To Record Only Water for Ten Days
| To Record Only Water for Ten Days | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
||||
| Studio album by John Frusciante | ||||
| Released | February 13, 2001 | |||
| Recorded | 2000 | |||
| Genre | Experimental rock, art rock, new wave, synthpop, psychedelic rock, lo-fi | |||
| Length | 42:20 | |||
| Label | Warner Bros. | |||
| Producer | John Frusciante | |||
| John Frusciante chronology | ||||
|
||||
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Aggregate scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | 66/100 |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |   |
| NME | 7/10 |
| Rolling Stone | |
To Record Only Water for Ten Days is the third solo album by American musician John Frusciante, released in 2001 through Warner Music Group. Unlike his previous two solo albums, Niandra Lades and Usually Just a T-Shirt and Smile from the Streets You Hold, the record differs significantly in that Frusciante explores elements of electronica, synthpop and new wave.
Following a month in rehab for his heroin addiction and his rejoining the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Frusciante felt deeply connected to the spiritual plane and was inspired by the many visions he had of spirits; the ideology of recording water for ten days refers to ten separate periods of time in which an album is conceived. In an interview he explained that the title comes from a symbolic picture of his body being a tape recorder that records the water for ten days as a way to take his "chemical makeup" off, in order to make a possible representation of the feelings and places he wanted to represent through music. Frusciante was encouraged to record the album by producer Jimmy Boyle who had helped him overcome his addiction. The lyrics express this theme and deal mostly with philosophical and spiritual matters as well as delving into his usual brand of psychedelia-tinged personalism.
Frusciante's main influences for this album were 1980s synthpop, post-punk and electronica bands that did their own programming, including bands such as Depeche Mode and New Order.
Frusciante recorded the album after kicking his addiction to heroin. As with his first two albums, Niandra Lades and Usually Just a T-Shirt and Smile from the Streets You Hold, Frusciante recorded this album at home. But while he had taken a conspicuously lo-fi approach on the earlier albums, using a 4-track cassette recorder and even a boombox, he produced To Record Only Water for Ten Days in much higher fidelity. Frusciante switched to a Yamaha MD8 – a digital 8-track recorder that used Minidisc technology – to record the raw tracks, which he later transferred to analog tape for further individual track equalization. All guitars were recorded direct-in without amplification.
...
Wikipedia