Red Hot Chili Peppers - Californication
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Free Music Notes for Californication
Free Music Review: Sequel Just As Good?
Hit: 5 Stars
'One Hot Minute' is the proposed and known follow-up to 'Blood Sugar Sex Magik', but in a way, it really isn't. John F. had a leave of absence and Navarro came in. To this day, the boys of RHCP will always say how it never worked right. While 'One Hot Minute' is an exceptional album, it never came to the right anticipation that was expected after 'Blood...'. But then again, that's a really arduous task to do, but in 1999, the real follow up came. Enter 'Californication.''Around the World' starts and I get shivers. I just realize how amazing this album is and how exceptional the band is. With the opening bass lines and the killer drums, Anhtony wails loud and he yells to the fans, 'We are back.'
Coming back from a long hiatus, it was long overdue that RHCP released an album. This time, they had it down. Winning awards like no other and releasing single after single, 'Californication' became, yet again, another prolific album for RHCP.
The singles, 'Scar Tissue', 'Californication', 'Otherside', and 'Around the World' are all exceptional. They are songs that everyone relates to and they are songs that stick with you. 'Californication' has some of the strongest lyrics I have listened to in awhile. With talk to lust and sadism, the band touches not only personal problems, but social problems. 'Scar Tissue' is a memoir to what happened after 'Blood...'. The band has scars, it has history, yet they still redeem themselves, one time after another. This case being one of them.
Even the other songs, not the singles, are exceptional. Songs like 'Paralell Universe' and 'Get on Top' are so classic. They are catchy admittingly, but they are really, lamely said, 'rocking.' 'Get On Top' is definitely a reminder and set back to the early work.
While many consider this their best work, it isn't, but close. Why? Without 'Blood...' this would never have existed. You can't measure that, but all in all 'Californication' is their top best and a definitive follow up. While 'Blood...' is first touching upon emotional aspects, this one broadens them. As far as I'm concerned, 'Californication' looks almost like a finale, but we know about 'By The Way.'
Do I suggest this?
Of course.
Free Music Review: a future classic
Hit: 5 Stars
I might be writing this review too late, but maybe, this will add up some perspective to it. When I first listened to this album I was 17, it was 10 years ago, in 2001. I loved it then, and I still love it.
I knew from the first listens that this album would become a classic. It might not have happened yet, but it will. Some classics are obvious from the first moment, whereas some others require time. This might be the second case, and by classic I mean an album that is regarded as an icon, something that you like or dislike, but you respect and look at with some sort of awe. For instance, I don't think anyone is able to objectively judge Picasso's Gernika or Da Vinci's Giocconda, but no one will deny their cultural relevance, or, if you wish, their status as fetish.
Today, this album hasn't yet reached the condition I am talking about, and that is why it is still possible for me to evaluate it with equanimity. Or at least with subjective equanimity, since music is subjective.
Anyway, my oppinion on this album is that it has a lot of personality. Its identity is very strong, I can see every song shares a common vibe. Then I think everything flows with grace, nothing is forced, the songs are beautifully arranged, the second voices are beautiful, the solos are well placed. I like each song individually and I enjoy diving into the mood that this album conveys. Forcing the concept and the air of Californication a bit more would make it redundant, not fresh. It is ambitious as far as it should be, it is a milestone, a risky business, the top of an stylistic mountain in which only one album fits. After this, the only way to keep up with it is by trying something different, which is, to some extent, only some extent, what "By The Way" represents. All in all, this album deserves all my admiration, and even if I enjoy some ulterior attempts by the Chili Peppers to repeat the ballad formula of which Californication has so many brilliant examples, I can see they don't work very well, they are out of place.
Free Music Review: The Chili Peppers come back from the dead!
Hit: 5 Stars
8 long years had passed since the Red Hot Chili Peppers released their seminal album Blood Sugar Sex Magick, and in this turbulent time period the Red Hot Chili Peppers experienced plenty of upheaval including numerous lineup changes, after guitarist John Frusciante abruptly left the band and rode the downward spiral of heroin addiction, as well as the drug problems of lead singer Anthony Kiedis. The band's outlook improved when John Frusciante decided to rejoin the band, finally beating the addiction that robbed him of a once-promising career.
