Californication, Red Hot Chili Peppers, 1999 Warner Brothers
 

http://www.sleurink.nl/images/album_...humbs/880f.jpg

1. Around the World:
Amazing funky bass lines, violent dums, sexy lyrics, and a suprisingly good pop melody combine to make Around the World a perfect mix of funk, hard rock, pop, and rap. 9.5/10

2. Parallel Universe:
Great lyrics, nice guitar, original premise(Rare these days), and the first signs of Kiedis vocal makeover turn a strange concept into an amazing song. 10/10

3. Scar Tissue:
As the first straight up pop song the Peppers have ever written, this makes you wonder why they didn't start earlier. One of Kiedis best vocal to date is helped by another good lyrical performance, and vintage Frusciante guitar. A standout track. 10/10

4. Otherside:
Eery lyrics, great atmosphere-creating instrumentals, are offset by a beat that just doesn't fit the song. 8.5/10

5. Get On Top:
Rather strange lyrics and vocals, probably the most un-melodic track on the album. Not that that's a bad thing. 8.3/10

6. Californication:
Atmospheric guitar, and uncharacteristic lyrics and make the title track an odd one, once again hinting a change of direction for the funkiest white guys on the planet. Makes you think. 8.5/10

7. Easily-:
the best lyrics ever by Kiedis. Great bass from Flea, and aggresive drumming from Chad Smith. 9.5/10

8. Porcelain:
An absolute chang-up after the firey Easily. A rather beautiful, endearing work. 9/10

9. Emit Remmus:
Summer time folks! Great bass, sarcastic, scornful lyrics. Consider it a sequel(Lyrically) to Californication. 9/10

10. I Like Dirt:
Pure funk. Back to basics for the peppers. Pretty good.
8.5/10

11. This Velvet Glove:
The hardest song on the album. Haven't figured out what it's about yet.
8/10

12. Savior:
Strange and outlandish, my least favorite track. Corny lyrics.
7/10.

13. Purple Stain:
Great flow, no melody for parts. Then goes to ultra melodic. Love it!
10/10.

14. Right On Time:
Absolutely searing, the lyrics seem to tumble out. Impressive vocal and instumental transitions.
10/10

15. Road Trippin':
Slightly prog influenced. Beautiful melody and lyrics. Absolutely perfect.
10/10

Then there are the bonus tracks:
Fat Dance:
Really cool song!
Overfunk:
Meh, not so great.
Quixoticelixer:
My favorite Peppers song. 10/10(Only bonus track included in the review)

Overall rating: 9.1125

Road Trippin' prog???????? O_O

Sounds like just a sappy ballad to me. IMO the weakest song on the album. But still an awesome album overall. Though I find your review to be a bit too brief.

Listen to it a bit more. It grows on you.

Ok from me. I do really like a few songs from this (they seem to be the ones you like least, Saviour, Get On Top) but overall in comparison to BSSM it does very little for me.
I prefer the old peppers. Maw.

Scar Tissue a 10 star song? uhh...

Have you heard the first and third bonus tracks? Among the Chili Peppers best. Savior is just stupid, IMO.

You're in the minority in disagreement there man.

I'm with Crowquill.

fantastic album, one of my all time favs.

Exactly Frances! There is a poll guys.

Its one of their most mediocre songs. Theres no vocal variation its far from his best vocal performance. And good lyrics? "Young kentucky girl in a push-up bra / Fallin all over myself / To lick your heart and taste your health cause / With the birds Ill share this lonely view" that sounds like bad teenage poetry.

Flea and Smith are completely average on this song, as is Kiedis, except for his lyrics which blow, though to be fair hes not one of the best songwriters in the world. The only part i'll give you is Frusciante being good on this, but I wouldn't expect him to be bad since hes the most talented member of RHCP.

A song rating poll you say?

In songwriting and musicianship, certainly, but pure msuicianship? No way. You seem a big fan of teenage angst poetry Crow. Anyway, I might be getting a litle ahead myself with 'great lyrics' but their hardly the worst in the world. I fail to see how the vocal is so bad. It's certainly better than Otherside.

haha, he called you Cow.

Cow? You must be going blind Frances, it's Crowquill, not Cowquill.

Why not? It's one of my favorites off the album.

I don't really like bands for their lyrics anyway. But if you're gonna rant about "bad teenage poetry" aim for something more deserving, like Emo.

I like Keidis's vocals, particularly on this album, though he's by no means a technical great.

I also don't think Fleas bass playing on Callifornicaton is average at all, just because he's not doing his usual slapping and popping, his abillity for strong melodic lines is especially notable on Callifornication.

I also think Flea is the most talented in the band, though Frusciante shines most on this particular album.

Chad Smith in second. Frusciante is third with Kiedis a distant last. Which is funny snce Anthony was the frontman, for obvious reasons.

Frusciante >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Smith.

As a musician?

I never said it was bad, I said it was bland. And I do like Frusciante best, but that maybe because I think his solo work is better than RHCP. and teenage angst poetry? Why don't I pull up my favorite verses by the people I call my favorite songwriters?

