Red Hot Chili Peppers Complete Discography Review (Work in progress)Genre: Alternative Pop/Rock, Funk Rock, Funk Metal, Punk Funk

Red Hot Chili Peppers

Red Hot Chili Peppers (1984)

Genre: Funk, Funk Rock, Punk Funk, Rap Rock  

Today I bring you guys the  review of Red Hot's first album, and it's a rustic affair, they were pretty young when they made this album and their song writing capabilities where pretty basic and rough around the edges, but this album is very innovative affair   .

In 2003 the album was reedited adding the Peppers original demo that had five tracks and the songs sound much better than the album versions plus Hillel Slovak and Jack Irons are on the demos, for some odd reason they are not on the album tracks they had a falling out with Kiedes and Flea and where replaced with Jack Sherman and Cliff Martinez.

Vocals and Lyric: Anthony's sing and rapping are pretty weak, he's a long way from a "Under a Bridge" or a "Give it Away", but he must get recognition he's one of the first white guys that tries to rap, this album comes out two years before Beatie Boys's Licenced to Ill. 10

Instrumentation:  

Guitar: Jack Sherman does a good job in general, but Slovaks work on the demo  tracks sounds much better.

Bass: Flea style of hyper slap is present on this album, he's probably the only high light of the album  

Drums: Cliff Martinez's the drums sound super stale killing the funky groove, Irons's drumming is much more relaxed and has much more groove.

Sax:  Gwen Dicky play the sax on "Mommy Where's Daddy, it's probably my favorite track on the album. 7

Melody and/or Structure: Their song writing skills are in it's formative stages. 6

Sound, Production and Feeling: Andy Gil's production just kills the bands energy. 6

Songs: Over the years  most of these songs have been dropped out of the Chilli's live sets lists but all of them are classics.  14

The Bad: The album suffers from a lack of focus Grand Pappy du Plenty has no place on this album. -1

Originality:  Even though this album isn't that good we have one of the first albums that tries to explore punk funk with Get Up  and Jump , fuse rap with rock.12

Overall: 54 


Red Hot Chili Pepper
Freaky Styley  (1985)

Genre: Funk, Funk Rock, Punk Funk

So today I bring you guys the Chili's second album which thankfully is much better than their debut, it's like their second chance to a first album, Hillel Slovak is back in the band and it's a tremendous addition in sound and style, they also brought in the funk god/legend himself George Clinton ( Parliament/Funkadelic) as the producer of the album, so let's jump into this review

Vocals: Anthony has a long way to go with his vocal s and lyrics, but does a much better job than the previous album.  6

Guitar: Hillel has a really interesting guitar  player he knows how to pull of great rock solos, plays funk and we get some  experimentation on the Freaky Styley track.  8.5

Bass: Flea punk funk playing gets pretty frenetic, with Black Eyed Blond blowing me away.

Drums:  Cliff more organic just sounding more energetic. 7.5

Melody and/or Structure: Song are simple but effective, with tons of energy. 7

Sound, Production and Feeling: Georges production just makes the band comes alive, spewing punky energy and funky feeling, very organic.  8

Songs: The album is short the punk funk songs are brief affairs, and the band plays two  funk covers one from The Meters and one from Sly and the Family Stone, and the track Brothers Cup is very similar to a Parliament Classic.  12

Originality:  There is room to improve but these guys are so freaking innovative and very ahead of their times musically. 10

Overall: 50.5


Red Hot Chili Pepper

Uplifting Mofo Party Plan (1987)

Genre: Funk Rock, Rap Rock, Funk Metal, Punk Funk

Man I love this album, Hillel Slovak shows off what a interesting guitar player he is  , it's his last production with the Chili's, because he tragically dies of a drug overdose in 1988, so it's pretty sad that we will never know where the Red Hot's would have gone musically if Slovak would have lived, because his playing is fascinating. so here we go with my review of this classic album

Vocals: Anthony grows a lot on this album and he discover how to work with melody on Behind the Sun, that will kick open the door for a more melodic Chili Peppers, and I love the lyrics to Funky Crime, about why is it a issue for a  white rock band plays funk, the same issue Funkadelic had the other way around. 8

Guitar: Hillel keeps on experimenting with his guitar playing, Pedal and with fills.

