Rockaxis, Chile
thanks to Jordi Domenech Montane, for the translation

There's something that I never understood about John Frusciante's career. It's not that he is a bad composer or that his works might be throwable. It's, more than anything, the undervaluation of his solo work, absolutely compared to his guitarist tag. It's true that we cannot compare between these two areas, due to them being totally different styles, but not because of that we can't say that a person that in his teens would close himself up in his room and play Page and Hendrix classics for 15 straight hours is a bad guitarist.

Why do I say that? Well, it's some kind of introduction to what is, by far, the best album in Frusciante's career. It's true that it doesn't have the psychodelia and musical turbulency inducted by drugs of his first two albums, nor the serenity of "To Record Only Water For Ten Days", but this one shows us a guy who has matured in his way of composing, and more importantly, something that very few achieve: the own characteristic of his particular style. This is a cliché that in this album is diferentiated from the others: The "Frusciante" style, to bring you to different mental states, like the relaxation of spirit, the opening of the soul and many more.

From the first song, "Carvel", the shadows begin to take form and substance, and which better way to do it than with a "road" song, more classic impossible. The song itself is a trip to the inner side of Frusciante, but more than anything a search that every person does. "Carvel" also reminds us of the earlier Dylan, the one with just a guitar, travelling... that's the same spirit.

There exist, in this hour-and-something of intimate trips, a series of songs that stand out, like the rocky "Second Walk". It's one of the songs that attract the ear most, be it for its own structure, its music or both reasons. The thing is the quality in which several guitar parts are mixed to make out a precise rock, simple, direct and stylish.

Frusciante has always experimented with mixing parts. In fact, in his early albums he used this system to put them together, and it's something that's worked very well until now. The difference is that now he uses more electronic resources, more pre-made bases to compose, like the strange "-00 Ghost27"

Now, Frusciante's shadows are becoming very solid structures, like the lovely "Wednesday's Song", which has a base based in the acoustic guitar, and strings very much in its creator's style. All done with only chords, but behaving like solos all the same, achiving a very minimalistic song in terms of composition, but very effective in terms of feeling.

After "Wednesday's Song", we get to a correct and melodically excellent "This Cold". Here Frusciante lets his hair down with one of his own, well armed and defined, with a voice that despite not being marvelous, arrives in a great way.

There's experimentation in this album. After "-00Ghost27", where you could appreciate the search for new sensations, well, he does the same with "Failure 33 Object", another theme composed with just one machine-made base, showing the saturated side of the guitarist, very opposed to the excellent "Song To Sing When I'm Lonely", which expressed some passiveness, presenting a very personal song and underlining the value of Frusciante's expression with his guitar.

The album continues its tour with "Time Goes Back", which is a perfect sound mix by John, together with his composed ideas. All mixed up with the inherent feeling of the song itself, which says that time goes back not to break down in memories, but to learn from them.

The CD continues like this, mixing bases, styles, world visions, spectres. All collected by Frusciante and translated in his inside. Before I'd like to highlight the song "Water", which mixes machines with the simple guitar and allows itself to be carried on by the same sense of a changing ocean. A great song by any means.

In this LP, Frusciante made something very personal (I would dare to say it's the most personal of all his albums) and that he's been able to express, only with a guitar and something more, a series of emotions reflexed uniquely with his stature as a guitarist and with the expression of his voice that connects you with these new shadows that walk with you while you sleep.