Nothing's Shocking
| Jane's Addiction
Nothing's Shocking
Nothing's Shocking is the first major-label studio album by the American rock band Jane's Addiction, released on August 23, 1988 through Warner Bros. Records. Nothing's Shocking was well received by critics, though it peaked at number 103 on the Billboard 200. The single "Jane Says" reached number six on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks in 1988. Rolling Stone ranked it #312 on its "500 Greatest Albums of All Time".-Wikipedia
Critic Reviews
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Rolling Stone
The band is great, and it is also full of shit — often at the same time, a dichotomy that may be the edge that sustains Nothing’s Shocking.
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Louder Sound
Nothing’s Shocking was the most powerful rock’n’roll record since Guns N’ Roses’ Appetite For Destruction a year earlier. But what Jane’s Addiction had was a whole different trip to GN’R. There was an art-rock sensibility at the core of Nothing’s Shocking, a taste for weirdness and exotica.
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All Music
Produced by Dave Jerden and Jane's Addiction vocalist Perry Farrell, the album was more focused and packed more of a sonic wallop than its predecessor; the fiery performances often create an amazing sense that it could all fall apart at any second, creating a fantastic musical tension.
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Punk News
The album is well paced, a reminder of an era when people listened to records (tapes, CD's) from beginning to end. Even the throwaway songs ("Up The Beach," "Thank You Boys") help to set the mood and provide sonic variety. It is a strange mish mash of hard rock and high art, psychedelia and in your face funk. It's a combination that defies logic, and works beautifully in spite of itself.
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Diffuser
If Nothing's Shocking did nothing but hammer listeners over the head with noodling guitars, it wouldn't have been shocking. For that matter, if the band included a lighter waving power ballad no one would have been surprised. Jane's painted with a much broader palette, inviting friends Flea (Red Hot Chili Peppers) and Angelo Moore (Fishbone) to play horns on "Idiot's Rule," breaking out the steel drum for their best known song, "Jane Says," and slowing the tempo for the hippie gentleness of "Summertime Rolls."
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Billboard
Nothing's Shocking featured songs that ran for six or seven minutes and covered topics like the exploitation of sex and violence on TV and domestic abuse as it pulled from punk, funk, metal and other musical traditions. It also included two of the band's signature songs: The anthemic “Mountain Song” and the intimate “Jane Says,” which become the band's first Billboard hit when it peaked at No. 6 on what is now the Alternative Songs chart in late 1988.
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Album Of The Year
Totally drug fueled and decadent as fuck, Jane's Addiction blew down the walls of normalcy shocking many of us with its poignant depiction of what the "street" does to kids... Very, very hyperreal. Essentially, not as bombastic as some people portrayed it to be... Or, might wish it to be. The stuff that suburban Middle Class American Soccer Mom's closed their eyes to with each and every trip to the Galleria. This LP is the stuff of eternal legend!
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Ink Roci
This sense of artistic integrity, however, shows the coherence and autonomy of the band, despite personal tribulations and inner rifts, sowing the seeds which will generate Alternative Nation in the Nineties.
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Rate Your Music
Jane's Addiction started out by developing a solid fanbase in Los Angeles, and recorded their first album live while putting together an identity. A year later, they released their studio debut, Nothing's Shocking. More developed than the material on the live album, Nothing's Shocking was a fair melting pot of influences that, in practice, was very little like anything else reaching the masses.
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The Quietus
As a debut album, Jane's Addiction is a perfectly good introduction to a band who would go on to release two stronger albums (1988's Nothing's Shocking and the aforementioned Ritual De Lo Habitual) before imploding under a torrent of drug addiction and infighting.
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Pop Matters
Both Ritual and Jane’s Addiction’s first album Nothing’s Shocking were relatively close on the Great List, hovering in the back half of the top 300. Nothing’s Shocking currently resides at No. 391.
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Daily Vault
Nothing’s Shocking still retains a weirdness and mystique all these years later. There are plenty of Dave Navarro hard rock riffs and solos all over the place to put him in any discussion of guitar hero, but his playing fits the songs and never succumbs to showboating. Perry Farrell, of course, sings in a high, keening voice that takes some getting used to. Other than Billy Corgan and that dude from Crash Test Dummies, Farrell may have the most divisive voice of the alt-rock movement.
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Treble
Nothing’s Shocking is at times uneven, overindulgent, and grating but when they’re good, it’s nothing short of amazing.