 Bass: Flea keeps up with his frenetic punk funk slap style, I remember as a young bass player trying to play these songs that are super fun and relatively easy to play like, but sound super cool like Skinny Sweaty Man.

Drums:  Jack Irons does a good job but at moments his playing is a little stale lacking groove. 7.5

Melody and/or Structure: Behind the Sun is the first Chili song that really brings in the melody  showing some interesting growth in their song composition capabilities  while in  Love Trilogy they try to experiment with song structure. 8

Sound, Production and Feeling: The Album sounds better than Freaky Style but  just little dated, the drums mix is to 80's for my taste sort of sapping the energy from the songs. 8

Songs: I love this album from front to back but I must say that finishing it with such a classic like Organic Anti-Beatbox Band is a beautiful cherry to top the of this funky ice-cream

The Bad:

Originality:  The band keeps on growing trying new stuff out, especial transitioning from funk rock and punk too funk metal. 10

Overall: 54.5

 

Red Hot Chili Peppers

Mothers Milk (1989)

Genre: Funk Metal, Funk Rock, Punk Funk, Funk, Alternative Rock

Here’s the First Red Hot Chili Peppers album to have John Frusciante and Chad Smith join the lineup, what many would call the classic lineup. I love this album; Higher Ground was one of the first slapped bass lines that I learned how to play. I played the hell out of that song, and I still use the song to warm up to.

 Vocals and Lyrics: Anthony Kiedis musically is still trying to find himself; you can hear him dabbling with more melodies and singing much more than rapping. But we’ll have to wait one more album for him to really dominate his craft. 7.5

Instrumentation:

Guitar: John also is trying to find his place in the band, trying to define his sound and style; he plays more like a heavy metal guitar player at moments in this particular album.

Bass: Flea has some sick bass lines in this album; he’s at his hyperactive best.

Drum: Chad isn’t on all the tracks, Fish Fisher (Fishbone) plays on Taste the Pains. Smith drumming was a major factor the band lack, a heavy hitting rock drummer.

Horn Section: This is the last album for a long while that will use a horn section; I love how they sound in rock song. 7.75

Melody and Structure: Frusciante bring a lot to the table, the band starts to have a growing sophistication in the melody and harmony department. And structurally the songs are a lot more complicated too. You can see thid in the song Knock Me Down how the band is maturing musically. 7.75

Sound, Production and Feeling: Producer does a great job in capturing the band and there energy, this hadn’t happened in any of the previous projects, Chad is a big part of this. The thing is that this album is mixed like a heavy metal album and it’s the only album in the peppers catalogue that sounds this way ( ups I forgot about One Hot Minute, but John  isn't on that one). 8.5

Songs: There some real Chili Peppers classics on this album, it’s a must have. Josh Klinghoffer should listen to this album and put some balls into whats he’s playing. 10

The Bad: The last two tracks are terrible.-2

Originality: Red Hots where a hungry band ready to try new stuff trail blazing for a ton of alternative bands that would dominate the 90’s. Especial Fleas bass style inspired legions of copy cats. 9

Overall: 48.5

 

Red Hot Chili Pepper

Blood Sugar Sex Magic (1991)

Genre: Funk, Funk Metal, Alternative Rock

This album is one of those productions that just astounds me because  I don't know what the hell happened with the Chili's but the progress from the previous album on song composition level  just takes a quantum leap, maybe it's Rick Rubin or that Frusciante finding his place in the band, maybe the  haunted powers of the mansion where they recorded... it doesn't matter because this album is just incredible.

I remember as a young teen  I  really liked the Chili's and I started to gravitate to the bass after hearing Give It Away, that has a very interesting and easy bass line to play. Also in my second band my drummer had the original tabs to this album,  I took the time to learned how to play this album  from front to back, and up until this day I use My Lovely Man to warm up on my bass, before playing with my friends.

