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Jane’s Addiction review – original lineup, same thrilling riff-driven thrashers

A feral Perry Farrell, a prowling Eric Avery and Dave Navarro making his guitar sound like a chainsaw – the alt-rock band flex their rediscovered mojo

The Los Angelenos helped define alternative rock in the late 80s with two albums of cosmic, bohemian funk-metal, driven by mysticism, debauchery and loss, but were quickly undone by exhaustion, heroin and frontman Perry Farrell ’s new role as Lollapalooza’s ringmaster. In white cowboy duds (with Navarro as his shadowy spaghetti-western nemesis), Farrell relishes every mischievous punk-funk twist of Been Caught Stealin’, and goes positively feral on new song Imminent Redemption, which sounds more like Jane’s Addiction than anything off their underwhelming reunion albums. And Three Days once again sounds like the greatest rock epic of the alternative era, its tribal drums chasing one ecstatic crescendo after another as Navarro fires off glorious, alchemical solos stripped of cliche and Farrell weaves together the carnal and the spiritual.

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