Deciding that production values equals corporate sell-out, guitarist John Frusciante abandoned the Red Hot Chili Peppers to record this album of variations on his famous "Under the Bridge" guitar riff. Supplemented by deeply personal lyrics, low-fi recording fuzz and a voice like Adam Sandler, Frusciante mines a few wonderfully raw songs that sound like they've been scraped from the depths of his soul. Most of the songs, however, are ruined the second Frusciante starts yelping into the microphone. Niandra Lades and Usually Just A T-Shirt is a lead singer away from being a truly nifty album. Somebody call Sammy Hagar.

-Brian Bruxvoort