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Classic Album Sundays
Unsurprisingly though it was Farrell who had found his ultimate playground in Nothing’s Shocking, and in the cavernous sound the band had created he found ample space for his outsized personality to truly flourish. Lacing his voice with reverb and echo the frontman often sounded as if he was singing from the centre of a storm, perfectly at one with the chaos but never failing to cut through the swirling mass.
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Blinded By Sound
Nothing’s Shocking remains a true hard-rock classic. And it sounds better than ever on this Audio Fidelity 24K+ Gold CD edition.
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Glide
Everyone knew what to expect since Jane’s is celebrating the 25th year anniversary of their best and most popular album, Nothing’s Shocking. Originally released in 1988, the album was Grammy nominated and platinum-selling, although not immediately, and it defined a generation of music in the 90’s. The album was ranked #312 on Rolling Stone’s “500 Greatest Albums of All-Time,” and is even included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.
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Elusive Disc
They were flamboyant and provocative, with an equal interest in visual art, fashion, and 70s era guitar riffs. Singer Perry Farrell, guitarist Dave Navarro, bassist Eric Avery, and percussionist Stephen Perkins were already commanders of a giant cult following by the time their first major-label release, Nothing's Shocking, came out in 1988.
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LA Magazine
The song and the album from which it came, 1988’s Nothing’s Shocking, catapulted Jane’s Addiction to the top of the alternative rock heap and cemented the band as one of the most original and inspiring acts of the era. The album is a mix of influences and genres—Led Zeppelin, jazz, funk, avant garde rock—wrapped in a post-punk aesthetic.
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Steve Hoffman
Summertime Rolls is the best song on the album.. but it's hard to choose. It's all so good.
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Loudwire
Their first two albums -- 1988's 'Nothing's Shocking' and 1990's 'Ritual de lo Habitual' -- were considered instant classics, watershed discs that helped spawn the '90s alternative movement even before people realized the movement was happening.
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Jane's Addiction
Overall, despite Jane’s constant touring at the time, and the several songs that were released as radio promo singles, the album did not receive much commercial attention until after the band’s follow-up album was released.
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Velocities Music
Nothing’s Shocking is a classic rock album that shows the visionary genius exuded by Jane’s Addiction. These guys did grunge better than most of the grunge acts of the 90’s years before their peers even picked up their guitars. Combining huge guitar riffs and an aggressive percussive backing with Perry Farrell’s unique shrill of a voice, Jane’s Addiction crafted one of the quintessential grunge albums, launching the band into critical acclaim.
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Last Fm
Nothing's Shocking is the debut studio album by the American alternative rock band Jane's Addiction, released on August 23, 1988 through Warner Bros. Records. The album showcases the band's funk-oriented musical style through Dave Navarro's heavy guitar riffs and the distinctive singing style of vocalist Perry Farrell, and was one of the leading albums of the funk metal genre that made its breakthrough in the late 80's and 90's. Nothing's Shocking was well received by critics upon release and is often cited as the band's best album. Despite this, it peaked at number 103 on the Billboard 200 and produced only one noteworthy single, "Jane Says", which reached number six on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks in 1988. The album was ranked 305 on Rolling Stones' "500 Greatest Albums of All-Time".
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LA Weekly
The band captured a lot of this audacious alchemy with their major label debut, Nothing's Shocking, which celebrates its 25th anniversary this year. The seminal recording marked a turning point in rock — and soon after it came out, Farrell did the same thing for festivals with Lollapalooza.
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Louder Than War
You really get the feeling that they have nailed what they were hoping to achieve with textures and the Floyd-y, gothy, post-punk sound.
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Like Your Old Stuff
Nothing’s Shocking, the first major label studio album from Jane’s Addiction, turns 30. Whilst it was the second recording of "Jane Says" (the first appearing on their self-titled live release of 1987), Nothing’s Shocking was the album that almost never was. Despite the band's label tipping in a sizeable chunk of cash in advance, upon entering the studio, Perry Farrell announced to his bandmates that he wanted 50% of the band's royalties for writing the lyrics, plus a quarter of the remaining half for writing the music.
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COS
The classic Jane’s rough edges have been smoothed out and coated in electronic confections, but there is a darker, grinding groove beneath that sonic sheen.
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Norman Records
This vinyl LP is the band’s first studio album, released as long ago as 1988. Regarded by many as the band’s best album, this work sees LA’s rock children approach writing through spontaneity. Navarro recalls that some songs “came from Eric's bass lines, some from guitar, some came from Perry, some came from drum riffs, and some just came from free-form jams. There was really no formula."
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The Music Zamboni
What a fantastic album by a fantastic band.
