YMMV / Jane's Addiction

• Awesome Music - "Mountain Song", "Been Caught Stealing".
  • Basically all of Ritual de lo habitual and Nothing's Shocking, really. Side two of Ritual deserves special mention because no one else was recording music like that in 1990, or at least not to any degree of commercial success.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment:
  • "Thank You Boys" from Nothing's Shocking, a minute-long upbeat jazz instrumental that sounds like nothing else on the album. Also qualifies as a Gainax Ending for the original vinyl release (CD issues end with "Pigs In Zen").
  • To a lesser extent, the opening to "Ain't No Right" - an unrelated reggae jam based around a lyrical Shout-Out to "Sex and Drugs and Rock and Roll" by Ian Dury and The Blockheads, which fades into the proper song after just under a minute. It fits the theme of the song, but it's really weird and stylistically out of place.
• Black Sheep Hit: "Jane Says" is a soft-rock ballad with a steel drum. Quite uncharacteristic for an Alternative Metal band.
• Even Better Sequel: Ritual de lo habitual is often seen as one to Nothing's Shocking due to the increased complexity and emotional depth of the compositions, although finding people who like the earlier album more isn't too difficult.
• Epic Riff: "Mountain Song" has an unforgettable one.
• Fanon Discontinuity: Lots of people disparage or outright ignore Strays, and nobody really cares about the live album Jane's Addiction. Actually, the good rule of thumb here would be: it's not a JA album if the cover doesn't have any nudity.
• Growing the Beard: No one much talks about the self-titled. Nothing's Shocking is where they established themselves as a force to be reckoned with and Ritual de lo habitual solidified their reputation.
• Heartwarming Moments: They have a few, particularly "Summertime Rolls", which practically borders on Silly Love Songs (though it's sung too passionately to feel like one), and "Classic Girl", which, after the unrelenting bleakness of the three preceding songs, feels like a serious case of Earn Your Happy Ending.
• Life Imitates Art: Jane did eventually get to Spain. And off drugs.
• Refrain from Assuming: "Ted, Just Admit It..." tends to get called "Nothing's Shocking" - it has a Non-Appearing Title, but repeatedly does an Album Title Drop of Nothing's Shocking. "Sex Is Violent" is another common guess, and confusingly enough the edited version on the Natural Born Killers soundtrack album is called "Sex Is Violent".
• Signature Song: Fans say either "Mountain Song" or "Been Caught Stealing", though "Jane Says" has proved a surprising success among the general public.
• Song Association: "Stop" appeared in Burnout Paradise, while "Just Because" was featured in Forza Horizon 2. "Mountain Song" was a disc song in Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero World Tour. "Stop" was a disc song song in Guitar Hero 2 as the encore song for Tier 6. Nothing's Shocking and "Stop" later became downloadable content for the Rock Band series.
• Tear Jerker: The intro of "Three Days," most of "Then She Did...", but especially the end, beginning with the part where Farrell tells Xiola to say hi to his mother
• Tough Act to Follow: Nothing they do in the future will ever have the impact of Nothing's Shocking and Ritual de lo habitual.
• Values Dissonance: Much of the second half of Ritual deals with the loss of Farrell's former lover Xiola Blue. It didn't get a lot of attention at the time, but the fact that Blue was 14 and Farrell 20 when they first started dating would lead to accusations of grooming and pedophilia towards Farrell today.
• Values Resonance: A lot of Ritual de lo habitual seems almost ahead of its time in terms of its lyrical content, given the anti-racism Aesop in "No One's Leaving", the Green Aesop in "Stop!", the Ethical Hedonism espoused in "Ain't No Right", and so on. It also helps that the album celebrates sexuality without actually objectifying women, which was something not many other male rock musicians besides Prince were managing to do at the time.
• Vindicated by History: Nothing's Shocking wasn't a big commercial hit at release, barely selling 200,000 copies in its first year. However, as the bands legacy grew overtime it got more attention, and it was even given a Platinum certification ten years after its release.