Red Hot Chili Peppers - Californication (Californication - Red Hot Chili Peppers)

Member Name: carlmcq

Product:	Californication - Red Hot Chili Peppers
Date:	12/11/09 (83 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great music from massive band

Disadvantages: None!

The Red Hot Chili Peppers - a band plenty of people like, but not that many people love or own their entire back catalogue. The reason? Well, arguably some of their oldest albums from back in the 80's (yes, they've been around that long) were uncoordinated, seriously lacked consistency and failed to break them into the mainstream. Then Blood Sugar Sex Magik came along with tracks such as Under the Bridge and Give It Away and hey presto they had arrived...and then they brought out One Hot Minute and they were back to square one. The next album had to be brilliant...say hello to Californication.

Released in June 1999 on Warner Bros, I'd happily like to point out it was the first album I ever brought that wasn't a ridiculous popular compilation CD. Produced by famous music producer Rick Rubin, it was the return to the band of the great guitarist of John Frusciante, after the arrival of Jane's Addiction's Dave Navarro on One Hot Minute. This seemed to change their sound - perhaps mellow it out in a number of places, as hinted in some songs of Blood Sugar Sex Magik - and ultimately has released over 15 million albums worldwide to date.

The album is less spirited and more spiritual - that's not to say there's no energy - the opening track Around The World contains the infamous bass funk from bassist Michael 'Flea' Balzary and still provides the energy die-hard Peppers fans are after. One criticism I've regularly heard of the band, and having seen them live I can thoroughly accept it, is the strength of Anthony Kiedis' vocals. Being a studio recording, you expect some work to be done to them to make them closer to pitch perfect, and in their earlier albums, and even in One Hot Minute, his vocals were criticised. But here he seems to have found a comfort zone that compliments the music rather than stomp on it. He has a history of drug problems, and his autobiography; Scar Tissue, is a fascinating read, but this album contains a more melancholy approach on tracks such as Porcelain and Otherside which sound more familiar with a band such as the Smashing Pumpkins than the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

But this calmness does dissipate on tracks such as Parellel Universe and This Velvet Glove which contains the elements of funk that the band are famous for, and combining an anthemic rock chorus and in the case of Parellel Universe, something out of a futuristic Western film.

Now it's always hard to pick favourite songs out of an album like this, but my top three have to be Scar Tissue, Californication and Easily. The first two of that selection have grown to become two of the bands biggest hits, and Scar Tissue won a Grammy for Best Rock Song in 2000. Californication is a trip down the dark cultural side of Hollywood, with numerous references to popular culture such as Star Wars, David Bowie and Kurt Cobain. It's a complex song it terms of lyrics, which Kiedis should be proud of, and in terms of the music apparently it took ages for Frusciante to come up with the perfect riff for it - but once he did, it worked perfectly. As an add-on, lets not ignore Easily - it's rock verses combined with a melodic, almost soothing chorus are a great amalgamation but often the songs will be ignored in the grand scheme of things...but seeing as the band now have over two decades worth of songs to pick from, you can understand why.

One other song of note is the final track on the album - Road Trippin' - which sees simply a couple of acoustic guitars and Kiedis' vocals round off the album with a fast tempo track about a great road trip with friends. It was also released as a single from the album and is in stark contrast to tracks the band would have produced ten years previously. It shows maturity, but at no point think that means it's boring. Anything but that - well written, melodic, enjoyable rock music. Perfect.

Many bands have just one album that'll stand out over the course of a career. However, most bands' career don't last more than two decades. In the case of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, some fans will prefer Blood Sugar Sex Magik from 1991, others will prefer Californication from 1999...some may even prefer an album more recent such as By The Way (certainly their best effort since Californication). But whichever camp you sit in, here stand a band that have churned out music for so long, despite their struggles, and still come up trumps. A clear case in point is the masterpiece that is Californication.

Summary: Arguably their best studio album