Porno For Pyros
Good God's Urge
(1996) Warner Bros. Records

So this is the clean Perry Farrell, is it? Very new age. I listen to this cd when the outside world gets too stressful and I need to mellow out and daydream. It's an excellent recording for that purpose, but I doubt the music will translate well into a live performance.

Lots of guest musicians here, including Dave Navarro and Flea from Red Hot Chili Peppers and a couple of dudes from Love and Rockets. Sadly, the songs are too short to notice the contributions of these talented outsiders and the album ends too quickly.

Perry is a talented producer and lyricist, but he needs Dave Navarro (his guitarist from Jane's Addiction) more than he'll ever know. I'm just glad the two of them remain on speaking terms. The P4P sound is indistinct because the guitars are weak, and the drumming is underemphasized... very UNlike Jane's Addiction. However, where Jane's was hypnoticly self-assured music, P4P tunes are mildly confident with rich texture and interesting transitions. The bass lines are vastly improved from their first self-titled release thanks mainly to the addition of Mike Watt's expertise in that area.

My major complaint with Good God's Urge is the same one I had with P4P's last release: The length. 38 minutes is far too short for a full-priced cd, especially when the band took almost three years to put the damned thing out.

I'm still holding out for a Jane's Addiction reunion of some kind... Hell, the members are all still young, alive and creative and I would NOT be offended or insulted if they got back together and recorded some new tunes.

–Mattro