The album proved to be a great commercial and critical success. The album broke into the top 20 on the Billboard 200, sold 500,000 units within a month of its release. The album has received critical acclaim since its release, and is regarded as a classic of Alternative Rock, alongside its predecessor, Nothing's Shocking.
Jane's Addiction's first album, Nothing's Shocking, received widespread critical acclaim and helped bring the group to prominence in Alternative Rock circles, despite underperforming commercially due to censorship.
The album is divided into halves. Tracks one through five are hard rock songs unrelated to each other, dealing with subjects such as stealing ("Been Caught Stealing") and anti-racism ("No One's Leaving") Tracks six through nine are in memoriam of singer Perry Farrell's deceased girlfriend Xiola Blue, who died of a heroin overdose in 1987 at the age of 18. "Three Days" and "Then She Did" bear a progressive rock influence, while "Of Course" carries a klezmer influence, with a prominent violin throughout. Eric Avery refused to play bass on "Of Course" out of resentment from being told what to play on other songs.
Recording engineer and guitar tech Ronnie S. Champagne, who would later confess that Farrell had a tendency to dictate the other members' parts during the recording of this album, ended up playing bass on the song instead. For his part, Avery would later admit regret not playing on the track.
"Then She Did" also chronicles Farrell's mother's suicide when he was four years old. "It's probably one of the reasons we were brought together…" remarked guitarist Dave Navarro, whose mother was murdered when he was a teenager. "I have memories of us being onstage together and, before we played 'Then She Did', Perry would grab me and say, 'Let's do this for our moms.' I still get chills when I think about it." "When you have something like that happen…" noted Farrell, "the better thing to do is to try to make some flowers grow out of it."
Two versions of the disc packaging were created: one album featured cover artwork of a papier mâché sculpture co-created by artist Casey Niccoli and singer Perry Farrell that visually referenced the Santería religion. The artwork was related to the song "Three Days" and includes male and female nudity.
The second cover has been called the "clean cover", and features only black text on a white background, listing the band name, album name, and the text of the First Amendment (the "freedom of speech" amendment, erroneously referred to as "Article 1", which in reality establishes the legislative branch of government) of the U.S. Constitution. The "clean cover" was created so the CD could be distributed in stores which refused to stock items with represented nudity.
The album was preceded by two singles, Stop! and Three Days, both released on August 2, 1990. The album was released on August 23, 1990, and proved to be a major commercial success, peaking at number 19 on the Billboard 200 and selling half a million copies within one month of its release.
The band broke up in 1991 after playing their last shows in Australia and Hawaii. "It's weird to be at the end of a cycle like that," remarked Avery, "having run the gamut of the usual 'rock story' from beginning to end: you get signed, get strung out, break up."
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