Music Banter - View Single Post - Californication, Red Hot Chili Peppers, 1999 Warner Brothers

mr dave · 09-10-2008, 05:00 PM

this is the album that made me stop caring about the red hot chili peppers.

thing is i was SO hyped for it. i walked for an hour each way to pick up the disc on its release date back in the summer of 99. i was ecstatic at the idea of frusciante rejoining the band. the walk back to my dorm room seemed so long, i just couldn't wait to hear it.

i finally got back and cracked open the disc and plopped it in my player. and then it started. the build up. flea's dropping heavy groove and frusciante is gearing up for a big explosion to match keidis' scream it was going to be AWESOME!!!... and then...

*pftt*

the weakest whitest blandest most sterile 'funk' i've ever heard. it wasn't bad but it sure as hell felt like a let down after those opening seconds. it wasn't that bad of a tune but it felt weak after its intro and that mood carries over for the whole album for me. the first two tracks rock hardest and then it just weakens and wanes and by the end of it barely sounds like a chili peppers album. even through roadtripping was one of my favourite tunes on the disc it didn't really sound like the chili peppers i grew up with.

the more i listened to it the less i liked it. the songs were formulaic, there were no unexpected twists or extended instrumental breaks. they gave up their playful raunchiness for attempts at poignant poetry for a generation i was no longer part of.

they had become one of the overly radio friendly bands they bashed on 'nevermind' from their 2nd disc 'freaky styley'. the sheen of the hype and my expectations faded with every subsequent listen to the point where i could clearly see it as the mainstream pop/crap album it really was before the year was up. this was no longer the band that had changed the way i saw music years earlier and i was no longer the kind of fan that would have worn a sock as a halloween costume.

i don't have any ill will towards anyone who likes it. there are far worse bands that kids could have looked up to while starting to get into music on their own. but i'm positive i'm not the only old school fan who felt let down when they heard this disc.