Ritual de lo habitual is the second studio album by Jane's Addiction, released on August 21, 1990, by Warner Brothers. Co-produced by Dave Jerden, it was the band's final studio album before their initial break-up in 1991. Singles from Ritual de lo Habitual include "Been Caught Stealing" and "Stop!". Ritual de lo habitual is certified 2× Platinum in the U.S. In 1990, just one month after being released, the album had sold 500,000 units.
Music
The album is divided into halves. Tracks 1–5 are unrelated hard rock songs. The cassette version of the album has about ten minutes of silence on side A, because side B is ten minutes longer. Tracks 6–9 are in memoriam of singer Perry Farrell's deceased girlfriend Xiola Blue, who died of a heroin overdose in 1987 at the age of 19. "Three Days" and "Then She Did" bear a progressive rock influence, while "Of Course" carries a klezmer influence, with a prominent violin throughout. "Then She Did" also chronicles Farrell's mother's suicide when he was four years old. "It's probably one of the reasons we were brought together…" remarked guitarist Dave Navarro, whose mother was murdered when he was a teenager. "I have memories of us being onstage together and, before we played 'Then She Did', Perry would grab me and say, 'Let's do this for our moms.' I still get chills when I think about it." "When you have something like that happen…" noted Farrell, "the better thing to do is to try to make some flowers grow out of it." "Ain't No Right" begins with Farrell singing excerpts from "Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll" by Ian Dury and the Blockheads against a dub reggae backdrop of a drum machine and synthesized bass, which he eventually slurs into a profanity-laced rant. The intro ends and "Ain't No Right" begins. "I can spot traces of other people on this album, us included," remarked Alice Cooper, "but that's all they are: traces. They were a really original band. This is their peak album, where they really went out on a limb. Sometimes I get so caught up in these songs, I can actually feel the band pushing themselves to their limits. Sometimes I can't believe how strong it is. I wonder if this will have the same effect on some kid as Chuck Berry had on me ..."
Packaging
Two versions of the disc packaging were created: one album featured cover artwork by singer Perry Farrell, related to the song "Three Days" and including male and female nudity; the other cover has been called the "clean cover", and features only black text on a white background, listing the band name, album name, and the text of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The back cover of the "clean cover" also contains the text:
Hitler's syphilis-ridden dreams almost came true. How could it happen? By taking control of the media. An entire country was led by a lunatic… We must protect our First Amendment, before sick dreams become law. Nobody made fun of Hitler??!
The "clean cover" was created so the CD could be distributed in stores which refused to stock items with represented nudity.
Critical reception
Ritual De Lo Habitual was acclaimed by music critics, similar to the bands previous album. The gigantic swerve and swagger of 'Stop', the Chili Pepperish taunts of 'Ain't No Right', 'Of Course's raga rocking and, above all, the epic 'Three Days', where guitarist David Navarro gets to pile the layers shoulder high, prove to be the stuff of true compulsion," wrote Peter Kane in Q. "Enigmatic, audacious and unpredictable to the last." "It all makes you realise how few bands actually bother to try and be any good, to play stuff that's inspirational," enthused Andrew Perry in a retrospective review for Select. The same magazine later listed Ritual as the fifth best album of the '90s: "Nevermind would never have been possible without it. And, along the way, they ushered in the Led Zep revival." The album was voted the 24th best of 1990 in The Village Voices Pazz & Jop, an annual poll of American critics nationwide. Robert Christgau, the poll's supervisor, remained unimpressed by the album, dismissing it as "junk syncretism ". In 2003, the album was ranked number 453 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time. The album was also included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.
