash. An album only really for the hardcore fans who want to complete there collection and maybe those who have been through the same sort of thing and can relate. But otherwise I would recommend giving it a miss. No matter what he or anyone else thought about this album though, on refection I'm just so glad he didn't stop here....