After descending into the depths of tortured fame followed by an early ’90s struggle with hardcore drugs, Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist John Frusciante emerged and brought with him enough demons and emotions to fill his third solo album, “To Record Only Water for Ten Days.” The album is quite different from Frusciante’s work with the Peppers, who most recently released 1999’s smash album “Californication.”Frusciante’s solo creation is much less funky than anything on “Californication,” and for good reason. The depth and sobriety of the lyrics on the album would be hard to take seriously with the poppier rhythms of past Pepper albums.The lyrical imagery pulls the listener into Frusciante’s heavy, introspective world. “I answer these questions now/ As to why I’m the only one/ Who carries answers to their fathers/ Who carries grey sky to the sun,” he sings on “Away & Anywhere.” On some songs, Frusciante’s voice sounds exposed and tinny, as if he were singing into an aluminum can.Usually this could cause an album to sound cheap and poorly produced, but in Frusciante’s case, it only adds to the enchanting ruggedness of the whole package. The stark vocals and lyrics neatly compliment Frusciante’s skilled guitar-work and synthesized beats to create soft electronic waves of sound that lap gently at the distant shores of the listener’s mind. The result is an ambient rawness and simplicity that pervade every track on the album. But not raw in the sense of incomplete or lacking — raw in the sense of refreshingly stripped-down. With “To Record Only Water for Ten Days,” Frusciante has proven that in addition to playing the part of the crazy Chili Pepper guitarist who has been known to grace the stage in nothing but a strategically placed sock, he can effectively flex his more serious singer/songwriter muscle as well.— Bethany Kohoutek

The seventh volume of Cafe Del Mar could be called one of the best representations of life on Ibiza. Ibiza is an island that is off the coast of Spain, where there are beaches and many different clubs that run 24 hours a day. At first, one may be of the belief that this album was created for the supreme purpose of listening to while procreating. However, that is not the case.While this compilation does not symbolize the nightclub atmosphere, it definitely promotes the peacefulness of watching the sun rise from the island after a night of partying.Although some of these tracks may be unknown to the music listener, there is a track from Moby titled “Whispering Wind.” It may be one of the most down-tempo pieces of music Moby has ever created.There is also a track from Bush on this record. Of course, those who have some type of background on ambient-trance music would question why Bush would make it on such a compilation.The Bush track is a N.O.W. remix of “Letting The Cables Sleep,” which was originally released on their “Science Of Things” album in October of 1999.Even though Bush has been dubbed alternative music, the remix is definitely high quality and fits within the whole Ibiza theme and ambient-trance genre.The release date for Mercury Records’ next installment of Cafe Del Mar is set sometime during the upcoming summer . — Tom McGrath