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The Guardian
As always, the band's sound is an indefinable amalgamation of punk, rock, funk, junk, the sensual and elemental - only this time they bring killer songs to the party, too.
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Metal Music Archives
Usually credited for kicking off the alternative/grunge scene of the early 90's, Jane's Addiction unleashed their debut Nothing's Shocking with it's probably purposely shocking album cover in 1988. It has since influenced many artists inside and outside the alternative music world, and cemented itself as a hard rock classic of the late 80's, and for good reason.
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Ultimate Guitar
This CD is pretty good. It's got a great sound, and 3 or 4 great songs.
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COS
The classic Jane’s rough edges have been smoothed out and coated in electronic confections, but there is a darker, grinding groove beneath that sonic sheen.
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Norman Records
This vinyl LP is the band’s first studio album, released as long ago as 1988. Regarded by many as the band’s best album, this work sees LA’s rock children approach writing through spontaneity. Navarro recalls that some songs “came from Eric's bass lines, some from guitar, some came from Perry, some came from drum riffs, and some just came from free-form jams. There was really no formula."
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The Music Zamboni
What a fantastic album by a fantastic band.
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The Guardian
As always, the band's sound is an indefinable amalgamation of punk, rock, funk, junk, the sensual and elemental - only this time they bring killer songs to the party, too.
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Metal Music Archives
Usually credited for kicking off the alternative/grunge scene of the early 90's, Jane's Addiction unleashed their debut Nothing's Shocking with it's probably purposely shocking album cover in 1988. It has since influenced many artists inside and outside the alternative music world, and cemented itself as a hard rock classic of the late 80's, and for good reason.
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Common Sense Media
Some may see Nothing's Shocking as an indictment of the media's obsession with sex and violence, while others will see the sex and violence, but not the critique. But musically, there's little debate that the album is innovative and influential.
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La Times Blogs
The interplay remains incendiary, the textures freshly incandescent, there isn’t much in the way of memorable choruses or hooks.
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Stereoboard
Jane’s Addiction released 'Nothing’s Shocking' in 1988, twenty-three years ago. Something is shocking about this record…just how contemporary and brilliant it is. This is a band that are well and truly back, after an absence far too long.
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All Punked Up
On August 23, 1988, rock band Jane’s Addiction released their second studio album, Nothing’s Shocking.
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Clevescene
The album helped break the doors down for alternative rock groups and turned Farrell into a ringleader for a generation reacting against the hair metal and commercial pop of the ’80s.
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Google Play
Nothing's Shocking is the first major-label studio album by the American rock band Jane's Addiction, released on August 23, 1988 through Warner Bros. Records. Nothing's Shocking was well received by critics, though it peaked at number 103 on the Billboard 200. The single "Jane Says" reached number six on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks in 1988. Rolling Stone ranked it #312 on its "500 Greatest Albums of All Time".
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Evans Rock Album Reviews
The music isn't always painful; there are the occasional moody passages and catchy riffs to be found, and the band rocks quite convincingly, but everything is inevitably sabotaged by the group's contradictory anti-intellectual sound and artistically ambitious nature.
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Gigslutz
There’s more substance to this album though than just attitude and atmosphere. The quality of the musicianship is incredible throughout, from Dave Navarro’s endlessly satisfying virtuoso guitar solos, to Eric Avery’s rich, velvety bass lines. Perry Farrell’s wild, wailing vocals, which can often be a point of annoyance for the band’s critics, are technically brilliant and completely unique, often adding an extra layer of instrumentation rather than merely delivering lyrics.
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Av Club
There's no denying the influence and cultural significance of Jane's Addiction, from its two remarkable studio albums (1988's Nothing's Shocking, 1990's Ritual De Lo Habitual) to frontman Perry Farrell's founding and subsequent headlining of the Lollapalooza festival in 1991.
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Barnes and Noble
Produced by Dave Jerden and Jane's Addiction vocalist Perry Farrell, the album was more focused and packed more of a sonic wallop than its predecessor; the fiery performances often create an amazing sense that it could all fall apart at any second, creating a fantastic musical tension.
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Bumslogic
On August 23, 1988, a mesh-of-genres band from LA named Jane’s Addiction released their first proper studio album Nothing’s Shocking. Nothing’s Shocking hit the world like a musical meteor. The album had songs that any music listener could get into. The topics were edgy (for the time) and Perry Farrell’s vocal styling’s and voice effects were fascinating and unprecedented. The drumming was tribal and progressive, the bass playing was punkish, and the guitar style mixed the best of glam, hard rock, and psychedelic soundscapes.
