Kerrang

? February 2004, Kerrang (UK)
thanks to Nick

Prodigal Son: Chili’s Guitarists’ Midas Touch Graces Solo Album.
John Frusciante
Shadows Collide With People
(Warner Bros.)
KKKK (4/5)

The Lowdown: John Frusciante’s reinstatement to the Chili Pepper fold was a great story - prodigal son returns to administer a size nine to an inflating arse - and with hindsight, it’d be difficult to picture the band as the stadium-hogging colossus it’s become without his soaring harmonies and sinuous guitar lines.

They’re all hallmarks that pepper the fourth solo album from the Chili’s most likeable character, an album that betrays all the traits of his persona. ‘Shadows Collide With People’, then, is steeped in a fragile humanism and a touch on the barking side.

It’s an album for fans that held ‘Scar Tissue’ or ‘By The Way’’s gorgeous ‘Tear’ close to their hearts: an album from music lovers with the merest hint of a soul. Of course, it’s far from straightforward: Frusciante’s ‘everything but the kitchen sink’ approach to instrumentation is both epic in scale and charmingly homespun. His love of bleep merchants Aphex Twin and Squarepusher also surfaces to mixed success.

It’s an album that will suprise many - not leart Anthony Kiedis who should certainly be feeling insecure - and bewitch countless more, like his return to the Chili Peppers, ‘Shadows Collide With People’ is something worthy of celebration.

Best Tracks: ‘Carvel’, ‘Wednesday’s Song’, And ‘Omission’