The Empyrean is the eighth solo album by American musician John Frusciante, released worldwide on January 20, 2009 through Record Collection. Frusciante did not plan on a following tour, as he instead wanted to focus on writing and recording. The Empyrean peaked at number 151 on the US Billboard 200 as well as number seven on the Top Heatseekers. On release it made number 105 on the UK Albums Chart.
Frusciante said that the record "was recorded on and off between December 2006 and March 2008," and is a concept album that tells "a single story both musically and lyrically." The Empyrean contains a version of Tim Buckley's "Song to the Siren", from his 1970 album Starsailor. The record also features an array of collaborators and guest musicians, including Frusciante's bandmate Flea, and friends Josh Klinghoffer and the former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr. Due to an error at the duplication plant, the United States CD release date was delayed until January 27. On June 2, 2010, a new bonus track, Here, Air, was added to the album, freely available at John's website.
On December 11, 2012, Record Collection re-issued various John Frusciante albums released from 2004 to 2009, including The Empyrean. These re-issued albums are available on 180 gram limited edition vinyl. Each LP also comes with a download card for your choice of MP3 or WAV file. The Empyrean was one of the most sought after John Frusciante LPs from the 2012 catalog reissue. According to John Frusciante's official website, the pre-order of the limited edition vinyl was sold out as of November 24, 2012; therefore, making it the first from the limited catalog reissue to do so. Additional stock of recording would be available in 2013.
A ten-year anniversary reissue, recut by John Frusciante and Bernie Grundman from the original analog tapes, was released on March 29, 2019. The reissue is a double disc LP that includes a download card of the album plus bonus tracks in hi-resolution.
A song which was written during The Empyrean sessions, "Scratch", was released as a free download on February 18, 2014 as an introductory track to the full-length record Enclosure released April 8, 2014.
At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted mean rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 69, based on 8 reviews, which indicates "generally favorable reviews".
John Frusciante is a great guitar player and his contributions to the Red Hot Chili Peppers have been essential. Their best albums are with John on lead guitar. This album is his most consistent one. It have a lot of ideas and inspiring guitar parts, but most songs are at best mediocre as a whole and the ballads and singing is subpar.
The Red Hot Chili Peppers featured slightly in my musical wolrd around the early 90s. Other than being aware of them as a cultural entity I really haven't kept up. No idea of any solo careers. Early in I was thinking this was going to be quite a bit too "experimental" for my tastes, but it settled into a more accessible groove and generally won me over, particularly towards the last third or so.
When an artist from a famous group makes a solo album it can sometimes feel a lot like an album from the group. This one didn’t feel like the Red Hot Chili Peppers, although at times it evoked a bit of that feel. There’s a lot of interesting explorations of style that I appreciated. It’s a good reason to go off separate from a group and do something different.
I'm so glad I didn't read his bio before starting to listen, because honestly I hate the Red Hot Chili Peppers and I'm sure I would have been biased against this. But, as far as I can tell, this has absolutely nothing in common with the Red Hot Chili Peppers music. This reminds me more of Funkadelic or something like that. On first listen I'd say it's pretty close to brilliant. Will listen more and check out his other solo work. 4 stars.
The Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist is known for his experimental streak on his solo endeavors, and "concept album" *The Empyrean* doesn't escape that rule of thumb. The long introduction "Before The Begging", displaying a melancholic, tear-inducing electric guitar solo, hearkens back to the legendary first track of Funkadelic's *Maggot Brain*. Tim Buckley's "Song To The Siren" is a masterpiece to start with, and Frusciante's version honors it as it should (even if the result is a notch under the legendary version performed by This Mortal Coil). Those first two cuts suggest that John Frusciante mostly looks in the rearview mirror for the first leg of *The Empyrean*, but his own off-kilter artistry then quickly shines in its own right with next track "Unreachable", with the insanely beautiful and pretty groundbreaking effect-pedal-laden electric guitar flourishes in its final climax. Equally impressive, "Central" explores similarly epic turf.
The rest is not exactly as striking, but still offers enough interesting material for a pleasant listening experience. Some ideas are a little half-baked, like the dated-nineties-breakbeat-meets-gospel-choir on "Dark / Light". Others fare better. Frusciante's vocals are a bit of an acquired taste, but they bring the right amount of emotions between some raspier moments. Maybe if I "followed" the concept of the album with more attention, I could reach the added dimension that most surely led a user to suggest this, who know? Which is why I'm leaving the door open for this one...
3.5/5 for the purposes of this list dedicated to essential albums, rounded up to 4.
8.5/10 for more general purposes
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Number of albums from the original list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 465
Albums from the original list I *might* include in mine later on: 288
Albums from the original list I won't include in mine: 336
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Number of albums from the users list I find relevant enough to be mandatory listens: 84
Albums from the users list I *might* select for mine later on: 108 (including this one)
Albums from the users list I won't select for mine: 218
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Émile, j'ai vu ta dernière réponse. J'essaie de trouver le temps de te laisser la mienne dans les jours qui viennent. Désolé, ça fait longtemps que je te dis ça, mais la situation est un peu compliquée par chez moi en ce moment... Rien de grave, mais je trouve pas beaucoup de temps pour moi. Porte-toi bien
Exceptional yet forgettable. Felt like if Stephen King wrote an album. Well done, but insanely long winded. Only album I’ve heard that made me want to punch the artist for being pretentious.
It really is like listening to a 70's Prog or late 60's Psychedelic album. It's got ideas above it's station.
I applaud his decision to just say "damn it all, I'm doing what I want!!"
Great musicianship and average vocals, I liked it.
As the guitarist of RHCP makes a solo album it makes sense the best part is the guitar work. Lyrically this album was pretty weak overall. This may have just been better as a guitar led instrumental album. It wasn’t typical guitar work either. There was some funky experimental sections that made this pretty cool. Overall though it is lacking a bit of 6.2/10
There are some fascinating ideas on here, and the sprawl of incorporated genres and melodic experiments is impressive. Frusciante struggles to execute, however, and often just sits on a lick or verse until it’s bled dry of interest. This could’ve been a great solo LP, just seems to suffer under its own ambition and lack of execution.
I was expecting more from Frusciante, considering the only time RHCP could make good music was when he was in the band.
Kinda boring at times, was hoping for more impressive guitar work, and the vocals were not doing it for me.
There were some bits of rhythm and melody that stuck nicely but I largely heard “RHCP goes psychedelic”. I will give it a bonus star for the inspirational theme of the disc but it’s not an album I’m going to reach for again.
Is this both the slowest and longest intro track to any album, ever?
9 minutes and 9 seconds of noodling guitar over a two-note strum and some raspy snares.
I got bored of it after four and a half minutes of it, started writing this review and it seems there's still approximately forty seven years left until the next track starts.
Lordy, I hope this gets better soon.
It does not.
This is dismal. Utterly, utterly dismal.
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