Refreshment, even for addicts

Porno For Pyros, which has one of the greatest band names of all time, is often hailed as the band that didn’t live up to the legacy of Jane’s Addiction. On Good Gods Urge , the band makes it clear that they’re not trying to.

Perry Farrell said that Warner Bros didn’t like this album. Of course Farrell, Porno’s often brilliant but ultimately wacky lead singer, says a lot of things. In this case, the former Jane’s Addiction frontman and Lollapalooza founder was likely being honest, because this album is truly a departure from what fans (and record producers) had come to expect from Porno. The searing L.A. Riot-themed funk/alt-rock of the band’s self-titled debut is replaced in Good Gods Urge with a more mature, laid-back and trippy sound.

The album is highly produced – the ten songs were recorded separately, so each has unique complexities in texture. The simpler, acoustic-guitar driven pieces (“Bali Eyes,” “Kimberley Austin”) remain crisp, clean, and sincere. The band reaches the other end of the spectrum as well, with self-consciously effect-laden songs like the subdued and ponderous “Thick of It All,” or the more syncopated and abrasive “Freeway” (which features an exciting guest appearance of former Jane’s guitarist Dave Navarro and Red Hot Chili Pepper’s bassist Flea). Most compelling are the songs that lie somewhere in-between, where Perry uses his newly restrained voice to bring out elaborate melodies, and the production is used in service of the songs and not in place of the songs. “Porpoise Head” (a play on the eminent trip-hop band Portishead, and featuring members of Love and Rockets), “100 Ways,” “Tahitian Moon,” and the album’s title track all represent Farrell’s best songwriting. “Tahitian Moon” in particular has an inventive, rocking verse that crashes in to a soothing chorus reminiscent of the ingenious bridge in Jane’s Addiction’s “Stop.”

The real drawback to this album (and perhaps the reason Farrell has since disbanded the group in favor of electronica) is that the performance is not terribly tight. We could let Jane’s Addiction get away with some pretension and bombast because at the end of the day they could flat-out play – but Porno never seemed to match the former group’s sonic and rhythmic chemistry. What Good Gods Urge features is not virtuosity in execution, but instead a thoughtful, richly layered and unique set of songs.