Curtains

The last album in the six-in-six series was almost two months late due to a printing mistake, yet absolutely worth the wait. John’s voice is better than ever and on some songs, such as Control and Ascension, he’s literally playing with his wide vocal range and, through crystal-clear singing, once again, portraying the nude of his own soul; singing and strumming the cords from the living room for of his Los Angeles home, backed up by his friends Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, Carla Azar and Ken Wild. The emotions and voice are echoing after having hit the glass and the walls and are channeled through the acoustic guitars, electric guitar overlays and even a melodica solo at the end of A Name, following the last sung lines starting with words from a children’s game. On Lever Pulled, yet another song that resembles a poem from the later XIX century romanticism era, it sounds as if the notes escaped, tripped and broke against the floor. There are verses which could associate to Prometheus and Noah; yet the most of it is pure Frusciante, the raw flesh just torn off a poet’s heart. Casual listeners are most likely to say that John resembles Cat Stevens on this album. If his next solo record is going to be like this, it is pretty sure why everyone’s awaiting it eagerly. (© 2005)

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Track Listing, Song Information And Lyrics

The Past Recedes [3:53]
Lever Pulled [2:22]
Anne [3:35]
The Real [3:07]
A Name [2:03]
Control [4:29]
Your Warning [3:33]
Hope [1:56]
Ascension [2:53]
Time Tonight [3:12]
Leap Your Bar [2:36]

Samples

Disclaimer: All the songs’ lyrics on the album was written by John Frusciante and it is © Niandra LaDes Music/BMI. This is the official lyrics from the album’s booklet. I only made a couple of tiny corrections on the places where John has obviously altered the “official” lyrics and/or added the repeating lines and backing/harmony vocals for your convenience.
All samples are around 30 seconds long and used with the publisher’s permission. If you want the CD, scroll down to “useful links” for information on how and where to buy it.

Trivia

The album was actually scheduled for a release on 07th December 2004, but there was a printing error on its cover so it was posponed.

Curtains is a home recording, it was recorded in John’s living room.

The album has the same name as one of the tracks on John’s first album.

At the end of Time Tonight, one can hear John cough.

Yet another moment of “perfect imperfection” is the conversation with the contributing musicians at the beginning of Ascension

Mike Piscitelli directed a video for The Past Recedes, illustrating a day in John’s life. The video is available only online, it was never shown on TV.

Useful links

Get the CD and/or vinyl from John’s official site; or, if unable to do it that way buy this album at amazon.com
Go to John’s official site to see Curtains notes
Go to John’s MySpace page to watch the video for The Past Recedes.
The screencaps from the video can be found here
Go to songmeanings.net to see other how other people understood what John had to say

Credits

Release date: 01st February 2005
Released: Worldwide
Publisher: Record Collection Music
Duration: 33 minutes, 43 seconds
John plays: Acoustic and electric guitar, electric bass, melodica, piano, strings essemble, mellotron, synthesizer, treatments
Other musicians: Carla Azar plays the drums, Ken Wild upright bass. Omar Rodriguez-Lopez of The Mars Volta plays lead guitar on Lever Pulled and “joined guitars” with John on Anne
Produced by: John Frusciante
Engineered by: Ryan Hewitt
Mixed by: Ryan Hewitt
Mixing assisted by: Chris Holmes
Recorded/mixed at/when: John’s living room (08-14th and 19-23 May 2004)
Mastered by/where: Bernie Grundman/Bernie Grundman Mastering Hollywood, CA, USA
Designed by: Mike Piscitelli, John Frusciante
Cover photograph by: Lola Montes