Vocals: Anthony's song writing capabilities have grown a lot incorporating melody maturely, and the lyrics to Under the Bridge are incredibly personal which is a first for the singer and the ending of that song with is totally epic.  12

Guitar: On the DVD Funky Monks that shows how the band recorded this album  there is a moment the Frusciante records one of my all time favorite guitar solos, as a totally casual thing while he's brushing his teeth right after he gets up after a hard night of parting nuff said.

 Bass: On that same album Rubin make Flea play less and more focused, but letting him unload his bass fury with a bass solo on Naked in the Rain.

Drums: Chad also finds his place on this album showing his versatility of being a total hard rock funky drummer that also knows how to play really well on the more mellow tracks, but the percussion solo that's played by the whole band on Breaking the Girl is a real treat.   8.25

Melody and/or Structure: The band shows some real maturity being able to write  slower melodic songs and ballads and on the other hand the band experiments with structure with the epic track Sir Psycho Sexy. 10

Sound, Production and Feeling: Album  sound very organic and relaxed, probably because of the vibe of recording in the mansion where they also lived during the recording of Blood Sugar ( Note Slipknot, Linkin Park and Audioslave also recorded in the same place), but what this album innovates in is that the Chili's explore for the first time new emotions and moods like saddens, melancholy and regret, plus there signature happy funk rock, this production is emotionally complex but without losing focus.  10

Songs: They are all classics, but when I die they must play Give It Away in my Funeral nonstop . 15

Originality:  This album kick the door open for many alternative 90's grups like Janes Addiction, Faith No More, Fishbone, Living Color, Primus... 12

Overall: 67.25 

 Red Hot Chili Peppers

One Hot Minute  (1995)

Genre:  Funk Metal, Funk Rock, Alternative Rock, Hard Rock, Psychedelic Rock

Here we have the Chili's only album with Dave Navarro from Jane's Addiction filling in for John Frusciante who had gone missing in action over drug issues. Now, this album isn't a progression from Blood Suger Sex Magic, but more an evolution of Mothers Milk, it is heavy, it brings back the more funk metal sound and adding in Psychelia, some darkness and even a little bit of anger, something you don't get normally from the Chili Peppers. Many Chili Peppers fans don't like this album because of Navarro's more metal approach, but I love it the instrumentation it's freaking impressive Dave lands some impressive solos, Flea  goes apeshit with frenetic slapping and solos and even Chad all get to shine in one Big Mob. It also has an impressive track list many standouts in  ¡the Pepper's catalog, but sadly they don't play any of the songs off this album in their live set. The production of the album is very interesting a lot of interesting effects on guitar and bass, the sound highlights energy and heaviness. They also keep things interesting with song structure and melodies, not being afraid in trying new things, this album is the total package. Even the B-Side to this album are mindblowing, it's sad that Navaro didn't stay on board for one more album, even though they didn't gel on a personal level, as a band the made some interesting shit.
This  production has a special nostalgia value for me because I went on  road trip with my dad and we had two albums with us Bush's Sixteen Stone and One Hot Minute and after that trip I had my musical awakening at 13 years old, I became a total music nerd and I started to play the base thanks to this album. 

Overall: 61.1

                    

 

 

Red Hot Chili Peppers

Californication (1999)

Genre: Alternative Rock/Pop, Funk Rock, Alternative Funk

Man it took a long time for the Red Hot’s to regroup after the departure of Dave Navarro and have the return of their prodigal son John Frusciante come back, So I was really anticipation this album, because I was and I am a diehard fan of the band, and I was so happy to hear “Around the World” the opening track of this album just super rock out, just like most of the Album that just pumps out tons of energy. The band lost their metal/heavy aspect that Dave Navarro had, but gain a new reinvigorated and mature Frusciante; they compensate distortion for energy, mood and melody. This is one of my all time favorite albums, and as a bass player I learned how to play it from front to back.