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Good Reads
Jane's Addiction's 1988 breakthrough album, Nothing's Shocking, had a seismic impact. With a bracing combination of metal, punk, and psychedelia, coupled with lead singer Perry Farrell's banshee-ina- wind-tunnel vocals, Jane's Addiction helped put alternative music on the map.
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Mike Ladano
Perry Farrell’s voice is more aggressive and gravelly on this recording compared to his screechy sound on later albums. He’s not a great singer, but he possesses a unique voice that sells the material with conviction. His lyrical abilities are also superlative, with many of them being very personal.
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BBC
Jane’s Addiction are a peculiar band, one whose exotic, uncompromising initial body of work – 1988’s Nothing’s Shocking and 1990’s Ritual de lo Habitual – should have logically left them as the sort of cult act that mostly lived on in hipster namechecks following their split in 1991.
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You Tube Music Sucks
They significantly influenced alternative music in many ways great and small, and the band is widely regarded in alternative circles as a pioneer of grunge and alternative metal.
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Wikiwand
The basic tracks were recorded live over a single night in Los Angeles, with additional in-studio recording and overdubs done later. Several songs would be rerecorded for other releases.
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Vanyaland
The performative showmanship of legendary musician Perry Farrell is as enchanting as it is laudatory. The world was first introduced to him as the frontman of Jane’s Addiction, the immortal California quartet that helped define — and sustain — alternative rock in the early-’90s. Their 1988 debut album Nothing’s Shocking not only produced hits like “Jane Says” and “Mountain Song,” it managed to lionize Farrell as both a compelling storyteller and vocalist.
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The Tech
Their last album, Nothing's Shocking, as well as their live album, Jane's Addiction, were so well-produced that any attempt to sound like the record would have been doomed to failure.
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Rock In Town
Jane's Addiction, in its original incarnation (the late 80s - early '90s), was one of those bands that built a huge cult following but never reached the masses. Maybe they were better for it. With Perry Farrell (vocals), Eric Avery (bass, acoustic guitar), Dave Navarro (guitar) and Stephen Perkins (drums), Jane's Addiction plied Metal, Progressive Rock and Folk with a heady dexterity. Aside from the sprawling vistas provided by Navarro's guitar, Jane's Addiction was powered by Farrell's progressive lyrics. Never one to rehash Rock cliches, Farrell expanded the lyrical horizons taking shots at the current philosophical trends with "Pigs In Zen" or tapping into those moments that everyone has but can never articulate, "Standing In The Shower...Thinking." Both songs are on the group's premier effort "Nothing's Shocking."
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Moby Games
Add Nothing's Shocking (Album) to your Rock Band™ song library. Pack includes 'Up the Beach,' 'Ocean Size,' 'Had a Dad,' 'Ted, Just Admit It...,' 'Standing in the Shower... Thinking,' 'Summertime Rolls,' 'Idiots Rule,' 'Jane Says,' 'Thank You Boys,' 'Pig's in Zen' - Jane's Addiction.
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Stack
Perry Farrell, frontman for iconic alt-rock group Jane’s Addiction, lives “a little bit in [his] own world” by his own admission (to HuffPo in 2014), so when Warner didn’t quite grasp his idea for the cover art for Nothing’s Shocking – the band’s 1988 debut – he grasped matters into his own hands… twice.
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Las Vegas Weekly
The idea of a band performing a classic album in its entirety is pretty worn out by now, and Jane’s Addiction has such a slim discography (just four studio albums since 1988) that the pioneering alt-rockers are likely to play much of 1988 debut Nothing’s Shocking at any given concert. Still, it was a treat to hear the entire album start to finish at Brooklyn Bowl on Friday, and the full-album conceit gave the performance a welcome focus.
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Tomorrows Verse
The album introduced Jane’s to the mainstream, and is considered a masterpiece of the alternative genre.
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The Young Folks
But being underground only gets a band so far, and despite the great quality of their 1988 breakthrough Nothing’s Shocking, the band was still L.A.’s dirty secret. With all the hype (and drug abuse) swirling around them, Jane’s Addiction doubled down on the headbanging rock and the freaky alternative to create a flaming blaze of glory.
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Metacritic
Great album from start to finish.
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Acoustic Sounds
Nothing's Shocking successfully combined the sounds of 1970s arena rock and straddled the line between punk and post-punk. Nothing's Shocking can sometimes be very gentle and soothing, and then, just like that, it's aggressive and even ferocious. Elements of jazz, new-age and funk are interspersed throughout. The sound of the album is spacey, yet full; it's abstract, yet at the same time it's an album to which many listeners can connect.
