There are certain records that are a “must-have” for the fans of
\nthe band, but “money-gone-down-the-drain” for others:
\nWhat Hits!?<\/i> is such a record.<\/p>\n
\nWhat Hits!?<\/i> was released after the band’s smash hit,
\nBlood Sugar Sex Magik<\/i>, possibly to capitalize on their fame.
\nBut, much to everyone’s surprise, Red Hot Chili Peppers (RHCP) had
\nplenty of numbers to come up with a “Greatest Hits” LP like this,
\nwhen the hoi polloi thought
\nBlood Sugar Sex Magik<\/i> was the act’s only album.<\/p>\n
Playing around with this fact, the album-title has been toyed
\naround with, by the group: the question-mark, for those who had no
\ninkling of the fact that RHCP even existed before
\nBlood Sugar Sex Magik<\/i>, and the exclamation-mark by the group
\nsaying “yes, there are many more songs to our credit than meets the
\neye, though none of them ever made it even close to the
\ncharts.”<\/p>\n
\nWhat Hits!?<\/i> is a record that captures RHCP during their
\nstruggling days, and there were many: four LPs, one EP, and seven
\nyears, it took them to make the overnight transformation from
\ncomplete obscurity to total stardom.<\/p>\n
Every obscure band has a few pleasant surprises that astonishes,
\nand RHCP has more than a few of them, but especially a couple:
\n“Higher Ground” and “Behind The Sun.” These tracks are distinct
\nalbum (and career) standouts, along with the band’s cause to fame
\nand fortune, “Under The Bridge.”<\/p>\n
Take these three songs out of the record, and the rest of the
\nalbum is the same. The act sounds weak and immature on most part of
\nthe album. Anthony Kiedis’ vigorous rapping, which otherwise is
\nfull of strength and sprightliness, sounds absolutely weedy, and
\nthe weak music makes it even worse. For most of the times, the
\nsound quality itself is all worn out and inferior.<\/p>\n
But, putting aside all the bickering of what’s wrong with
\nWhat Hits!?<\/i>, the numbers aren’t all that bad, but only if
\none musters the patience to sit through eighteen monotonous songs,
\nand do it all over again and again — and that’s a lot of listens
\n— till one gets the hang of what’s actually going on in the album,
\nand appreciate it, if not totally, than at least to some
\nextent.<\/p>\n
Actually,
\nWhat Hits!?<\/i> reveals another facet of the act, and a
\ncompletely different one, from the current “RHCP” that we all are
\nfamiliar with. The group was a whole lot funkier than what it is
\nnow, and the muscular guitars and drumming of the “RHCP” of today
\ngave a more fun loving and frivolous effect to the music back
\nthen.<\/p>\n
For fans of RHCP,
\nWhat Hits!?<\/i> plays dual role: in addition to some interesting
\nlistening material that it provides,
\nWhat Hits!?<\/i> is also an essential album, and a way to get to
\nknow their favorite band during their pre-mainstream days. For
\nothers, well, there is always the radio and the music channels —
\nnot to mention illegal file sharing — for “Higher Ground” and
\n“Behind The Sun.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40,"featured_media":26930,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5857],"rating":[11204],"class_list":["post-38236","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-red-hot-chili-peppers","rating-rating-c-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38236","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38236"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38236\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26930"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38236"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38236"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38236"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}