Hey everyone, Powerstars here with yet another Chili Peppers review. Today, we're talking about their infamous 1995 album, One Hot Minute. Now, after the success of 1991's Blood Sugar Sex Magik, guitarist John Frusciante was becoming uncomfortable with the band's growing fanbase. He developed a rivalry with vocalist Anthony Kiedis and began sabotaging shows, which led to him leaving the band and developing an extreme heroin addiction. The other Chili Peppers completed the rest of the tour with Arik Marshall, but let him go once the tour ended. For their next album, they brought in former Jane's Addiction guitarist, Dave Navarro, whose more metal sound clashed with the funk of the Peppers. To make matters worse, Dave was in the middle of a drug addiction, and Anthony had also just relapsed, hindering his creative ability. Eventually, after some delay, One Hot Minute was released.
Now One Hot Minute, right off the bat is noticeably different to the other Chili Peppers albums, turning some fans of the band off. The funk punk sound the Chili Peppers are known for has been thrown into a blender with Psychedelic Metal, resulting in a strange, but, in my opinion, interesting sound. The psychedelia works it's way into hit single, "Aeroplane," while the metal is pushed to the front in songs like "Coffee Shop." The album is one of the best Chili Peppers albums lyrically, dealing with Anthony's resumed drug addiction, and, for the first, and so far last time on a Chili Peppers album, Flea provides some lyrics and lead vocals on "Deep Kick," "Transcending," and most notably, "Pea."
Songs like the aforementioned "Deep Kick" and "Warped" seem somewhat disjointed, with calmer psychedelic bits, and then straight in your face rap rock like some songs from Blood Sugar Sex Magik. However, in the case of "Deep Kick" espesially, the bits may not have a very smooth transition, but by theirselves they're very good, and enjoyable to listen to. That's a word a lot of people would use to describe the album: Disjointed. I have to agree, while some transitions work, a lot of them seem off-putting. Surprisingly, one that works more than a lot on the album is when the final track, "Transcending," which is for the most part a calm heartfelt ballad, transitions into a screamed metal song for the last two minutes. I don't know, it's still very disjointed, but to my ears, it seems to work in a weird sort of way.
Now while the album may be somewhat dominated by Dave Navarro's metal guitar playing, bassist Flea still shows himself to be a driving force in the band's sound. He adds an element of funk to the metal "Coffee Shop," drives some of the funkier songs like "Falling Into Grace," and helps Chad bring up the rhythm in some of the harder rocking songs like "One Big Mob," and the title track, "One Hot Minute." The album does also have a gentler side, with songs like the aforementioned hit single "Aeroplane," fellow single and acoustic ballad, "My Friends," and the tributes to Kurt Cobain and River Phoenix respectively, "Tearjerker" and "Transcending." "Tearjerker," written for Kurt Cobain is much more of a straightforward ballad with, appropriatly, a tearjerker of a chorus, specifically the last few notes of the chorus. The guitar solo also really gets me for some reason. "Transcending," the tribute to River Phoenix, which I've mentioned before goes into a metal song for the last 2 minutes is equally heartfelt, with lyrics written by Flea for one of his best friends. River passed away at a Los Angeles nightclub run by Johnny Depp. Some of the performers there included Flea, as well as former Chili Peppers guitarist John Frusciante who would rejoin 5 years after his death.
"Transcending" is a bittersweet and beautiful way to end the album. I even think the metal bit is beautiful, as if it's letting off tension knowing that this person who you loved so much is gone, it represents the anger involved when a friend dies. One Hot Minute may have it's flaws, and it's certainly not the best of their albums, but it's a unique album among the Chili Peppers catalog and definately worth a listen. This is Powerstars, out. Peace.