When I was like 12-14, this carried a lot of mystique as being a cool/edgy album. I wanted to buy it on CD and my dad looked up the lyrics and told me I couldn't (same with the Downward Spiral). And there were people who I thought were cool who were into them and their logo was all over Hot Topic merch. I had to have someone burn a copy for me to listen to it. But now that I'm a 31 year old man, I think I fucking hate the Red Hot Chili Peppers. (By the end of the album, I was feeling a little more positive, and I remembered what appealed to me about this as a teenager, but I've had some pretty visceral negative reactions to revisiting mainstream 90s rock records.)

Not bad! This is one I used to own a copy of in college. There was a point where the new wave vibe and strings really resonated with me, but now it strikes me as kinda goofy. I hadn't listened to it since I heard James Murphy bad mouth Echo and the Bunnymen as an example of an embarrassing/bad band that he used to be into.

My heart sank when this showed up for #2

When I was like 12-14, this carried a lot of mystique as being a cool/edgy album. I wanted to buy it on CD and my dad looked up the lyrics and told me I couldn't (same with the Downward Spiral). And there were people who I thought were cool who were into them and their logo was all over Hot Topic merch. I had to have someone burn a copy for me to listen to it. But now that I'm a 31 year old man, I think I fucking hate the Red Hot Chili Peppers. (By the end of the album, I was feeling a little more positive, and I remembered what appealed to me about this as a teenager, but I've had some pretty visceral negative reactions to revisiting mainstream 90s rock records.)

More of a swan song than a comeback. Interesting to look back on after 12 years, especially so far from the hype that was around this thing when it came out. The verdict: it's still really good!