Hard to believe, but it took the Red Hot Chili Peppers nearly 20
\nyears to record an album where there was minimal turmoil within the
\nband. No band member dying tragically of a heroin overdose (
\nMother’s Milk<\/i>). No band shuffling (
\nOne Hot Minute<\/i>,
\nFreaky Styley<\/i>). And, unlike during the recording of
\nCalifornication<\/i>, the band did not have to win back fans or
\nstage a “comeback.”<\/p>\n
Not that the band intentionally set out to prove anything but
\nthemselves for all of these releases, but during 2001, the external
\npressures that the Red Hot Chili Peppers faced were fairly minimal
\nto rock start standards. Because of
\nCalifornication<\/i>, the Red Hot Chili Peppers were able to
\nescape the discount-bin obscurity of their peers.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, for fans of the sex-crazed, funk-filled,
\nthrashing Chili Peppers of old, the mellow tones that were on
\nCalifornication<\/i> blanket
\nBy The Way<\/i>. However, if you’re willing to put aside the fact
\nthat the band will not likely record another “Catholic School Girls
\nRule,”
\nBy The Way<\/i> offers a slew of awards for a patient
\nlistener.<\/p>\n
The evolution of the Red Hot Chili Peppers is actually not
\nsurprising. In high school and early college years, the Peppers
\nwere there to provide the soundtrack to a Barton’s and Busch-fueled
\nparty. As listeners and the band members grew older, music was used
\nmore for come down therapy. Flea’s bass has gone from slapping to
\njazzy mellowness. And Anthony Kiedis’s songwriting has matured.
\nMost of
\nBy The Way<\/i>‘s sobering tone tackles drug addiction and the
\nperils of mortality.<\/p>\n
That’s not to say that the Peppers have gone all Joy Division on
\nits fans. Flea’s bass line on the title track sounds suspiciously
\nlike Fugazi’s “Repeater” and even if you’re sick of power ballads
\nby the Peppers, the recent additions of this album (namely “Don’t
\nForget” and “Tear”) could easily stand with the best of their power
\nballads that made them famous.<\/p>\n
Still, with all the heavy topics levied on
\nBy The Way<\/i>, Kiedis could still use some help in the lyrical
\ndepartment. His much-improved falsetto gives a haunting edge in the
\nopening of “This is the Place” : “This is the place where all the
\njunkies go \/ Where time gets fast But everything gets slow.”
\nHowever, Kiedis slowly sinks into some of the embarrassing lyrics
\nthat plagued so much of their earlier material (though the music
\nwas so great, most listeners overlooked this). “Can I smell your
\ngasoline \/ Can I pet your wolverine.”<\/p>\n
\nBy The Way<\/i> is definitely more Beach Boys
\nPet Sounds<\/i> era or late Beatles and less Funkadelic and Black
\nFlag. If you like the band’s former manic energy, by all means,
\nthis may be an album to skip. However, if you’re willing to go
\nalong for the ride, and are willing to picture the Red Hot Chili
\nPeppers settling into its mellow California stage of their careers
\n(ala the Eagles or Fleetwood Mac),
\nBy The Way<\/i> is a great soundtrack to a Sunday afternoon. Who
\nwould have thought the Red Hot Chili Peppers could have staked its
\nclaim to the hangover music market?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":26935,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5857],"rating":[5615],"class_list":["post-38242","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-red-hot-chili-peppers","rating-rating-b"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38242","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\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38242"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38242\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38242"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38242"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38242"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38242"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}