The result of their work is one of the finest albums of the 90's, a critical and commercial smash. The opener "Around the World" hits hard and mixes a funky bass line with Anthony's rap/sing style. Anthony's voice sounds world's better than on previous albums, and his range is impressive, as he sings his way through a majority of the album. Songs like "Otherside" simply would not have been possible earlier in his singing career.
The album reaches its zenith with the title track "Californication," which deals with California's influence on the rest of the world, a song that may be one of the finest in the storied career of the band. John really stands out on this song with a great solo that makes the listener glad that he cleaned up and rejoined the band. "Scar Tissue" rides one of the most recognizable guitar riffs and shows why Frusciante is one of the top rock guitarists working today.
The band reminds you of where they came from with funky tracks like "Get on Top," "I Like Dirt" and "Purple Stain" that showcases Flea's bass and wouldn't be out of place on Mother's Milk or Blood Sugar Sex Magick.
In short there's really something for everyone, both old school fans and casual listeners will fall in love with the reborn Red Hot Chili Peppers, and this album really marked a turning point with the band mostly abandoning the funk/rap style for a more mature, world weary sound that would dominate on later albums.
Free Music Review: Best of the Best
Hit: 5 Stars
I'd have to say that of all the RHCP CD's this, one's the best. The one thing I do miss on it, though, is the FUNK! It has virtually none. However, I can over look this because of the other great kinds of music this album explores, such as the more hard-rock thing, which was non-existant in their other great album, BSSM. I think I'll review all of the songs just cuz I can!All around the world-B+--Good song, fun to listen too, but it looses it's luster over time.
Parrallell Universe-B--Not bad, but a completely new genre for the peppers. You can tell they haven't polished it yet.
Scar Tissue-A--A mighty fine song. Not as whiney as Otherside, which I like. Still, not the best.
Otherside-A--I just had to give this track an A. It really has feeling and an interesting message. CAN get old, though.
Get on top-C+--a bit out of place on this album, lyrically. Would've fit better on BSSM in that sense.
Californication-A+--Never get tired of this track. Even though it's focused on LA, I link the messages to a lot of things.
Easily-B+--Possibley containing some of the best lyrics on the whole thing, but the beat is a bit repetitive.
Porcelain-A--Nice break. Haunting, if u ask me.
Emmit Remmus-C--Definately the weakest track.
I like dirt-C+--Entertaining for a while. I'm glad they concealed the sex a bit more on this than BSSM.
This velvet glove-A+--GREAT song. Shows how the peppers have progressed with their haroin addictions.
Savior-B--The quiter part is great. However, the rest is musically lacking.
Purple stain-B+--I personally like this track. One of the more sex-related tracks on the CD.
Right on time-B+-- ... confusing. I really am not sure what it's about. Nice tune.
Road trippin-A--Not a great subject, but good lyrics and a mighty fine tune.
This was the first RHCP album I got and it remains the best in my mind.
Free Music Review: Red Hot Chili Peppers - Californication
Hit: 5 Stars
Hearing Californication is like looking deep into the album's cover art. The album gives 15 tracks; all with a different story or feeling to tell. Whether it be the melancholy "Scar Tissue" or the bouncy sexual rythms on "I Like Dirt" that make the Chili Pepper's signature sound. To some extent, 'One Hot Minute'is a weak effort from the then 'incomplete' Peppers and they shell out all their creative energies on this. Most definitevly, I feel this album surpases all of the other albums in terms of maturity and depth, not to say that the other albums didn't have it. Not only that, but the poetry that Anthony Kiedis bestows upon in Californication is the best I have ever heard.The album itself is a mix of bitter and sweet and the ever energetic sound of the Peppers. Without a doubt, the highlight of the album is the title track, that builds you up to an amazing blend of piercing guitar riffs and some of the greatest lyrics of modern rock. I think that you can divide the album into two sincere pieces that can not be termed in any other way but 'Past' and 'Future'. There are a few songs that remind me of past Pepper songs with a few twists and ultimately the songs that define the 'new energy',if you will, that the Chili's have constructed. Undoubtably, this is a much different band than the one who wrote "Out in L.A.", and the change is great.
I have heard Californication and a bit of the new material for the follow-up due in Spring, and it is a great thing to look forward to. If you were to buy an album that gave you words and sound to every emotion that you can ever feel, take Californication. Not only that, but buy it to admire and witness a metamorphosis that begun with "Out in L.A." and hasn't ended yet. There is much to look forward to, and much more to pioneer for the already accomplished Chili Peppers. This is truly an exquisite album.