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Strays
08/27/2003 10:00 PM, Yahoo! Music
Rob O'Connor
Perry Farrell likes to think of himself as an "alternative" kind of guy, a freak for whom conventional mores are just so much yucky middle America maw-paw tradition. So imagine what it must have been like for the guy when he realized his next move was to reunite his old band (with new bassist Chris Chaney), throttle up another Lollapalooza (the same festival he once created to say goodbye to Jane's) and record a new album with a classic rock producer such as Bob Ezrin. Mr. Alternative teams up with the guy who polished Pink Floyd and toughened up Alice Cooper. Could baking pies with grandma be far behind? Now, Dave Navarro's always been a hard rock guitarist under the jazzy digressions and drummer Stephen Perkins never had to scatter around the beat. He has drum, he will pummel. So, it turns out even Perry, the incorrigible one, listens, if not to directions, to classic rock albums to get his anthemic godhead on. So, what gives? Ironically, this may be their most conventional and best album. What that actually means could decide the future of "alternative" music as we know it. Or maybe "alternative" music was never what we thought it was to begin with.
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