Ritual de lo Habitual

Ritual de lo Habitual is the third studio album by Jane’s Addiction, released on August 21, 1990 on Warner Brothers. It was the band’s final album before their first break up in 1991. Singles include “Been Caught Stealing” and “Stop!”.

The album is roughly broken into two parts. Tracks 1-5 consist of unrelated hard rock style songs. The cassette tape of this album has about ten minutes of silence on side “A”. Tracks 6-9, as a whole are in memoriam of singer Perry Farrell’s deceased friend known as Xiola Blue, who died of a heroin-overdose in 1987 at the age of 19 (“Then She Did” also chronicles Farrell’s mother’s suicide when he was 4 years old). “Three Days” and “Then She Did,” in particular, have a heavy progressive rock influence, while “Of Course” carries a heavy Eastern-influence, reminiscent of Led Zeppelin’s Kashmir, with a prominent violin throughout. Guitar World magazine rated the guitar solo in “Three Days” as the 100th greatest solo of all time, and many rock critics rate it amongst the best. In 2003, the album was ranked number 453 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time (despite receiving a 2/5 star review upon release). It is usually considered a masterpiece of alternative rock, and, pre-dating Nirvana’s Nevermind by a year, serves as a forecast of the coming decade.