The Peppers emerged in 1984 with a funky, rock/hip-hop style of music. The rock was slow and angular (sharp, short chunky riffs, changes in time and direction), in common with the American alternative rock of bands who emerged around the same time, such as Sonic Youth (1982), Hüsker Dü (1983), Faith No More (1985), the Pixies (1988), and Jane's Addiction (1988), and the hip-hop was simplistic in common with other early 80s white artists, such as Blondie with "Rapture" (1981), Malcolm McLaren/Trevor Horn with Duck Rock (1983) (particularly "Buffalo Gals"), and the pop group Wham! with Fantastic (1983) who were all exploring the genre that emerged as a commercial force in the 80s. The funk was aligned with other white funk artists, such as The Average White Band (1973) and funk period Bowie (1975), though also took some inspiration from James Brown (1964) and Prince (1978). The band engaged George Clinton of Parliament-Funkadelic to produce their second album, but that was more about George Clinton than the Peppers, and it wasn't until their third album that they really started to get the balance of funk, hip-hop and rock right.
My knowledge of the Peppers for many years has mainly been the 1991 song "Under The Bridge", which was covered excellently by the All Saints in 1997. After reviewing all their albums, this is without a doubt their standout track, and nothing else they have done comes close to the beauty and power of this track. It is honest, direct, totally original, emotionally compelling, and a great song beautifully produced. The band's peak was in the 90s during which they released their two most acclaimed albums, Blood Sugar Sex Magik (1991) and Californication (1999). The band's commercial success with combining funk and hip-hop with both alternative and pop-rock served, along with similar bands such as Faith No More and Suicidal Tendencies, as an example to musicians who developed Nu Metal, and funk metal. Lead singer Anthony Kiedis has said: "We were early in creating the combination of hardcore funk with hip-hop-style vocals. We became, maybe, an inspiration to Limp Bizkit, Kid Rock, Linkin Park—all these other bands that are doing that now."
By the 21st century the band had become confident, assured, professional, and very successful. A lot of the playfulness, tension, and genre blending had gone, to be replaced with a slick pop-rock that feels cosy and comfortable and sells records. The band's last two albums had been made without John Frusciante, the lead guitarist who had appeared on their most popular albums, but he has returned in December 2019, and will play live with the band in 2020, when the band's next album is also due to be released.
Wikipedia:
Red Hot Chili Peppers are an American rock band formed in Los Angeles in 1983. The group's musical style primarily consists of alternative rock with an emphasis on funk, as well as elements from other genres such as punk rock and psychedelic rock. When played live, their music incorporates elements of jam band due to the improvised nature of many of their performances. Currently, the band consists of founding members vocalist Anthony Kiedis and bassist Flea (Michael Peter Balzary), longtime drummer Chad Smith, and former touring guitarist Josh Klinghoffer. Red Hot Chili Peppers are one of the best-selling bands of all time with over 80 million records sold worldwide, they have been nominated for sixteen Grammy Awards, of which they have won six, and are the most successful band in alternative rock radio history, currently holding the records for most number-one singles (13), most cumulative weeks at number one (85) and most top-ten songs (25) on the Billboard Alternative Songs chart.[1] In 2012, they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
The band's original lineup, originally named Tony Flow and the Miraculously Majestic Masters of Mayhem, featured guitarist Hillel Slovak and drummer Jack Irons, alongside Kiedis and Flea. Because of commitments to other bands, Slovak and Irons did not play on the band's 1984 self-titled debut album. Slovak performed on the second and third albums, Freaky Styley (1985) and The Uplift Mofo Party Plan (1987), but he died from a heroin overdose in 1988. As a result of his friend's death, Irons chose to leave the group. After short-lived replacements on guitar and drums, John Frusciante and Smith joined in 1988. The lineup of Flea, Kiedis, Frusciante, and Smith was the longest-lasting and recorded five studio albums beginning with Mother's Milk (1989). In 1990, the group signed with Warner Bros. Records and recorded the album Blood Sugar Sex Magik (1991) under producer Rick Rubin. This album became the band's first major commercial success, but Frusciante grew uncomfortable with the band's popularity and left abruptly in 1992 in the middle of the Blood Sugar Sex Magik Tour.
