John Frusciante
Enclosure
Release Date: Apr 8, 2014
Genre(s): Pop/Rock, Alternative/Indie Rock
Record label: The Record Collection
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Album Review: Enclosure by John Frusciante
Satisfactory, Based on 4 Critics
Based on rating 6/10
Since quitting the Red Hot Chili Peppers in 2009, John Frusciante has been re-inventing the art of going solo. If 1994’s Niandra Lades and Usually Just a T-Shirt was the world’s first glimpse at Frusciante’s versatility and talent for experimentation, Enclosure is, in his words, ‘’the record which represented the achievement of all the musical goals I had been aiming at for the previous 5 years’’. Lack of ambition, clearly, is not a problem here.
Based on rating 6/10
Best known as on-again off-again guitarist for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, John Frusciante's solo career has been an anomaly of various confusions and curiosities, never falling even remotely close to the arena-ready radio alternative rock of the Chili Peppers. Early records like 1994's Niandra Lades and Usually Just a T-Shirt were wandering, strung-out experimental affairs, and in 2001 Frusciante began an infatuation with electronic music on the more drum machine and synth-leaning To Record Only Water for Ten Days. Enclosure, his 12th in a long line of dizzying, befuddling solo albums, follows a series of releases that all followed similar electronic themes and diversions.
Based on rating 3/5
Regardless what you think of the quality of the Red Hot Chili Peppers albums he played on, John Frusciante’s guitar work has been easy to appreciate. His performance on Blood Sugar Sex Magick alone has been enough to earn him a spot in the best-alt-rock-guitarist-of-the-’90s discussion. As for his sprawling and wildly varied solo output, Frusciante’s often used it to explore more left-field impulses that he might not have been able to indulge with the Peppers.
Based on rating C-
Enter the bizarre saga that is John Frusciante’s solo career… Story goes, he left the Red Hot Chili Peppers in 1992 and lost his mind. The years of excess, copious touring, and constant hissy fits with Anthony Kiedis had finally taken their toll on the guitarist, who isolated himself in the recesses of Los Angeles with a stockpile of heroin and a cheap Portastudio. Two years later, he released these psychotic episodes as his solo debut, Niandra Lades and Usually Just a T-Shirt — the first in an ongoing series of solo albums that are very un-Chili Peppers.
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