Vocals and Lyrics: Anthony has matured as a singer, he pens a couple of mega hits on this album and explores new lyrical directions, and his silly rapping comes back in full force.  10

Instrumentation:

Guitar: John is pretty minimalist during most of the album but he really knows how to rock out at the right moments.

Bass: Flea kicks ass, his bass lines just pumping tons of energy into the songs working tightly with Chad.

Drums: Chad hand down one of the best rock drummers out there. 7.6

Melody and/or Structure: John and Anthony’s work on melody is superb, and the structure of the songs a simple but interesting.   10 

Sound, Production and Feeling: The songs sound great not too much added in production in each track, but one thing Rick Rubin screwed up big time is with “Savior” leaching all of the energy from the song, I heard it live once and its freaking powerful, but on the album it sort of sucks.9 

Songs: Every song is fantastic, but my favorites tracks are “Get on Top” and “I Like Dirt” which remind me of their Freaky Style-Uplifting Mofo Party Plan era.   15

Originality: The Red Hot’s are reintroduced to a new generation, totally reinvigorated and exploding with cool ideas. 10  

Overall:  61.6

 

Red Hot Chili Peppers

By The Way (2002)

Genre: Alternative Pop/Rock, Funk Rock

One the Red Hot’s major problems  that has plagued their albums is track selection they tend to leave really good songs out of their albums, they left Soul to Squeeze and Slicamicaniko (I know I spelled it wrong) out of Blood Sugar Sex Magic, One Hot Minute had some colossal B-sides, like Californication and more recently on I’m with You, that could had been much better album if they would have chosen better tracks, By the way is probably the most notorious case, even though the album is fantastic it has super crappy Cabron, the mediocre ska On Mercury and the odd Warm Tape, but you listen to the B-sides you have the super rockers Body of Water and Rock and Roll, funk infested Time  and Fortune Fade just to name a couple, By the Way could have been one of their best albums WTF…

Vocals and Lyrics: Anthony keeps on doing a great job penning some classics on this album while there is more Fruciante in his role as a backing vocalist. 10

Instrumentation:

Guitar: Frusciante’s composition level has grown and he still uses a minimalist style referred to solos, but he knows when to rock out and he uses pedal effects very intelligently especial looping effects.

Bass: From what I read there was some conflict between Flea and Fruciante during the writing of this album, the musical direction embarked by John had alienated Flea on a composition level, that's way he sound more subdued on this album, John actual wrote some of the Bass lines. Flea's Bass line in general are very melodic in general  and much less funky.

Drums: Chad is a monumental drummer but he’s pretty low in the mix in most of the album. 7

Melody and/or Structure: Dosed melodically is the best track since “Soul to Squeez”.10 

Sound, Production and Feeling: Rubin keeps his production intervention to a minimum, the album sounds good but the Drums are to low in general.   9

Songs:  Check out my introduction rant. 14

The Bad: Cabron I hate that song -1 

Originality: In a way this album is a progression of Californication.  9 

Overall:  58

Red Hot Chili Peppers

Stadium Arcadium  (2005)

Genre:  Funk Rock, Alternative Rock, Hard Rock

This album is probably the most straightforward funk rock album in the Chili's catalog, The band sounds reinvigorated gone is Frusciante's minimalism from Californication and By the Way, and we get an old-school guitar god that just really rocks out with some beautiful solos all over this album. Flea gets to fuse his two styles awesome slapping and the use of melodies. Chad's playing is elevated in the context of more rock and hard rock sound and Anthony pens some classic songs.
This is a double album so we have 28 tracks and mostly they are all great except for two or three terrible filler this production is a masterpiece.  


overall: 64 

 

Red Hot Chili Peppers

I’m With You (IWY); 2011/I’m Besides You (IBY) 2013

Genre: Alternative Pop/Rock, Funk Rock

 

These are the two first albums with Josh Klinghoffer, as the Red Hot’s guitar player, “I’m With You” is an official album and “I’m Besides You” is actual a compelation of B-sides from that album that came in 2013 as a series of singles. So here we go with my review of these two productions.   