After two temporary guitarists, Dave Navarro joined the group in 1993 and played on their subsequent album, One Hot Minute (1995). Although commercially successful, the album failed to match the critical or popular acclaim of Blood Sugar Sex Magik, selling less than half as much as its predecessor. Navarro was fired from the band in 1998.[2] Frusciante, fresh out of drug rehabilitation, rejoined the band that same year at Flea's request. The reunited quartet returned to the studio to record Californication (1999), which became the band's biggest commercial success with 16 million copies sold worldwide. That album was followed three years later by By the Way (2002), and then four years later by the double album Stadium Arcadium (2006), their first number-one album in America. After a world tour, the group went on an extended hiatus. Frusciante announced he was amicably leaving the band in 2009 to focus on his solo career. Klinghoffer, who had worked both as a sideman for the band on their Stadium Arcadium tour and on Frusciante's solo projects, replaced him. The band's tenth studio album, I'm with You, was released in 2011 and topped the charts in 18 different countries. The band released their eleventh studio album, The Getaway, in 2016. The album was produced by Danger Mouse, marking the first time since Mother's Milk that the Red Hot Chili Peppers had not worked with Rubin, and topped the charts in ten different countries. As of November 2018, the band is in the process of working on their twelfth studio album which they expect to release in early 2020.
AllMusic:
Few rock groups of the '80s broke down as many musical barriers and were as original as the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Creating an intoxicating new musical style by combining funk and punk rock together (with an explosive stage show to boot), the Chili Peppers spawned a slew of imitators in their wake, but still managed to be the leaders of the pack by the dawn of the 21st century. The roots of the band lay in a friendship forged by three school chums, Anthony Kiedis, Michael Balzary, and Hillel Slovak, while they attended Fairfax High School in California back in the late '70s/early '80s. While Balzary and Slovak showed great musical promise (on trumpet and guitar, respectively), Kiedis focused on poetry and acting during his high-school career. During this time, Slovak taught Balzary how to play bass, while the duo encouraged Kiedis to start putting his poetry to music, which he soon did. Influenced heavily by the burgeoning L.A. punk scene (the Germs, Black Flag, Fear, Minutemen, X, etc.) as well as funk (Parliament-Funkadelic, Sly & the Family Stone, etc.), the trio began to rehearse with another friend, drummer Jack Irons, leading to the formation of Tony Flow & the Miraculously Majestic Masters of Mayhem, a quartet that played strip bars along the Sunset Strip during the early '80s. It was during this time that the four honed their sound and live act (as they stumbled across a stage gimmick that would soon become their trademark -- performing on-stage completely naked, except for a tube sock covering a certain part of their anatomy). By 1983, Balzary had begun to go by the name "Flea," and the group changed its name to the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Albums
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| The Red Hot Chili Peppers (1984) |
Wikipedia
AllMusic:
Score: 4
Contains the excellent "Under The Bridge". This is the band's most acclaimed album.
Kicks in with a hot rock number, very much on trend with American alternative rock, and the rest of the album almost keeps up with the pace, the tone, and the gutsy playful rock, particularly the lead guitar, which is appropriate as the lead guitarist is Dave Navarro of Jane's Addiction. Less of the hip-hop and the funk, though it does come in now and again. A generally disliked album, but those who like it, tend to like it a lot. It's my favourite Peppers album so far. I love the guitar work, and the balance weighed toward rock. It's probably the band's least commercially appealing album, and - for me - the deepest and most interesting. Go figure. I'm probably not a Peppers' fan!
This is back on more familiar Pepper's ground. There's a surprising amount of confidence here, and the band appear assured and comfortable with their music style and their ability to play it. The band feel relaxed, and seem to enjoy themselves. I think I like this more than Blood Sugar, and at least as much as One Hot Minute.
I like the title track - "By the Way", there's a good mix of pop and rock (or pop-rock) with funky elements, and little hip-hop snaps. Very appealing. A very commercial track, so an obvious single. The second track, "Universally Speaking", which has the feel of 1996 period Manic Street Preachers ("Everything Must Go", "Design For Life", etc), is equally attractive with a pleasant and highly commercial melody. With a more obvious focus on melody, and downplaying the hip-hop and old fashioned funk, this is a more commercial and more mature album. I like it. "The Zephyr Song" also reminds me of the Design For Life period Manics, but I don't know why.
It's a fairly straightforward rendering of the songs, plus a few oddities that don't work - such as a cover of Moroder's "I Feel Love" and a piece called "Flea's Trumpet Treated by John" which is a bit of a mash-up of Hawkwind on a bad night and Pinky & Perky on acid. It's also very long. This is for fans only.
There's not much going on here. All the parts are here, but they don't add up to much.
There's no snap here, it's all quite lumpen. It's all been done better and better.
