Bw’s Blog

If you’ve ever seen a Red Hot Chili Peppers concert, you’ll have noticed that John Frusciante loves to sing, and he also plays a mean guitar. If you’ve been paying attention, you’ll also have noticed that he’s released nine solo albums to date. The ninth album, The Empyrean, was released this January, and I’ve just gotten around to listening to it.

The album starts with the aptly titled, Before The Beginning. This nine minute masterpiece contains no vocals at all, but an intriguing build-up of bass, drums, guitar, and a constant solo. This solo contains the key of Frusciante’s guitar playing: he uses his strings as a direct connection to his soul. Everything he plays seems to transfer his message perfectly to the listeners ear. This is a great opener.

As one of the shorter songs on the album, God, doesn’t fall short of the others. It features John’s trademark falsetto, and some weird sounding keyboards. This is one instance where he decided to go easy on the amount of delay/reverb that coats the voice on most of the songs. The song actually gets pretty “rock ‘n roll” towards the end, which isn’t typical from what I’ve heard of his previous albums.

If you’re looking for some unique music recorded in an atypical way, you won’t be disappointed with The Empyrean. The song writing is excellent, and the guitar playing is what you would expect from one of the world’s greatest guitar players.

I just realized that it’s earth hour, so I’m going to cut this review short so I can turn off the lights! Go check out this album, if you liked any of John Frusciante’s previous work, you’ll love it.

Sincerely,

BW.

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