Powerstars

Alright, here's another review, this time of the Red Hot Chili Peppers' eighth album, "By The Way!"

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Powerstars

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Powerstars

Chili Peppers month begins tomorrow!

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Powerstars

Here's the first review of the month, Mother's Milk!



The future reviews will have a transcript below the video for those who want to read instead of watch.

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Powerstars

Hey everyone, Powerstars here with another Chili Peppers review! Today, we're discussing their critically acclaimed 1999 album, Californication! Now, after the Peppers took off with 1991's Blood Sugar Sex Magik, they went on a tour larger than any they had done before. Guitarist John Frusciante was not prepared for this, and, combined with his growing hatred for vocalist Anthony Kiedis, quit the band in the middle of the tour and slipped into heroin over the next 5 years. The Peppers recruited Jane's Addiction guitarist Dave Navarro, and released One Hot Minute, maybe I'll talk about that one later. Eventually, it was seen that the Peppers and Navarro were not getting along, and the band was on the verge of breaking up. Fruscainte, by this point, had gotten himself off of heroin, and was in tears when Flea asked if he wanted to rejoin. The resulting album was Californication.

Californication opens with the explosive bass riff to "Around The World," a single that is easily one of the highlights of the album. After another amazing rocker, "Parallel Universe," which, I have to mention, has one of my favorite guitar solos from John Frusciante...it's clear that the Peppers have begun to embrace their softer, smoother side, with songs like "Scar Tissue," "Otherside," and "Californication" itself. But it's clear that the album isn't missing it's share of funk with songs like "Get On Top," "I Like Dirt," and "Purple Stain." Not to mention the wonderful distortion of "Easily" and "Emit Remmus." "Emit Remmus," in particular, is just a really simple, yet solid guitar riff being played around with by Frusciante, while Flea and drummer Chad Smith lay down a great rhythm to go with it. While there are some exceptions, most songs on the album, lyrically, deal with the dangerous sex and drug fueled life of California, Hollywood in particular. The title track, unsurprisingly, is the most obvious example.

Speaking on the vocal side of things, John Frusciante's harmonies are utilized to their full advantage here. While they started experimenting with vocal harmony on Blood Sugar Sex Magik, this is where they perfected it. Good examples of songs that use the harmonies to an amazing degree are "Right On Time," "Around The World," and "Otherside." Unfortunately, this is where we got to the only huge negative of the album. I mentioned distortion earlier in the review, and while it does work wonders for "Parallel Universe," "Emit Remmus," and the like, there is a glaring problem with it. Every song on the album is distorted in some way. To further explain this, I'll need to make sure my viewers are familar with the Loudness War. Over time, musicians began wanting their music to be louder, so that it would stand out among other musicians. Problem is that everyone was doing this, so eventually those who wanted to compete had to make their music REALLY loud, and those who just wanted to be heard in all the madness had to crank their music up as well

The problem with this lays in the limits of the digital format of sound. Basically, it can only be so loud without being distorted. When a sound wave reaches it's limit, this is called peaking, which is generally considered bad, because it's when the distortion begins. The more times a sound wave peaks, the more distorted it is. This is done through a process called compression. The less compressed a sound wave is, the more it moves, basically it has more dynamic range, which allows the music to sound more "alive," if you will. When a sound file is compressed to the point of little or no dynamic, the music sounds flatter, with less noticeable drums and more distortion. Unfortunately, "Californication" is one of the albums most infamous for this practice, as usually for albums with this issue, fans can listen to the vinyl edition instead, as analog sound had many differences to digital sound, and thus is mastered seperately. Sadly, the vinyl has the same issues, but there is an unmastered version floating around if the compression bugs you too much. Personally for me, it's never noticeable enough for me to cringe or want a different version of the album, but it is a large issue a lot of people have with the album, so I figured I'd mention it.

Anyway, whatever way you choose to listen to this album, CD or vinyl, unmastered or compressed, it's a great experience and one of the Peppers' best albums.

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Powerstars

Hey everyone, Powerstars here with yet another Chili Peppers review. Today, we're talking about their infamous 1995 album, One Hot Minute. Now, after the success of 1991's Blood Sugar Sex Magik, guitarist John Frusciante was becoming uncomfortable with the band's growing fanbase. He developed a rivalry with vocalist Anthony Kiedis and began sabotaging shows, which led to him leaving the band and developing an extreme heroin addiction. The other Chili Peppers completed the rest of the tour with Arik Marshall, but let him go once the tour ended. For their next album, they brought in former Jane's Addiction guitarist, Dave Navarro, whose more metal sound clashed with the funk of the Peppers. To make matters worse, Dave was in the middle of a drug addiction, and Anthony had also just relapsed, hindering his creative ability. Eventually, after some delay, One Hot Minute was released.

Now One Hot Minute, right off the bat is noticeably different to the other Chili Peppers albums, turning some fans of the band off. The funk punk sound the Chili Peppers are known for has been thrown into a blender with Psychedelic Metal, resulting in a strange, but, in my opinion, interesting sound. The psychedelia works it's way into hit single, "Aeroplane," while the metal is pushed to the front in songs like "Coffee Shop." The album is one of the best Chili Peppers albums lyrically, dealing with Anthony's resumed drug addiction, and, for the first, and so far last time on a Chili Peppers album, Flea provides some lyrics and lead vocals on "Deep Kick," "Transcending," and most notably, "Pea."

Songs like the aforementioned "Deep Kick" and "Warped" seem somewhat disjointed, with calmer psychedelic bits, and then straight in your face rap rock like some songs from Blood Sugar Sex Magik. However, in the case of "Deep Kick" espesially, the bits may not have a very smooth transition, but by theirselves they're very good, and enjoyable to listen to. That's a word a lot of people would use to describe the album: Disjointed. I have to agree, while some transitions work, a lot of them seem off-putting. Surprisingly, one that works more than a lot on the album is when the final track, "Transcending," which is for the most part a calm heartfelt ballad, transitions into a screamed metal song for the last two minutes. I don't know, it's still very disjointed, but to my ears, it seems to work in a weird sort of way.

Now while the album may be somewhat dominated by Dave Navarro's metal guitar playing, bassist Flea still shows himself to be a driving force in the band's sound. He adds an element of funk to the metal "Coffee Shop," drives some of the funkier songs like "Falling Into Grace," and helps Chad bring up the rhythm in some of the harder rocking songs like "One Big Mob," and the title track, "One Hot Minute." The album does also have a gentler side, with songs like the aforementioned hit single "Aeroplane," fellow single and acoustic ballad, "My Friends," and the tributes to Kurt Cobain and River Phoenix respectively, "Tearjerker" and "Transcending." "Tearjerker," written for Kurt Cobain is much more of a straightforward ballad with, appropriatly, a tearjerker of a chorus, specifically the last few notes of the chorus. The guitar solo also really gets me for some reason. "Transcending," the tribute to River Phoenix, which I've mentioned before goes into a metal song for the last 2 minutes is equally heartfelt, with lyrics written by Flea for one of his best friends. River passed away at a Los Angeles nightclub run by Johnny Depp. Some of the performers there included Flea, as well as former Chili Peppers guitarist John Frusciante who would rejoin 5 years after his death.

"Transcending" is a bittersweet and beautiful way to end the album. I even think the metal bit is beautiful, as if it's letting off tension knowing that this person who you loved so much is gone, it represents the anger involved when a friend dies. One Hot Minute may have it's flaws, and it's certainly not the best of their albums, but it's a unique album among the Chili Peppers catalog and definately worth a listen. This is Powerstars, out. Peace.

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