I wouldn't call Red Hot Chili Peppers an artistic band, even after John Frusciante's rejoining and subsequent more melodic songwriting approach. I mean they started by playing songs about sex while jumping around half-naked on stage and Anthony Kiedis' lyrics have only occasionally tackled anything other than women or sheer nonsense. They've always been more about having fun band rather than trying to craft the next musical masterpiece that'll be held on a pedestal. More about stage-bouncing rather than artistic endulgence.
One Hot Minute though... that's a whole different story. One Hot Minute is about the furthest thing from having fun. One Hot Minute is crafted by the combined bad feeling of divorces, losing friends (both non-fatally and fatally), drug addictions, bad member chemistry (Dave Navarro really was an utterly absurd choice of guitarist for this band) and all the other bad energy flying around the studio during its creation. It's not a happy album, not at all. It's the sound of a band wanting to crawl under a hole and die but not before having a major nervous breakdown. It's the sound of one's brains on fire under stress.
It's also the single moment (outside By the Way, where they still managed to combine the fun to it) where the band stopped being fun and, in lack of a better word, started paying more attention to the art, moving from extrovert to introvert (not that I'm emplying that true art is only angsty). One Hot Minute is an hour-long trip of sheer emotional purge of the most screwed up variety.
>>64220651
The whole thing's clear from the first track, "Warped". Durings its five minutes it goes through a brooding intro, crunchy and heavy verse, a bizarrely uplifting chorus and a calm, mournful outro. Chad Smith bangs the drums harder than ever - hell, the entire album is his greatest achievement - and Kiedis warps his own voice with overemphasised pronounciation while spewing out cryptic lyrics. The song sounds erratic in its time signature, the guitars are crunching and menacing. The funky monks they are not.
One Hot Minute is, suitingly bizarrely to the entire album, both the Peppers' most personal album - even Flea gets lyrical contributions and frequent vocal cameos - as well as their most distinctly out-of-character one. It's the album you wouldn't expect those happy, anthemic stadium rockers had made until you finally listened to it. It's a heartbreaking album. "My Friends" is the saddest song this band has ever done and it oozes genuine depression. The relentless sonic assault of "Deep Kick" or "One Big Mob" (the latter which actually breaks into a several-minute long moody, artsy bridge between its crashing stormy parts) are the sound of unventing frustration and hiding behind sonic walls. "Transcending" sounds utterly fucked up throughout its length whether it's the bizarre groove of its first half or the noise-filled apocalypse ragefit ending. It really doesn't sound like Peppers at all but bloody hell do they work it. There's a few more conventional Peppers moments like the trippy "Walkabout" and "Falling into Grace" as well as the funked up "Aeroplane" (that counters its happy-go-lucky feel and child choir with lyrics about wallowing in depression), all brilliant moments, and even they sound like they've gone through some weird alternate universe warped filter.
>>64220673
Maybe it's cruel of me, considering the circumstances, but the whole thing sounds so brilliant. Yes it's a bunch of people losing their collective minds and feeling really horrible and unventing it with noise walls, weird song structures, off-beat tone and miserable lyrics but blimey. They really do sound like they're on fire and what they're spewing out is sheer brilliance. The only exception is the Flea solo-moment "Pea" which is fairly pedestrian, but even that's more like a short interlude. Perhaps more annoyingly, the otherwise great "One Big Mob" shows that no song ever needs to sample a baby's crying, no matter the intentions
I can completely understand why the band wants to ignore why it ever happened and why there's a general tendency to sort of brush this one with a sidenote. It's not a very feel-good album, it's not a very Peppersian album. It's a complete one-off and it's utterly screwed up but that's what makes it so compelling. Its sinister misery is brilliant.
-dude off RYM
>>64220651
I kinda agree. But one of their biggest songs was Under The Bridge, which is definitely not a cock sock song.
I am old. I remember when Californication came out as being the "well shit, the Chili Peppers suck now" moment.
I really liked One Hot Minute. RHCP is still a band I can respect, but I consider them past their prime for sure
>>64220743
Under the Bridge is a song just about any band could've written though. It's just a little better written than it would be if it wasn't by them.
>>64220782
I feel as though Under The Bridge just feel very Red hot Chili Peppers and just oozes John Frusciante. This is mainly due to how the bass completes his very quick, scatty playing though
Kinda agree with you that RHCP could've made some great dark abrasive albums but By The Way is their goat album which combines emotional songs with their usual antics
>>64220862
I think they did make rgeat dark abrasive music with OHM. Just look at songs like coffee shop, deep kick, warped, shallow be thy name, ohm and transcending. meh but thats me
They still had moments of genuine pathos after OHM (the most obvious being "Otherside") but yeah, they never made something on the scale of OHM and probably never will.
>>64220743
>I remember when Californication came out as being the "well shit, the Chili Peppers suck now" moment.
I remember when that came out. Shit, that was the album that introduced Millenials to this band. We were too young for the Mother's Milk days, but when you're like 11 and the Around The World video is playing on VH1 nonstop, it was kind of mind-blowing.
>>64221286
very true. Im 18 so I grew up with tracks off californication and By the way always playing on the radio. Shit was indeed mindblowing
>>64221431
Dude, you were like 3 when those albums came out. The only music you were listening to back then was the Sesame Street theme song, just as applies to me when BSSM came out.
>>64221286
That doesn't mean you 90s shitbabbies had any taste. You remind me of the kids who thought Hagar Van Halen was good because it was "their" Van Halen while the older fans from the Roth era were all like "O rly."
>>64221431
>Im 18
get out
>>64221478
well, i was 5 when by the way came out.
And songs off Californication still get frequent plays on rock radio NOW - obviously they were being played only 2 years after the album.
>>64221581
>well, i was 5 when by the way came out
On average kids don't become consciously aware of music until late elementary school, so...
>>64221647
i still think my subjective anecdotal experience still out ways this pointless argument. but whatever it doesnt even matter
>>64221719
>out ways
what the fuck are you doing
>>64221737
outweighs* sorry teach
Stadium Arcadium will always be my fave album. I kinda understood why John left since there was no way he could top his work on it.
>>64222548
pleb taste desu
>>64221804
Stadium Arcadium is my favorite album of theirs simply because of this.
Wet Sand is hands down one of my top 3 favorite songs.
>>64220651
Anthony made a definite improvement from BSSM to this album, that's for sure.
>>64220651
this is a review of the album on RYM
>>64224436
>>64220706
last line
>- dude off RYM
>>64224498
didn't bother reading the rest lol. my bad.
>>64221804
Dani California has one of his best solos ever. Especially love the ending part where Flea plays the scale up.
I hate Dave Navarro and refuse to listen to anything but "My Friends".
On an unrelated note, I think Ive listened to these more times than Ive heard then the full productions
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pgxfo-cVu0g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WjnPvuwj4VM
Its just not the same without him. I saw them in 2011 when they dropped IMY and fuck it was abysmal and to this day the most expensive tickets i've purchased.
There's just no chemistry on OHM compared to the Frusciante albums. You can tell just from listening to it that Dave was not on the same page as Anthony and Flea.
It's not a bad record per-se, but it feels a lot more like a Jane's Addiction album and a lot less like a RHCP album.
>>64224722
youre missing out on some of the best rhcp songs
>>64225566
But those are on By The Way.
