Album Review: Jane's Addiction - Alive at 25 Ritual De Lo Habitual Live

Cover art for the Jane's Addiction album Alive at 25: Ritual De Lo Habitual Live

As laser synths zip and bleep above the bubbling intro bass line of Obvious, Jane's Addiction vocalist Perry Farrell asks, "Hey! How's it sound?" without any apparent irony.

It's the fourth track of the gig and the band's just starting to cook. By the time they bounce into the trashy glam-funk exuberance of Been Caught Stealing, they're sounding pretty bloody good.

They're also obviously having a lot of fun as guitarist Dave Navarro fries his fretboard with a piercing solo as Farrell "doo-bops" over the top.

This live album, which sees the band playing the entirety of their alt-rock masterpiece Ritual De Lo Habitual before heading off on a blazing run through their biggest hits, is to celebrate the 25 years since the album's release.

The record is certainly deserving of such treatment. It's an ambitious, important, alt-rock album that's soaked in a druggie spirituality and an otherworldly profundity that comes together perfectly to celebrate the bohemian artistic lifestyle in all its messy, sprawling, non-conforming glory.

While it's mostly known for the aforementioned ode to shoplifting the record's twin triumphs are the sprawling, majestic trips of Three Days and Then She Did ... which, over the course of 25 years, have lost none of their mind expanding, stop-you-in-your-tracks sonic power or hazy grace.

Of course you can find live versions of most of these songs already on other official Jane's releases, which does lessen how crucial the record feels as a listening experience. But here, sequenced correctly, augmented tastefully and played with unexpected conviction means it's certainly worth your time and your money.

After 25 years the band are no longer the dangerous weirdo's playing dangerous and exotic music. The songs, however, retain all their strange beauty and have unarguably aged far, far better than the vessels that created them.

strong>Artist: Jane's Addiction
Album: Alive at 25: Ritual de lo Habitual Live
Label: Sony Music
Verdict: Jane's classic album gets the live treatment