The following scenario is entirely fictional

The way I see it, there’s four different groups of people when it comes to Red Hot Chili Peppers… and I’m only going to deal with three of them, the fourth being those people who aren’t fans and simply aren’t at all interested in this CD. A representative from each group is going to talk to me about this CD. Read the whole thing if you wish, or you can skip right to the section that applies to you.

I’m a hardcore fan of the band. I own every album they’ve ever released, and have been following them ever since they started. Is there anything on this album I don’t already have?, and if so, is it worth buying?

The CD features 16 songs, three of which not on any other RHCP album. The first is ”Soul To Squeeze”, which was previously only available on the “Coneheads” soundtrack. You already know this song. Upon release of this collection, RHCP brought out a new single called ”Fortune Faded”, which, seeing you’re a hardcore fan, you’ve probably heard. It didn’t garner a lot of radio airplay, so if you haven’t heard it I’ll give you a quick rundown. It’s pretty much what you’d expect from the band, a basic rock tune with some great guitar solos and Anthony Kiedis’ smooth vocals on top. What makes it stand out is its simplicity. The second new song is ”Save The Population”, which isn’t very memorable, save some nice vocals from Kiedis. Unfortunately, it gets overshadowed by ”Fortune Faded” a bit, which really is the better of the two new tracks.

There’s three other things you need to note with this CD. Firstly, this is not a collection of every RHCP song. Chronologically, it starts where their last greatest hits collection What Hits?! left off. That means you’re not going to find any songs from albums like The Uplift Mofo Party Plan here - Greatest Hits is meant to go alongside What Hits?!, not overshadow it. Secondly, the track order may not be what you’re expecting. This isn’t just a list of the singles, they’re mixed up a bit so the album has better flow. Thirdly, not all the singles are here, and there’s a chance your favourites may have been omitted. However, the DVD covers this. For example, my favourite song from By The Way, ”Can’t Stop”, is not on the CD, but it is on the DVD. The CD is a collection of what RHCP consider to be their “Greatest Hits” since what Hits?! was released.

So with the average price of CDs these days, I wouldn’t really recommend this to you unless you get the DVD as well, because ”Soul To Squeeze” is well known enough you could possibly pick it up on a compliation somewhere, or the Coneheads soundtrack, ”Save The Population” is OK but not that great, and ”Fortune Faded” is available as a single. However, the DVD contains a lot of stuff you’ll be interested in – mainly the videos to all the singles released off Californication and By The Way, and some from One Hot Minute, Blood Sugar Sex Magik, and ”Higher Ground” from Mother’s Milk. Chances are you’ve seen the videos a few times, but it’s great being able to watch them over and over.

I do have some complaints about the DVD though. It could just be my copy, but there doesn’t seem to be a way to play all the videos one after another. The option’s there, but it seems to get stuck on ”Suck My Kiss” and just play that over and over. Also, you can’t seem to play the videos without subtitles. I don’t mind them but others may find that a bit of a pain. There’s no decent menu either – when you press “main menu” on your DVD remote it takes you to the sub-menu for the Blood Sugar Sex Magik album.

Overall, you’ve probably got the vast majority of the music here, but the three songs here not on any other album and the video disc makes the purchase well worth it. I would certainly recommend you buy this, but only if you’ve got a DVD player. Otherwise, there’s not a lot here you won’t already have and isn’t available for cheaper.

I’m a casual fan of the band. I’ve heard a lot of the singles on radio and such, and enjoyed them, but I’ve never bought an album and don’t really plan on doing so for fear of the unreleased tracks not being any good. I wouldn’t mind having a copy of the singles… should I buy “Greatest Hits”?

If you’ve enjoyed the singles you’ve heard, and there’s probably a few you haven’t, then chances are you’ll enjoy this album. It’s how I got into it. I didn’t really take notice of the band until By The Way was released, and at that stage I knew of Californication, and had enjoyed the singles from there, so I was anticipating the Greatest Hits release. However, if you’re only a recent fan, then I would suggest to you also that the DVD is a worthy purchase because you’ll get more of your favourite RHCP songs as the CD only contains the title track from By The Way, whereas the best single from that album IMO was ”Can’t Stop”.

However, if you’re debating whether or not to buy this CD, I suggest leaving it a while, and exploring RHCP. Check out some fan sites, look for older videos being shown on TV or radio. Maybe pick up one of their studio albums (cheaper these days than when originally released). Doing this will give you an idea of what the band’s sound is like and whether you like it or not. If you like the general sound, you’ll like Greatest Hits. Basically RHCP do rock music, with a funk edge to it. All the songs on this collection demonstrate the sound in their own individual way, but some songs are certainly better than others. The one that strikes out as just being awful, to me, is ”Aeroplane”, which is only on the DVD. The whole sound of the song, and even the look of the video, feels like it’s aimed at people within the 0-4 age bracket. The rest of the music is all good; fairly easy on the ears but with that distinct rock sound. The music is very unique and worth checking out.

I’m not a fan of the band at all. I might recognize their music if I heard it though. I’m a cultralist, which means I’m interested in popular culture. If this band his been around for so many years and has been as influential as I’ve heard they have, should this CD/DVD set be something I need to own or at least know a lot about?

If you’re a cultralist, you should at least know some very basic history about the band so you can sound educated when the topic arises. Anthony Kiedis, Michael “Flea” Balzary, Jack Irons and Hillel Slovak first formed in 1983 under the name Tony Flow & The Miraculously Majestic Masters of Mayhem. Later that year they changed their name to Red Hot Chili Peppers, and signed an eight album deal with EMI. In 1984 they released their first, self-titled album. Album number two, Freaky Styley was released in 1985, and album number three, Uplift Mofo Party Plan came out in 1987. This is a significant album because it was the last with all four original members. In 1988, Irons left the band and Slovak died, and in 1989 John Frusciante and Chad Smith joined the band, and the new lineup Chili’s released Mother’s Milk. This is the lineup the majority of fans consider to be the definitive and best. Only ”Higher Ground” from this era is represented on Greatest Hits, the band having previously released a greatest hits compilation from this era, entitled, What Hits?! in 1992.

The albums represented here are from the Chili’s days on Warner Brothers records, which ranges from Blood Sugar Sex Magik, released in 1991, through to their latest studio release, By The Way, which came out in 2002. The vast majority of the singles are covered, except a few from One Hot Minute, which is widely recognized as being their worst album, possibly because guitarist John Frusciante was absent, with Dave Navarro in his place.

As for the music, it’s rock with a funk edge, (as I mentioned to the casual fan). Sometimes the lyrics may not make much sense, sometimes there’s a deep meaning to them. There’s a lot of variation within Red Hot Chili Peppers music, but one thing I’ve noticed is that there always seems to be an outstanding instrumental piece in their songs. I’d recommend you also have a look at some earlier work before making this purchase.

***OVERALL RECOMMENDATION***

This is a great CD/DVD set for the hardcore fan, as it has many of RHCP songs on one CD, and most of the videos are included on the DVD. However, there’s not a lot of new material. The casual fan should enjoy this, as it means they can pick up the singles all on one disc without buying any full albums. The “cultralist” should only buy this if they’re into the music, which should go without saying.

I think many people would enjoy this CD/DVD set. It contains some of the best music of the last 13 years and has already proved immensely popular, selling platinum in it’s first week of release here in New Zealand.

Recommended: Yes