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| Freaky Styley (1985) |
This is quite a funky album - a blend of Kool & The Gang (1973 period) and Parliament-Funkadelic (1975 period). The first two tracks are more funk than anything else. Quite clean and workable, but rather 70s in style. Hip-hop comes in from the third track, and the album becomes more interesting. There is, with the use of George Clinton as producer, a sense that the band want to be taken seriously as funk artists; though, being straight 70s funk copyists is not the direction for this band, as the forays into hip-hop reveal. Their real heart is in something a little more daring and a little more interesting. I suppose, on the whole, this is more about George Clinton than it is about the Peppers. I prefer the more playful and loose nature of the debut.
AllMusic: 8
Score: 3 1/2
Score: 3 1/2
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| The Uplift Mofo Party Plan (1987) |
This opens with a Beastie Boys sound (who had released Licensed to Ill the previous year, 1986) - something more contemporary than the P-funk of the previous album, so is immediately more immediate and interesting, but doesn't develop.
AllMusic: 8
Score: 4
Score: 4
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| Mother's Milk (1989) |
A little more simplistic rap than is desirable, but this is starting to sound like the Peppers that would become famous. The blend of hip-hop, funk and rock is starting to sound more confident, though the funk is still too much based in the past. Moves at a compelling pace.
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| Blood Sugar Sex Magik (1991) |
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| One Hot Minute (1995) |
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| Californication (1999) |
AllMusic: 8
Score: 5
Score: 5
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| By the Way (2002) |
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| Live in Hyde Park (2004) |
Wikipedia
AllMusic: 8
Score: 3
A competent album, but it simply feels processed, like a Peppers tribute band, and its way over long. The playing is good and at times quite inventive, but the feel is of musicians who've achieved it, and are now confidently going through the motions. There's a lack of edge, a lack of playfulness, a lack of tension, a lack of risk, a lack of the spark that got the band going in the first place.
AllMusic: 8
Score: 3
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| Stadium Arcadium (2006) |
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| I'm With You (2011) |
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| The Getaway (2016) |
Wikipedia
AllMusic: 8
Score: 3
These three are the consistently most disliked:
The Red Hot Chili Peppers (1984) [4]
By The Way [6]
One Hot Minute [5]
Californication [5]
Blood Sugar Sex Magik [4 1/2]
Mothers Milk [4]
The Uplift Mofo Party Plan [4]
The Red Hot Chili Peppers [4]
Stadium Arcadium [3 1/2]
Freaky Styley [3 1/2]
Live in Hyde Park [3]
I'm With You [3]
The band's peak was from 1989 to 2002 (essentially the Nineties). They retained interest through the Naughties, then tailed off. Opinion is divided on the period in the Eighties when they were developing, but people like it more than the post 2006 albums.
Voice/Musicianship
(15)
, Image (5), Lyrics/Music (20), Impact/Influence (10), Popularity (5), Star quality (5), Emotional appeal (5), Authenticity (25), and Legacy (10).
AllMusic: 8
Score: 3
Discography
- The Red Hot Chili Peppers (1984)
- Freaky Styley (1985)
- The Uplift Mofo Party Plan (1987)
- Mother's Milk (1989)
- Blood Sugar Sex Magik (1991)
- One Hot Minute (1995)
- Californication (1999)
- By the Way (2002)
- Stadium Arcadium (2006)
- I'm with You (2011)
- The Getaway (2016)
Albums ranked
Everyone puts Blood Sugar Sex Magik (1991) [4 1/2] as the number one Peppers album
These four are almost consistently in the top five:
Californication (1999) [5]
Mothers Milk (1989) [4]
By The Way (2002) [6]
Stadium Arcadium (2006) [3 1/2]
Stadium Arcadium (2006) [3 1/2]
These three tend to polarise opinion:
The Uplift Mofo Party Plan (1987) [4]
One Hot Minute (1985) [5]
Freaky Styley (1985) [3 1/2]
I'm With You (2011) [3]
The Getaway (2016) [3]
* CoS
* Diffuser
* Spill
* BEA
* Ranker
* LoudWire
* TopTens
My list
By The Way [6]
One Hot Minute [5]
Californication [5]
Blood Sugar Sex Magik [4 1/2]
Mothers Milk [4]
The Uplift Mofo Party Plan [4]
The Red Hot Chili Peppers [4]
Stadium Arcadium [3 1/2]
Freaky Styley [3 1/2]
Live in Hyde Park [3]
I'm With You [3]
The Getaway [3]
The band's peak was from 1989 to 2002 (essentially the Nineties). They retained interest through the Naughties, then tailed off. Opinion is divided on the period in the Eighties when they were developing, but people like it more than the post 2006 albums.
Summary
Voice/Musicianship
(15)
, Image (5), Lyrics/Music (20), Impact/Influence (10), Popularity (5), Star quality (5), Emotional appeal (5), Authenticity (25), and Legacy (10).
Links
