John Frusciante The Will to Death LP

Although John Frusciante is best known as a guitarist with the rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers, he also has an active solo career, having released 11 albums under his own name. His solo recordings include elements ranging from experimental rock and ambient music to New Wave and Electronica.

The Will to Death is his fifth studio album, originally released in 2004 on Record Collection. The album reached #36 on the Billboard Top Independent Albums chart. Frequent collaborator and future RHCP guitarist Josh Klinghoffer contributes drums, bass, keyboards and guitar to the album.

Those familiar with Frusciante's other solo work will know that this material will be far from Red Hot Chili Peppers lite: Frusciante definitely has his own (somewhat haunted) muse. The songs are basically nice little pop tunes, with hard-panned oddball production and very personal, introspective lyrics. This album also marks a new personal aesthetic for Frusciante: he wanted these songs to be raw and immediate (as inspired by some of his favorite albums), and to this end there were very few takes involved with any of these songs, and mistakes and elements of chance found their way in as well. Frusciante's voice has come a long way, and there are some really interesting production touches like all the backwards touches on 'A Loop' and the double-tracked piano tinkling on 'Wishing.' There's almost nothing in the way of guitar heroics and it's far from groundbreaking, but fans of darkly personal skewed pop should enjoy Will to Death.