Red Hot Chili Peppers

The Red Hot Chili Peppers are back with a new single and album. The days of bands like these having a top 40 hit are probably over, the single "Dark Necessities" reached number 97. The album though will no doubt sell bucket loads and then you will have many people who will say they're not as good as they used to be.

It is 25 years this year since "Blood Sugar Sex Magik" was released. I wasn't familiar with the band at the time, but around 1992/93 they were on the list of bands you should listen to according to the rock fans at school. I then discovered that they were the band that did the take me to the place I love song and was somewhat surprised that they would be a band rock fans should listen to because to me it wasn't rock music.

They were a friend of mines favourite band and he gave me a copy of the "Blood Sugar Sex Magik" album. I thought it was a fantastic album, but again I didn't really think of it a rock music. I listened to it so much that I ended up snapping the tape so had to go back to my friend to get another copy. I also asked him about the other four albums they'd released prior to this, but he said they were all rubbish.

In 1994 they released "Give it Away" as a single and rereleased "Under the Bridge" which charted higher than the original release. It seemed a bit strange how they were releasing singles from a 3 year old album, but maybe they were only just starting to have a real impact on the UK.

By the time they released their follow up, "One Hot Minute" in 1995 I was very much into the rave scene, but I still listened to the Red Hot Chili Peppers and was very much looking forward to hearing new material from them. I didn't think much to the first single "Warped" and found the video quite disturbing, but I thought the next single, "My Friends" was excellent. The final single from the album, "Aeroplane" was pretty average I thought. I never bought the album at the time, probably because my priority was to build up my rave collection.

By 1999 I hadn't listened to "Blood Sugar Sex Magik" for some time and had pretty much forgot they existed. Then they appeared on Top of the Pops with "Scar Tissue". To this day I still don't think I've heard a tune which flows as nicely as this and it prompted my to started listening to them again. Hearing "Around the World" and "Californication" as well made me decide to go out and buy the "Californication" album the following year. On a side note, I know "Otherside" was released as a single between these two but it passed me by.

The "Californication" album I found was a lot more melodic than "Blood Sugar Sex Magik" but that was no bad thing. Whilst not as good, I still thought overall it was a decent album. I then decided to buy the "One Hot Minute" album, but didn't think much of it and ended up swapping it with a friend of mine for Alice Deejays "Who Needs Guitars Anyway?" album. I was ridiculed for doing that at the time, but I still to this very day think I ended up with the better album and my friend thinks he did, so we're both happy.

During this time I saw quite a bit of them on the music channels include quite a bit of footage of them in concert. To be honest I don't think they're very good live, Anthony Kiedis seems to struggle with his vocals on the stage and it just seems a bit flat. Needless to say I've never been to a concert of theirs.

By 2002 they seemed bigger than they'd ever been before despite some members now being in their 40s. A friend of mine was telling me their new single "By the Way" was the best thing since sliced bread, but then I heard it and to be honest I thought it was awful. My main criticism of it was that he spent most of the song shouting random words, my friend told me that was rich coming from someone who listens to Scooter. I didn't think much of the follow up singles either, to me this was the point the Red Hot Chili Peppers had got so big they didn't bother writing good music anymore. Another theory was that previously they had albums come out in 1991,1995 and 1999 so they should have waited until 2003 to keep the four year gap between albums, this was too much too soon.

They actually did wait for another four years until their next album, "Stadium Arcadium" in 2006. To me this album gave them a new lease of life. Anthony had grown his hair back too so maybe the power was in the hair. I thought "Dani California" was a decent first single from the album, but I thought the follow up singles were all even better, I really liked all of them. As for the album, I liked it but being a double album it maybe goes on a bit too long.

It was five years until the next album came out. Maybe its to do with the way we consume media these days, but the release of that album seemed a bit blink and you'll miss it. I did listen to some tunes from that album but they didn't have much impact on me. I can't actually remember what any of the tunes are called, or even remember what the album was called. If you really want to know it can easily be googled. By this point, Anthony had gone back to short hair so maybe the power really was in the hair.

So with Anthony's hair still short, will this album be any good?

Well we have "Dark Necessities" which I've posted here which I've listened to just the once and think it has potential. Another track from the album has been posted to YouTube which I've also heard once and again I think it has potential.

Will it be as good as their older stuff?

I'm sure it will be as good if not better than a fair chunk of their older stuff, would be difficult to beat some of their older material but you never know. Being a band that have released some excellent music and some pretty poor music their whole career there is just no telling. Saying that, this is just my experience, we'll all have our opinions and many will differ so the best thing to say is make your own conclusions.