1001 Albums Summary

My only experience with the RHCP was in hearing them on the radio as a kid, and then also my dad playing their Greatest Hits album in his car when he had visitation. It feels like that sums up my opinion of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Lol. I grew up seeing this band as a really whitewashed, commercial example of rock music that was really for "straight white dudes" and didn't speak to anything relating to my own experience. In fact I think one of my first "ick" moments with my ex was when he pulled out a guitar and started playing Under the Bridge. I feel like Funk/Punk/Rock can be applied only when you really underscore the Punk part like RATM, Primus, Fishbone et al. otherwise its the musical experience equivalent to eating the really dodgy fusion food at an airport. I am pleased to say that my opinion hasn't really changed - with a couple of notable exceptions. There's actually a lot of unexpected punk energy from the bits of this album that didn't get commercial releases. I quite like Right on Time and I never realised they had more depth than the songs I heard non stop on the radio. Listening to and properly absorbing the lyrics of even commercialised tracks such as Californication it was surprising to see how much they actually chastise the very machine they existed (and flourished) inside. It is extra ironic that this was the stratosphere-launching album for them and it was about how overrated and materialistic Western culture was. Whether it was a cruel twist of irony from record companies in the 90s, or whether counter culture was something that they were very self aware in their exploitation of. (There's a third option where everyone involved was somehow unaware of the irony of the lyricism but..... cmon..........). Apparently part of the reason the guitarist left the band and struggled hard with addiction was his inability to come to terms with what came with 'rockstardom' and 'selling out'. You can kind of imagine that this album is somewhat a salve for him in a lot of the lyricism. Track by track Around the World I never appreciated the technical musicality of this song. While the overall sound is SUPER fuckin 90s and not in the way I personally like, the way that the instruments all come in would have taken a serious amount of collaboration. Which is interesting given the guitarist only just came back after leaving the band for an album. Parallel Universe I think this song has made me realise a lot of my distaste for RHCP comes from the bass licks - sorry Flea. The funk just does not work for me. I do like the darker more distortion heavy break in this track. You can tell these dudes have been through some shit lol Scar Tissue I've heard this song so many times my dad was obsessed with it so I am struggling very hard to listen to it objectively lol. I just don't think it is very good. Otherside I quite like the melodies of this song, and didn't get sick of it despite the extreme amount of play it got in the corolla. Finding out it was about death and grappling with the concept of it means I am incredibly predictable as a person. I did not know that it was dedicated to their former guitarist Hillel Slovak who died of a heroin overdose (were they all on heroin??? it feels like they were all on heroin). The duality of it being interpreted as either a swan song of sorts or an attempt to communicate with those who they've lost is pretty neat. Ok, maybe they don't completely suck. Get on Top Yeah there's the fuckin bass lick. JFC. THE 90S ARE NEARLY OVER GUYS. Wikipedia tells me this song was a jam session right after they finished listening to Public Enemy and that's so fuckin true and kind of emblematic for how I feel about RHCP in general. Californication The only way I can describe how I feel about the message of this song is that it is pre 9/11 political dialogue - it ultimately says nothing but sounds nice doing it. I wanna know if they are moon landing deniers or if its just a fun "We Didn't Start the Fire" for the 90's line. Easily I like the drum line in this track. I don't like Kiedis' voice. What are they tryna do here this song just says a bunch of nothing to me. They could have left this one on the cutting room floor. It's just flailing around without an identity. There are moments with the chorus where it begins to do something interesting but then it just......... fails to deliver. Porcelain Is this the only time they ever did this time signature in a song? I actually kinda like it. It's a really delicate sound which fits. Notably the bass isn't being fucking obnoxious (sorry Flea enjoyers). I heard they recorded the entire album together simultaneously rather than layering tracks etc. Imagining them doing that for this one makes me feel emotional for some reason, especially knowing the addiction battles they've all fought and only very recently overcome at the point of this recording. Emit Remmus This song is basically the slightly better cousin of Californication but I cannot enjoy it because Californication is all I can hear. It doesn't mean that I think this is a good song. Apparently it is based on Kiedis' romance with Sporty Spice and also is just Summer Time spelled backwards. DEEP, BRO I like Dirt I'm gonna copy paste what the Genius lyrics say about this song: "...the first impression this song gives is strange, childish, and simple. Don’t be fooled, it’s about sex, as things with a sexual nature a called “dirty.” This song is also crawling with innuendo." ............................. I don't have anything else to add to this. This Velvet Glove Musicality wise, I really enjoy this song. In terms of the content and lyricism, unfortunately it's what a straight white dude in the 90s considers to be deep. So, yknow. Savior Sounds like AI tried to create a Tool inspired song. Drumming is at least good? The funkadelic guitar solo is good I'll give them that. Purple Stain This is a classic RHCP song. It's got the syncopation. It's got the bass. Now let me take a look at the lyrics an- WHAT THE FUCK GUYS Right on Time Ok some frenetic energy, cool. Again I've never heard this song it's not so bad. It's not good necessarily, just not bad. The lyrics are good. A solid 6.5 Road Trippin' This is gonna sound really mean but whenever they are singing songs that aren't about their battles with addiction they just have................ no substance to them. Maybe its just because their life experience is something I've heard a million times over in entertainment. At first I was quite offended that this was the track they chose to end their album with....... something that says nothing at all about either the band, their beliefs, or even really their sound. But maybe that means it's kind of perfect? Fun facts I learned: - The film clip for Californication was inspired by Crazy Taxi and they approached Naughty Dog to use the Crash Bandicoot engine. It was too expenny so they hired someone to do it all and then he ended up working for Naughty Dog anyway lol. So I guess its actually a playable game? Or at least the animations exist? - They approached David Bowie to produce a more electronic music inspired album and got rejected so they did this album instead. Glad David Bowie and I had something in common. - I do not like the Red Hot Chili Peppers Gonna keep track of which artists in this challenge have got Allegations by googling the name of the band and then Scandal and seeing what pops up and uhhhhhhhhhh ANTHONY KIEDIS GROOMED A 14 YEAR OLD WTF BURIED THE FUCKIN LEDE HERE JFC

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