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Minneapolis Music Blog
The album itself is raw and energetic, showcasing the band’s unique, funk driven alternative-metal sound. Nothing’s Shocking rocks throughout with the powerful “Ocean Size“, “Summertime Rolls” and “Mountain Song” being my favorites. It also features the studio version of “Jane Says”; easily the band’s most popular song ever.
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Independent
The nasal-voiced singer comes across as a complex, fascinating and slightly camp figure; a big-hearted maverick who has mellowed while retaining his edge and mystique.
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Transmissions Records
Nothing’s Shocking is the first major-label studio album by the American rock band Jane’s Addiction, released on August 23, 1988 through Warner Bros. Records.
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IPG 360
The extent to which side projects like Porno For Pyros have been overshadowed only really highlights how game-changing albums like Ritual de lo habitual and Nothing’s Shocking were, with the good will that’s carried over to today being especially pertinent.
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Talking Ship
Jane’s Addiction’s Nothing Shocking does everything right. In fact, I can’t think of any album in my frequent rotation that better spans the variety of emotions that define summer for me. At times a rocking explosion of energy (Had a Dad, Idiots Rule), and at others a mellow haze of relaxation tinged with naughty abandon (Ocean Size, Summertime Rolls), while bringing the fun with laugh-out-loud radio friendly jams (Jane Says, Standing in the Shower Thinking), Nothing Shocking never ceases to entertain.
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Books Google
Jane's Addiction's 1988 breakthrough album, Nothing's Shocking, had a seismic impact on the music scene of the late 80s. With a bracing combination of metal, punk, and psychedelica, coupled with lead singer Perry Farrell's banshee-in-a-windtunnel vocals, the arrival of Jane's Addiction put what would soon be co-opted as "alternative" on the map.
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STL Today
Decadence and titillation have long been part and parcel of the band’s image and presentation, and after all, even the group’s major-label debut album was titled “Nothing’s Shocking.”
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Seattle Pi
Back in 1988, Jane's Addiction released their major label debut, Nothing's Shocking. Objections to the cover art (a sculpture of nude female conjoined twins-oh, the horror!) and an unairable video for the single "Mountain Song" (also due to brief nudity) didn't help its prospects initially. Though it didn't make a huge commercial splash initially it has since become regarded as a rock classic.
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Robert Christgau
The Dream Syndicate in the age of metal worship, a/k/a Alice Cooper revisited. Of course, Alice didn't get this good until album three. Then again, album three had "I'm Eighteen" on it, and the new guys aren't humble enough to try for one of those. Or lucky enough to get one--as Alice has spent his life proving, talent didn't have much to do with it. But if they stick at it like the pros they'll be, they might land an "Only Women Bleed."
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Mr Hipster
Looking back at 1988 when this album came out, rock ‘n’ roll was mainly a wasteland. Like non-college-radio radio rock ‘n’ roll was atrocious. And Jane’s Addiction were the weirdos who could come in and bridge the gap between that alt rock thing and the hair metal that dominated the airwaves. It just sounded like absolutely nothing else, yet rocked so hard it hurt.
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Tv Tropes
Nothing's Shocking was released in 1988 to critical acclaim and commercial success, showcasing the band's fusion of numerous genres into a specific style (Alternative Metal with Funk and Psychedelic Rock influences), energetic performances and Farrell's unorthodox vocals. Heavy touring followed, solidifying their "rising star" status.
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Softpedia
Originally released in 1988, the album went on to become an iconic release, and these songs will certainly generate a big amount of profit for Harmonix.
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Awesome Totally Awesome
The album turned out to be so influential to alternative music and the beginnings of grunge, the band that went into LA’s Eldorado Studio to record it nearly broke up during production.
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Music Brainz
Nothing's Shocking is the first major-label studio album by the American rock band Jane's Addiction, released on August 23, 1988 through Warner Bros. Records. Nothing's Shocking was well received by critics, though it peaked at number 103 on the Billboard 200. The single "Jane Says" reached number six on the Billboard Modern Rock Tracks in 1988. Rolling Stone ranked it #312 on its "500 Greatest Albums of All Time".
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Sidespin
Jane’s Addiction, which was Perry Farrell (vocals), Dave Navarro (guitar), Eric Avery (bass), and Stephen Perkins (drums), was an underground juggernaut by the time the album was released. Their eponymous first album had sold well among fans but didn’t get much fanfare outside of those circles. Nothing’s Shocking really thrust the band into the musical consciousness.
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