Product Description

Jane's Addiction's RITUAL DE LO HABITUAL, the band's third release, is one of the cornerstones of 1990s alternative rock. The album features the group's popular breakthrough hit "Been Caught Stealing", as well as such genre classics as "Stop!", "Ain't No Right", and "Classic Girl".
Also included are the back-to-back epics "Three Days" and "Then She Did", which combine hard-rock, psychedelic, progressive, and alternative music sensibilities. Unfortunately, RITUAL DE LO HABITUAL would prove to be the band's final album with the original lineup. The members parted ways in 1991 after their last live appearances headlining Lollapalooza, the tour seriesstarted by lead singer Perry Farrell.

Track Listing

1. Stop
2. No One's Leaving
3. Ain't No Right
4. Obvious
5. Been Caught Stealing
6. Three Days
7. Then She Did
8. Of Course
9. Classic Girl

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #26465 in Music
• Released on: 1990-08-27
• Number of discs: 1
• Format: Explicit Lyrics

Amazon.co.uk Review
By far Jane's Addiction's best album, Ritual De Lo Habitual is chock full of songs that are both catchy and experimental. The singles "Stop" and "Been Caught Stealing" are good examples; "No One's Leaving" has a nice funk edge with some busy guitar work, and "Ain't No Right" and "Obvious" are strong as well. Unfortunately, "Three Days" and "Then She Did . . ." are overlong and get bogged down well short of halfway through, but the album finishes strongly with "Of Course" and "Classic Girl". Jane's Addiction's funk-punk-rock mix is appealing, and never more so than on this album. --Genevieve Williams

Customer Reviews

I don't know if it's Art, but I like it...a lot
Funk Metal. Possibly the worst musical genre there is - just re-reading those two words together bring on an instant feeling of disgust in me. Funk on it's own: fine. Metal on it's own: fine - but the two together is like oil and water...just as well this record is not Funk Metal then. And no amount of argument or opinion will ever convince me it is.
Nor is the the most well-known song "Been Caught Stealing" Funk Metal - it's really not. I do get irritated when I see comments from people who bought this on the strength of that song, and are "disappointed" with the rest of the album - a fine song though it is, there is so much better to be had here.

Anyways, that said, on to the main part of the review: For me, this record is aural pleasure from start to finish; all the tracks are brilliant in at least one way - be it the arrangement, or the skills of the musicians involved or the passion or whatever. Eric Avery's bass lines are the best thing he's done in my opinion, Stephen Perkins continues to be a vastly underrated drummer, Dave Navarro's guitar soars and sweeps in equal measures (this was before the semi-fame of the RHCP and MTV went to his head) and, of course, Perry Farrell is the shrieking, banshee-like ringleader of the whole thing.

Stand out tracks for me would be "No-One's Leaving", "Obvious", "...Then She Did" and the majestic "Three Days". For any Radiohead fans reading, "Three Days" was doing what "Paranoid Android" did, only years before it, and is musically far superior to that song.

I can understand this won't be to everyone's tastes - some may find the pretentiousness of it a bit too much, others may not appreciate the guitar histrionics on some tracks, and others still might simply not like the sound of Perry Farrell's voice.
That would be too bad though, as I consider this one of the finest albums of the '90s; it's lowly positioning in the usual "Top *whatever number* Albums of All Time" does not do it justice - perhaps it is the afore-mentioned points above which held this band back from attaining true greatness, but there should be no reason not to buy this if you are a fan of music.

An album by which everything is compared
It doesn't matter if your into metal, rock, jazz, soul or funk, this has the lot & should be owned by all.

Two parts meet to create the most awe-inspiring, inspirational music ever recorded. The first part of the album presents the faster funkier stuff such as the hearfelt 'Stop!', the angry 'Ain't no right' & the indie dancefloor classic 'Been Caught Stealing'. It was this track that made me get the album to find out more about the band & it really was the most defining moment in the history of my music apprecation to date. I compare this album to everything & it still keeps my interest after first hearing it 15 years ago.

The first tracks are all brillant, but it is the second part of the collection that really sets the band apart from everything. With a progressive, experimental feel hinted at by the earlier 'Obvious', the second half is born by the initially slow-burning 'Three Days' which builds over the course of it's 13 minute's to a searing rally on nature & religion. Only someone with a true apprecation of this track can tell you how utterly mesmerising it is. It has as much character & intent then any number of whole albums I could mention from other bands & is a superb way to usher in the remainder of the tracks. 'Then She Did' is another monumental example of amazing song construction & will be stuck in your head for days. 'Of Course' is a bizarre violin lead fable that neatly seperates the slow build-up flow of the previous two tracks before ending on the frankly beautiful 'Classic Girl' with it's surreal lyrical meditation on love & affection. Yeah, I love this album.

Perry himself said that Jane's were like a cross between Bad Brains & Duke Ellington & this is a pretty accurate statement, although it could probably better describe the also brillant 'Nothing's Shocking'. It does however indicate how much perserverance this may take with some, but really though it just needs to be heard to be believed. Truly timeless. Buy it.

The alternative blueprint
The greatest thing about Jane's Addiction was the way they fused metal, thrash, psychedelia and folk to make something totally original and continually listenable. Listening to 'Ritual'only drives home how much the current music scene, with it's obsession with bands liberally impersonating acts from the past, needs more groups with the wide-ranging tastes and sheer ability showcased on this record. The Spanish spoken intro sets a vaguely unsettling tone before 'Stop' roars to life with Dave Navarro's frenzied freefalling guitar. From there, the album winds an occaisonally repetitve path through hard rock on 'Ain't No Right', swirling psyhedelia of'Obvious' and the mantra-sounding 'Of Course', taking in the most well-known Jane's track 'Been Caught Stealing' before arriving at 'Three Days'. Everything that earned Addiction there alternative greatness is on display: a classic ten minutes of Navarro's guitar mastery vying for dominance with Perry Farrell's hackling, shrieking vocals about a different kind of Jesus and Stephen Perkin's thunderous drumming. Although , it lacks some of the primal aggression of their first release, 'Ritual' makes up for it with sheer variety of rock music, and from one cd, what more can you ask for?