Well, now I didn't expect that!

It's a bit too early to make any pronouncements but I'm listening to the new Jane's Addiction album Hypersonic and so far it doesn't suck. While it certainly isn't anywhere nearly as good as the original Jane's output it does seem to be faring better on my ears than any of the post-Jane's projects pursued by any of the members after the group first disbanded.

The most noticeable missing ingredient is the lack of anything truly "epic." One of the greatest things about Jane's Addiction was their ability to take a song and make it sound primal and huge and inescapable...as if the combined sounds always existed and had only recently been untapped by a brute shamanistic energy.

On that level Hypersonic does fail but since it's not the grand embarrassment I was afraid the "reunion" disc would be I would say it succeeds as a Farrell/Navarro/Perkins album.

I'm still not going to Lollapalooza though.