   

Vocals and Lyrics: I have the impression that Anthony sings a lot on both album, and in general he does a great job, but he doesn't bring anything new to the table, vocally and lyrical there isn’t anything to interesting except for one mind-blowing track on “I’m Besides You”    Open/Close which vocally and lyrically are fascinating I can’t believe that this song ended up on the B-side album. Josh’s backing vocals are great on both albums.IWY 8/IBY 8.5

Instrumentation:

Guitar: Josh is the king of lost opportunities on “I’m With You”, there are a couple of moments that the songs

beg for a super solos or to do something cool with his pedal effects but he does nothing, he rocks out a little more on I’m Besides You.

Bass: Flea plays a lot on these albums, from working on melodies, slapping and he has a kick ass solo, so I have no grievances in this department.  

Drums/Percussion: Chad Smith, Drums and Mauro Refosco, who plays the percussion, really collaborate to keep the rhythm section interesting.   IWY 8/ IBY 7.5

Melody and/or Structure: In both aspects both albums are pretty good, but nothing brilliant. IWY/IBY 8

Sound, Production and Feeling: I normally like Rick Rubin’s production style; you can notice that there is more attention to detail to “I’m With You” in general.  IWY 9 IBY 8.5

Songs: they pretty good in general nice additions to the band large catalogue, but very few stand out. IWY 13/ IBY 13

The Bad: Both albums have their atomic level stinkers, I’m Bisedes You has more because of the obvious reason it’s a b-sides album there is a reason they didn’t make it to the main album. IWY -1/IBY -3

Originality: Look I the Red Hot’s could have made a super mega album if they would have made better track selection, mash I’m with You and I’m Besides you and cut out the fat.  IWY 8 IBY 8.5

Overall: IWY 52/ IBY 51

Red Hot Chili Peppers

The Get Away (2016)

Genre: Alternative Rock, Funk Rock

Wow, I had really anticipated this album and it  brings a lot to the table we have a band that sounds really mature exploring new  more sophisticated emotional territory, really  trying to up their game, the  energy of the band sounds very subdued like calm storm you are waiting for it to exploded with the signature Chili Pepper energy but they make you wait just giving you very small doses making you want more, so here we go with my review:

Vocals and Lyrics:  Anthony explores new emotional territory, and even though lyrically it isn't explicit, it's a break up album and Kiedis exploring his new perspective on life. 8

Instrumentation:

Guitar:  Josh does a much better job on this album he finally becomes part of the band, he has more personality in his playing, but  I personally I think he's just too mellow at moments he needs more   old school rock at moments. He use some really interesting pedal effects.

Bass: Flea does a fantastic job as usually, still showing growth in his playing after all these year.

Drums: Chad is the best rock drummer ever, but is  a little low in the mix at moments but he really bring in the funky groove in this album.  

Keys: The incorporation of Keys and Piano on this album work much better. 7.8

Melody and/or Structure: Some of the melodies that they work on in this production are just beautiful. 10

Sound, Production and Feeling: The Chili's parted ways Rick Rubin, the band needed a change, and for   this production they brought in  Danger Mouse ex Gnarls Barkley and has collaborated with Beck, Gorillaz and the Black Keys, now this album sound very intimate  and vulnerable at moments, something  that you don't get to often with the Chili Peppers and  surprisingly epic at the end, my only issues with the producer is that at moments the album needs a release to the tension for the band just to rock out more. Also there a cool 80's feel in the album with some great use of keyboards. 9.5  

Songs: This is probably the most focused Chili Peppers album ever and this makes this album pretty impressive in that aspect, it's hard to choose a stand out track the album works as a whole, and Danger Mouse is actually credited for collaborating on a couple of the tracks. And it was a total surprise to see Elton John actually collaborated on one of the tracks. 15

Originality: This album was worth the wait, it's much much better than I'm with you, hopefully we have a band entering their second prime. Now ¿when is the  B-side album coming out? 10

Overall: 59.8