The Will to Death

The Will to Death
Studio album by John Frusciante
Released June 22, 2004
Recorded December 2003 and January 2004
Length 42:23
Label Record Collection
Producer John Frusciante
John Frusciante chronology

Shadows Collide with People
(2004)
The Will to Death
(2004)
Automatic Writing
(2004)
Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
Allmusic [1]
Pitchfork Media (7.4/10)[2]

The Will to Death is the sixth studio album by John Frusciante, released on June 22, 2004 on Record Collection. The album reached #36 on the Top Independent Albums chart.[3]

The vinyl edition of the record saw a repressing from Record Collection on December 11, 2012. These reissued records are 180 gram and come with a download of choice between MP3 and WAV formats of the album.

Frequent collaborator Josh Klinghoffer appears, performing drums, bass, guitar, and keyboard.

Background and recording

In 2004 Frusciante announced that he would produce six albums during a six-month break from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, with The Will to Death being the first of these. Following the long and costly recording of his previous album, Shadows Collide With People, Frusciante decided to experiment with recording music quickly and in a minimalist fashion, performing a maximum of two takes per track.[4]

Frusciante has stated that the album is intended to be "the opposite of Shadows Collide With People":

On The Will to Death, I thought it would be a good idea to make a record with very little backing vocals, because we’d done it so much on Shadows. I always have to have a new idea for each album. For The Will to Death, the idea was to have very little backing vocals. There’s a lot of other huge differences. In every way, I wanted the opposite of Shadows.

On January 16, 2013, John provided a definition and theory of "The Will To Death" on his website. [5]

Track listing

All songs written and composed by John Frusciante, unless otherwise noted. 

No. Title Length
1. "A Doubt"   4:19
2. "An Exercise"   3:47
3. "Time Runs Out"   4:00
4. "Loss"   5:20
5. "Unchanging"   3:54
6. "The Mirror"   3:02
7. "A Loop"   4:32
8. "Wishing"   2:48
9. "Far Away"   2:17
10. "The Days Have Turned"   2:23
11. "Helical" (John Frusciante, Josh Klinghoffer) 2:13
12. "The Will To Death"   3:48

Personnel

The following people contributed to The Will to Death:[6]

Musicians

Recording personnel

Artwork

References

  1. Allmusic review
  2. Pitchfork Media review
  3. "John Frusciante Chart Performance". Billboard. Retrieved 2007-09-17.
  4. "John's Letter About the Album". John Frusciante. Retrieved 2008-07-22.
  5. "The Creative Act". John Frusciante. Retrieved 2014-07-17.
  6. The Will to Death liner notes

External links