AR: Californication

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Californication (1999)

• A bit of a comeback album for the proto pop-funk-metal outfit, Californication represents a "maturing" - believe it or not - of the band. No doubt, it's teeming with their signature sound and energy, frankly hypersexual lyrics and spat-rap vocal deliveries - their style's all over it, and you'd never mistake Keadis / Flea's musical approach for anybody else. Still, the rough edges are smoothed here, there's a lot of emphasis on pop-accessibility / melody / palatability - everything just seems a little more in-its-placed, a little more controlled, and consequently a little more adult-contemporary.
• The first half of the album is dotted with mellifluous radio-friendly numbers, all of which were wildly successful and made this a monster hit of an album - "Scar Tissue," "Otherside," "Californication," and "Around the World" have superhooks and glossy, sweet harmony backup vocals. This approach, though, works less well than in the then recent past, as the wild tendencies with which to contrast are absent. They are professional songs, the logical conclusions of a band that went from cock-socks to Stevie Wonder covers to "Under the Bridge."They're great, don't get me wrong, but the umbrella of safety shadows them.
• The singles also never fail to remind me of the litany of similar sounding bands from the mid-nineties - Third Eye Blind, Three Doors Down, Sugar Ray all come to mind - and this really sounds like that vaguely too-crafted sound but with a RHCP stamp to render it palatable (to me).
• Probably obvious, but I'm a little disappointed by the sheen-turn that this album takes - it makes the album feel like a faded memory of rawer, realer, more ragged times. I unfailingly compare "modern" RHCP to their magnum opus, Blood Sugar Sex Magik, and this is just nowhere near as exciting.
• The album is additionally pretty uneven, with most of the meat upfront and some hit-or-miss experimentation at the back end. Some of the back end is drilled - there are so bona fide successful out-of-comfort zone exercises in "Savior," "Right On Time" and "Road Trippin'." There are some embarrassing lyric-laden misses, too, though. Seriously, WTF is an "alligator-hater?"
• Overall, a professional delivery that is better than I'm making it sound. RHCP crafted their utterly original niche sound brilliantly, but by this point, however skillfully, I feel they're echoing themselves. The musicianship is great and the reminiscent-of-Gang of Four polyrhythms entertaining as always, but Californication is a good, not gripping, disc.

Status: Recommended (solid)

Nyet's Fave: "Otherside"