After Frusciante’s last wonderful album, TO RECORD ONLY WATER FOR TEN DAYS, I was expecting fireworks from this one. Sure enough there are some crackers but there are also an awful lot of damp squids. Frusciante is of course guitarist of one of the world’s biggest bands, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, and this is no less than his fourth solo outing.

Listening to this album I concluded that this is Frusciante’s pop/folk album. A seventeen track selection opens with interesting spaced out sounds before launching fully into Carvel. It’s a fairly ordinary pop/rock song with some pleasant enough guitar riffs and vocal harmonies, but doesn’t light fires for me. The next song, Omission, boasts a stronger melody as it slowly weaves its way along. But frankly it sounds like a track recorded by some new kids on the pop block, with rather careless backing vocals, and nowhere to go. Regret is more interesting as it repeats the refrain, “I regret my past, Stay alone.” The musical arrangement is excellent and includes a string orchestration along with an epic ambience. Next track, Ricky, reverts to forgettable with a decent melody but some really unnecessary and overblown backing vocals that would be better suited to a Westlife song. I’m beginning to feel very disappointed but hopes are raised with the charging guitar and aggressive drum beats that open Second Walk. The lyrics also provide some scope for hope; “I take a second walk, Down the street of fame, I’ve paid it off and paid for it again…”

Ultimately, this is a record that confuses as well as disappoints. Frusciante is capable of wondrous music and there’s a strong hint in the highlight of the album, Wednesday’s Song, where the melody, vocal and lyrical strengths shine through. The second half of this album is certainly better than the first half - but only just. Perhaps it’s the lacklustre production (that is akin to a demo recording) which is the problem?

2.5/5