Blake Sennett: "August i'll see you soon / under yellow moons / where i'll gather whats left of you / and august im on your side / or did I speak too soon? / now we've crossed the great divide"

Elliott Smith: "Drink up, baby, look at the stars / ill kiss you again between the bars / where im seeing you there / with your hands in the air / waiting to finally be caught"

Patrick Wolf: "A boy like me is told he is both nine and ninety / And boy like me should shut those books join the army / but a boy like me would never be seen fighting for peace / I want total chaos and a holiday home in the east"

Will Sheff: "if I could tear his throat / and spill his blood between my jaws / and erase his name for good / don’t you know that I would? / Don't you realize I wouldn’t pause / that I would cut him down with my claws / if I could have somehow never let that happen."

Conor Oberst: "Now that its june, we’ll sleep out in the garden / and if it rains, we’ll just sink in to the mud / where it is quiet and much cooler than the house is / and there's no clocks or phones to wake us up / because i have / learned that nothing is as pressing / as the one who is pressing would like you to believe / and i'm content to walk a little slower / because there's nowhere that i really need to be"

I don't see where you drew that statement from.

Theres very few songs that I like that I would consider 10/10, the rating on this album he gave is ridiculously high for every song.

I was talking about Scar Tissue, not the entire album.

You took that comment way too seriously, lol. By the way, you took the worst lyrics from the entire song as an example. That Patrick Wolf bit is absolutely horrible. He contradicts himself horribly.

Sounds like teenage poetry to me. ;)

Yep, two young lovers relationship described by cliched metaphors.

Way to miss the entire point of the verse.

Actually the songs about someone with cancer, congrats and cliche metaphors? Wrong.

i guess im the only one who finds it incredibly difficult to take this 5th grader seriously.

Doesn't say anything about cancer in the part you posted. It was a just a bunch of metaphors with very little meaning. What might I ask is the point of the Patrick Wolf line.

Going into 7th actually. And please shut up about my age.

This is an album review, not another Conor/Patrick - Good/Bad lyrics thread!

A mod started it to. *gasp*

show me 2 metaphors in that excerpt from conor he quoted.

There aren't any, he doesn't even know what a metaphor is and the Patrick Wolf line is talking about the cliches boy are supposed to follow it wasn't the best one to quote, I think I like Wolf Song better but its the only one that came to mind.

And not one thing about cancer?

"because i have learned that nothing is as pressing / as the one who is pressing would like you to believe / and i'm content to walk a little slower / because there's nowhere that i really need to be".

Taking things slowly instead of as most doctors suggest living your life to the fullest the one whos pressing etc, duh and last verse especially touches on it

we will always be the way we were that night
you crawled inside of me
and you slept in my blood the way you sleep now
the quietest hush has consumed this house
and when the doctors have gone and you sweat through the bed
with the pictures and the pills they piled around your head
just rest now, and in a moment you will know everything
was it all a dream?
it’s too vague now to recount.
an outline of the one you loved in a life that was that not longer will be stands above you as you sleep.


And he started it by attacking my taste in lyrics, so he can be blamed for it not me despite what he says.

met·a·phor [met-uh-fawr, -fer] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation
–noun
1. a figure of speech in which a term or phrase is applied to something to which it is not literally applicable in order to suggest a resemblance, as in “A mighty fortress is our God.” Compare mixed metaphor, simile (def. 1).
2. something used, or regarded as being used, to represent something else; emblem; symbol.
[Origin: 1525–35; < L metaphora < Gk metaphorá a transfer, akin to metaphérein to transfer. See meta-, -phore]

How exactly is 'here it is quiet and much cooler than the house is / and there's no clocks or phones to wake us up' not a metaphor for something(Haven't examined all the lyrics so I don't know what)?

wow, you can use dictionary.com?

doesn't change the fact that you explicitly said

"its a bunch of metaphors with no meaning"

despite the fact that you cannot show me a single metaphor in that excerpt. are we really supposed to believe you know what a metaphor is? you did this same thing with 'melody', give it up kid.

I just showed you a metaphor.

No, you didn't. You asked how it wasnt a metaphor.
It isn't a metaphor, certainly not in the context presented, for anything.

You see in the garden there typically isn't any phones or clocks hooked up, theres nothing metaphorical about that at all, there isn't a metaphor in that entire thing bit I quoted. Its imagery

so he literally means that he and his lover will fall into the mud if it rains. Wow. And that he's actually talking about how it's much cooler outdoors than in the house? Well then, my bad I suppose I was wrong on the metaphors.

Well, at least you got one thing right.

You didnt have any other context to go by. There was a lyric posted, that had no metaphors.
You can't just extrapolate, there is either a metaphor or there isn't.

Its okay though, they teach you what a metaphor is in 7th grade, so you'll know in a few years...I'm still learning. :o:

"Lets have sex, on the moon, while on lsd, from orange baloons. I once f*cked a dog, her name was Jesus, she let me drank her wine, am I saved?"

A little ditty I wrote. Its about the war in Iraq.