With their mark left firmly in the roots of the late-'80s alternative movement,
Jane's Addiction sired a hog's litter of new bands -- devotees and copycats alike -- and sliced a bloody (but sexy) gouge in the side of college and (later) mainstream radio that's still healing, decades on. They took the stale, empty, last gasps of the Reagan era and smothered them under a purple, leopard-print throw pillow, threw genre classifications out the door and sexed up listeners while blowing them away. They brought the world Lollapalooza and
Dave Navarro's abs and, for this, the world should be eternally grateful. If you missed any of that the first time around, it's time to get your head right. Warner Brothers and Rhino have saved you the trouble of buying up a whole discography's worth of good stuff by distilling most of the best bits down to
Up from the Catacombs: The Best of Jane's Addiction. While any alterna-kid worth his chain wallet should be forced to own
Nothing's Shocking and
Ritual de lo Habitual,
Up from the Catacombs does a surprisingly good job of delivering
Jane's Addiction's goods in a compact package. Save for two tracks included from their 2003 "comeback" album,
Strays, all of the stuff here is essential. In fact, it's all so good that within a week of purchase, this collection is going to inspire newbies to toss it to the used-record bin in favor of the stellar full-lengths. ~ J. Scott McClintock