For the past couple of weeks, I've been suffering from a couple of things. For one, writer's block. For two, depression that my Pearl Jam 2003 Tour Experience is over, and that it will be a long time before I see my PJ buds again. And for three, just plain ole depression thanks to some gloomy weather, sleep deprivation, and thinking too much. But this album screamed out to me to be written about, so I'm giving it my best shot...even if that isn't necessarily my best...

When Jane's Addiction broke up at the conclusion of the inaugural Lollapalooza tour in 1991, music fans were both saddened and shocked. How could a band on the brink of world domination just call it a day? How could a band who had only started to see what their talents could bring with regards to record and concert sales say goodbye then? From a career standpoint, Jane's Addiction should have been a happy band. But in reality, they were self destructive, unhappy, couldn't get along with each other, and just couldn't handle the grind as it were.

Jane's was a band that released three albums, although most people only know and or care about the last two. Nothing's Shocking, the band's major label debut, was so radically different from anything else out at the time that it was one of the first records to be stuck with the "alternative rock" label. With Ritual De Lo Habitual, the band broke through to greater mainstream success thanks to the single Been Caught Stealing, and with the success of Nirvana coinciding, Alternative Nation was born. (As an aside, I still remember to this day the day my mother banned the song Wh*res from ever being played in her house again, it was the only time my mom imposed any kind of real censorship on what her kids listened to, and I'll never forget the look of shock on my brother Mark's face as she told him "that song will not be played again in my house!!!")

Over the years, demand for Jane's was high though. In 1997, the band did a song for the Howard Stern movie Private Parts, and soon, the Relapse Tour was born, complete with an odds and ends album called Kettle Whistle. Flea of the Chili Peppers took over on bass for the uninterested Eric Avery, and the tour was a modest success.

In 2001, the band got together again for a tour, but it soon became obvious they couldn't live off of the old material forever, so plans for the first Jane's Addiction album in over a decade were put into place. The band asked Avery to step back into his place, but he refused, offering lead singer Perry Farrell his friendship instead (Perry reportedly refused).

So with that comes this week's release of Strays, an album that recalls past Jane's Addiction glories, while moving forward into the present. It's a hard rocking album that defies current genres such as "rap/rock" or "pop/punk." Rather, it is an album of hard edged rock and roll, and for that, it is all the more refreshing.

It begins with some electronic doodling before Perry yells out "Here we go!!!" and the band kicks in at full force for True Nature. First and foremost, the questions about new bass player Chris Chaney are answered in the first few songs of the disc. He proves himself an adept player, and is not lost in the background, as some suspected might happen to gloss over the loss of Avery. Instead, he's fully in the mix, laying down some positively thundering basslines.

Speaking of thundering, that is probably the only way to describe guitarist Dave Navarro on this disc. Well, ok, there is another way: he is an absolute BEAST on this record, from front to back. On these eleven songs, he single handedly manages to put every single nu-metal band's guitarist out to pasture with excellent riffs and squealing solos.

The opening trifecta (True Nature, Strays and first single Just Because) is extremely strong. Just Because is an obvious choice for first single, given it's somewhat streamlined guitar riff and the anthemic vocal delivery of Farrell.

But as you delve deeper into the album, you start to see that the band still has the goods for more than a song or two. Suffer Some has a great stuttering guitar riff, and Hypersonic (originally the title for the album as well) is exactly that, with the frenetic beat laid down by steady as always drummer Stephen Perkins, and yet another nice riff from Navarro.

As for the bad, the band's longtime obsession with falling into trippy, Pink Floyd-like spurts continues here, most notably on Price I Pay and The Riches. I wouldn't have a problem with the ethereal parts of those songs except they don't really feel like they belong in those specific songs to me.

That aside though, Strays should be a hard rocker's delight. It brings back a time of solid riffs that aren't just loud power chords bludgeoning you to death, a vocalist who knows his range and sticks to it, and a rhythm section that is actually adept at what they do. In other words, this is a band with undeniable talent and charisma, who have made one of the better hard rock albums of the past few years. It won't change the world, and there's nothing as catchy as Been Caught Stealing, or as essential as Jane Says, but it rocks hard while challenging me a bit. And that, my friends, is all I've wanted for quite some time now.

Recommended: Yes