What is the sound of a lone Pepper? Not as hot, not as funky … but more distinctive than you might expect.
John Frusciante’s Shadows Collide With People arrived on February 24, 2004 with bits of Red Hot Chili Pepper-ness (and three other members in Chad Smith, Flea and Josh Klinghoffer), but there were definitely a few distinctively non-Pepper moments. He’d clearly saved up some cool ideas since 2001’s From the Sounds Inside.
First of all, the electric guitar did not play a big role here. No, a strummed acoustic was used to build the bed of sound supporting the vocals. This wasn’t really out of left field with respect to the Red Hot Chili Peppers: acoustic guitars are used there, just not to this degree.
Another new texture is the blurpy synth. “Song to Sing When I’m Lonely” starts off with a keyboard figure that’s right out of 1980s new wave. A lone electric guitar joins in unison with the synth before settling into the first verse.
What was very Pepper-like was the tempo, as much of Shadows Collide With People settled into that familiar mid-tempo “Californication” / “Scar Tissue” area. It was also quite amazing to hear Frusciante’s vocals: because they’re so much like Anthony Kiedis. Not quite as offbeat maybe, but they sound like they could be brothers from another Pepper.
In the end, John Frusciante’s most interesting track here was “Carvel.” The introduction is a California-style channeling of King Crimson’s “In the Court of the Crimson King.” Yep, there are strings, ominous synths lurking and dirgy vocals. Way cool.
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Frusciante sounds nothing like Anthony. It’s more powerful and distinctive. Shadows collide with people is a ****ing brilliant album
also shadows collide sounds nothing like anything the chili peppers have done
I don’t think John sounds one bit like Anthony. Anthony is a great singer in his own right, but John is just different. He has an amazing range (we all know his falsetto from RHCP, but he also has a really strong tenor voice), and his sense of melody and harmony is the best I’ve seen in any artist.
John’s solo catalogue is very different from RHCP, but there’s some brilliant stuff in there. He’s definitely one of the best musicians in the world today. I just wish we’d hear some new music from him! He left the band to focus on his own music, but we haven’t had anything new since that happened, whereas he released 7 or 8 albums during his last 10 years with the band.
you hit it right on the spot cam, very well said and true.
out of all the songs off shadows, you pick carvel? if anything youll freak people out by them listening to this song in particular as the voice changes are pretty drastic and somewhat raw to listen to for someone whos never listened to john. dont get me wrong the song is awesome and ive been a fan of johns solo works since the beginning but even this one took me a while to like and musically digest. you shouldve picked something more music friendly like “a song to sing when im lonely” or “times goes back” or “this cold”