Here’s my review for Californication. Read it first if you want background information on my love for RHCP. This review for By The Way completes the Double-Whammy.

Californication leaves me wanting more, so I put in By The Way and as soon as first song, By The Way, starts, I’m satisfied. This is typical first single stuff, full of great lyrics, a rocking beat on one helluvan instrumental. The constant shift in tempo is also a lot of fun. A great summer song.

Some have criticized RHCP for including Universally Speaking on their recent Greatest Hits collection, but I can’t see why. It’s not exactly trademark Chili’s stuff, but it’s a great piece of work nevertheless. Great drumming, great vocals and couple of sound effects. I reckon it’s worthy.

This Is The Place is a pearler. Possibly some Californication, particularly such songs as Otherside, maybe even Emit Remmus. The chorus seems a little more passionate than the verses, but the verses still stand out on their own. Some good guitar work, a nice but of drumming, yep, this is good.

Dosed is the first slower song on the album, with the music taking a definitive backseat to the vocals. The second verse comes along and so does another singer, giving the Chilis their first real excuse to harmonise on this album. They pull it off too. Dosed is slow but funky and very listenable. It drags on a bit, but still a fairly decent track.

Another slower song comes next with Don’t Forget Me. Things pick up a bit around the halfway mark though and it turns into something fresh, original and definitely funky. The voices in the background are a little annoying, but they don’t last for long before another rocking instrumental comes in. I didn’t really like this song to start with but it’s certainly grown on me.

A couple of singles are up next, starting with The Zephyr Song. A great choice for a single, it’s upbeat, uplifting and has a great mellow-rock sound. The psychedelic video just adds to the brilliance of the song. Relatively easy to sing along to. A lot of fun, a truly great track.

Can’t Stop is up next. This is my Californication equivalent – the best song on the album, hands-down. It’s hard to tell whether it’s singing or rapping, which adds to it’s brilliance. The guitars compliment the singing well and the drumming is like the icing on the cake. Crammed into the middle of this is the lyrics, which are full of clever rhymes designed to suit the delivery. Can’t Stop is so good that the other songs almost look average in comparison. The song finishes with no music, just the vocals, and one of the truest lines I’ve heard: ”This life is more than just a read-through”. Yep, the song showcases in just that 10, 15 seconds how deep the RHCP are.

They kick it into something a little slower and mellower - I Could Die For You. I can tell from the title what to expect (a love song), but that doesn’t stop it from being typical Chili Peppers in that when it’s slow it’s done with feeling and each instrument playing their part perfectly, but it still has it’s up-tempo moments.

The opening notes of Midnight always remind me of something, as if I’ve heard the song on a TV show or movie, then it changes completely and I realize I haven’t. There’s still something hauntingly familiar about those notes though. If it was to be in a soundtrack, I’d go for some kind of mix of western / road trip (due to the traveling feeling) and chick-flick (I can hear something in the lyrics that sounds a little like a love song). I can hear the line “For the story”, which suits the mood as it could almost be a song about growing up.

How the Chili Peppers knew what New Zealand TV was going to be like two years after the release of the album I’ll never know, but Throw Away Your Television could be the anthem for the year. ”It’s a repeat, of a story told, it’s a repeat, and it’s getting old”. There’s a break between each line in the chorus to showcase the instruments, but by this stage I know they’re good. The instrumental has some kind of fancy sound effect to it and it lasts the rest of the song without wearing out it’s welcome.

Cabron has a distinct country / banjo feel. Because of this it’s very fast, upbeat and it even sounds like there’s a message in there. They roll the “r” in Cabron, so it’s more like ”Cabrrrrrrrrron, Cabrrrrrrrrron”. It’s the kind of song I could imagine singing around a campfire wearing Stetson hats and boots with those metal spiky wheels at the back of the heel, like D12 wear at the end of the video for My Band.

It sounds like a piano at the beginning of Tear. Another slow-ish song where I can almost hear all the individual drum beats, especially when the drummer hits the cymbals. That doesn’t last long though, as the song goes up a notch for the choruses and the drumming is drowned out by the singing. A guitar instrumental takes my attention at one stage and is followed soon after by another instrumental section where the drum and guitar collide together, and I can hear a trumpet or similar in there somewhere too. The song does drag on a little bit towards the end however.

On Mercury is another fast paced fun song, reminding me most of a mix between Can’t Stop and Cabron. The words that stick out are “good review”. Relax Chilis, I’ve got that under control. The pace isn’t let up at all, nor is the quality.
From the opening note of Minor Thing, I can tell this is going to rock. There’s almost a dance / disco feel to the first thirty or so seconds. The cool thing about this is the range of vocals. Some are fast, some are almost rapped, the key changes regularly, but in a good way. It’s almost like they’re trying to show off in a cheesy kind of way. It’s almost funny.

Warm Tape slows it down again for a minute or so, but the pace really fluctuates here. It’s all over the place but for some reason it works. The vocals are spot on, as per usual. The repetitiveness doesn’t get annoying, something I’m convinced only RHCP can pull off. When other artists do it I want to smack them, when the Chilis do it I smile. I don’t think I’ll ever understand why, but who cares? It’s all good.

The album closes with Venice Queen and this time, the instrumental’s at the start. The vocals don’t start until over a minute in. When they do, they take a backseat to the music, which hasn’t changed at all. Right throughout it’s the same sort of quiet guitars and a little bit of drumming. The singing only comes in short bursts and when the music changes, there’s another small instrumental piece before the harmonised vocals take over.

In a way, I regret not taking more notice of the Red Hot Chili Peppers until now. They’ve pulled off two amazing albums full of music that’s funky, fresh, sometimes upbeat, sometimes slow but always classic. These two albums are true treasures.

Recommended: Yes