RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS
– BLOOD SUGAR SEX MAGIK (WARNER BROS)
Just because their
fans are pricks, does that make them pricks?
Not necessarily so. Also does it
make their music (their art) bad? Quite
frankly no.
The Red Hot Chili
Peppers are one of the most derided acts of the alternative nation era. I guess their bravado didn’t sit comfortably
with the angst that was being exorcised wholesale at the time. Here was an act that actually got the girl
and was proud of it.
Blood Sugar Sex Magik
is the fifth studio record of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and is generally
regarded as their masterpiece, their best work. And when removed from the circus and personal elements
surrounding it, it is actually a very good record.
Firstly there is the
fact that it is seventeen songs. Not
many albums of the time (or of any era for that fact) can sustain a record for
that length/distance. However this one
does. It’s not quite the Minutemen but
it is at least dedicated to Mike Watt.
For almost ten years
now a copied cassette version of this album has sat in my Ford Focus. And its looking like the tape will outlast
the car having already outlived many formats.
This record maybe flabby, it maybe predictable but damn if it isn’t
great driving music.
Influenced as much by
funk as it was punk, this is an athletic workout where all four members of the
team know their place and the job that they have to do. With John Frusciante providing the guitars
and Rick Rubin manning the controls this what in many was exactly what alternative
rock was about pre Seattle.
Housing five singles
it is actually these tracks that somewhat misrepresent the album at hand. Away from blatant posturing of “Give It
Away” and emotional blackmail of “Under The Bridge” (a song whose lyrics used
to make my mother laugh when it played on the store stereo where she worked)
the big songs are the lesser-championed album tracks that bolster proceedings.
And it begins strongly
as the celebration of “Power Of Equality” offers a positive exuberance that
sets out the album’s stall offering each player space/room to demonstrate their
wares. It is a driving opening that
leads straight into track two and “If You Have To Ask” without missing a beat
and likely the listener not even noticing.
This sees them wandering into their trademark P-Funk territory complete
with its group celebration choruses.
This is something that is then repeated with welcome in the Bukowski
namedropping “Mellowship Slinky In B Major”.
Of the aforementioned
singles “Suck My Kiss” is the pick of the lot with its thumping bass skilfully
spliced with Kiedis on form ahead of Frusciante dropping in like a chiming
grandfather clock. There was one of
those clear examples of where the rap rock thing could be done so well. And then in a further nod to that “I Could
Have Lied” heavily reminds of the more mellow selections from “The Real Thing”
by Faith No More.
From here “The
Righteous & The Wicked” and “Naked In The Rain” stand out for their
relentless and pulsing gestures while the transition from “The Greeting Song”
into “My Lovely Man” is the kind of smooth/slick execution that fills of
genius.
There is a risk of the
audience falling for the charms of the band especially when songs such as
“Breaking The Girl” and “Under The Bridge” and here perhaps is why girls went
for the band more than there indie kid boyfriends were comfortable with.
Likewise the epic
numbers in the title track and “Sir Psycho Sexy” can tend to push the listener
further than they were perhaps wishing to go as certainly with the latter
things become bloated.
As I say this is
amazing driving music. It booms from
all directions and offers a warped kind of perspective that can house dark
association with most males. It is
really very sexually explicit in/out there.
If you can get past such gestures and lyrics (and you would be forgiven
for not wanting to) overall this is a much better record than experts credit.
Thesaurus moment:
thump.
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