Red Hot Chili Peppers
Blood Sugar Sex Magik

THE REVIEW

In 1991, following the success of Mother’s Milk, the Red Hot Chili Peppers turned to Rick Rubin and Warner for their fifth album. It would become a masterpiece. Blood Sugar Sex Magik, a synthesis of vastly different musical influences, blends rock and funk, electric and acoustic... But let's proceed in order. One, two, three, four...

1. The Power Of Equality As expected, they immediately make their intentions clear. A captivating, spontaneous, and well-crafted funk-rock kicks off: a true orgy, where Flea's phallic bass infiltrates everywhere. Frusciante displays simple and fitting guitar lines, while Smith drums with intensity and effortlessly transitions. Kiedis contributes excellently, rapping, preaching, and presenting himself with these words: “right or wrong / my song is strong / if you don’t like it / move along!”

2. If You Have To Ask After this colorful and outgoing start, the band takes a break, but with style. The bass is still the protagonist, the guitar lays down a funky rhythm, and Smith invents a light snare drum that floats in an offbeat. Kiedis, this time, performs in the shadows only to emerge in the chorus. Finally, the song resolves with a series of breaks and a very dark guitar solo: pure academia.

3. Breaking The Girl After two tracks like these, the ears are ready for a masterpiece. Breaking the girl is an electro-acoustic ballad, a completely unprecedented ¾ where a haunting rhythm and a legendary melody overlap. Smith drums like a madman, Flea harmonizes wisely, while the guitars, flutes, and voice give an ethereal touch to the song, a confession of a modern-day Casanova, which develops into an exciting crescendo and forcefully enters among the Red Hot Chili Peppers' masterpieces.

4. Funky Monks Closing the first block of the album, which took us to paradise, a kind of dusty and acidic soul brings us back to earth. The drums are heavy as a sentence, moved solely by the offbeat hi-hat; the bass, in one of its rare moments of stasis, confuses with the kick drum; Frusciante strums with the class of a Delta bluesman. The result is a song that’s surely stark, perhaps a bit monotonous, with two instrumental moments that seem mere exercises in style. A half misstep.

5. Suck My Kiss Suck my Kiss lifts the mood, a genuine hard rock, all muscle and testosterone, where bass and guitar overlap to create absolutely explosive riffs. If Smith's rhythm provides solidity to their escape, Kiedis tries to top this din and commands, in an explosion of sincerity: “Suck my kiss, baby, f*** me right now.”

6. I Could Have Lied Finally, to conclude the second trio, comes another electro-acoustic ballad; this time, however, the rhythm is a 4/4, and the sound is much softer and more conventional. The absolute star is Frusciante, who builds the entire piece with splendid acoustic phrases, while Smith and Flea merely follow him, then accentuate the crescendo. The singing, once again emotional, launches a wonderful electric guitar solo that dissolves into the final chord progression. And if the album ended here?

7.Mellowship Slinky In B Major Concluding the second block, we restart with this piece, a light and colorful funk that opens the central part of the album. It’s a true divertissement, where drums, bass, and guitar interlock with great balance, shining both individually and as a unit. Kiedis' delirious rap, the backing vocals, and some brilliant passages complete a scene that might be pop, perhaps kitsch, but definitely well-crafted.

8. The Righteous And The Wicked Continuing with hard rock and a very simple bass riff supported by drums. On this riff, the well-paced verse and a loud, engaging chorus develop. After the second chorus, all hell breaks loose: as the drums get stuck on a 4/4 with Bonham's anger, bass and guitar unleash a stone-cracking riff worthy of Jimmy Page. In the end, despite a series of pyrotechnic breaks, Chad counts four for the next piece...

9. Give It Away... Which is another funk-rock, even noisier and more engaging. While guitar and drums rev up, Flea's bass is once again front and center: a Viagra-fueled, roaring bass, literally erupting—or perhaps erecting? We are faced with an explosive mix of bass and guitar, the perfect support for Kiedis' relentless rap: “Give it away, give it away, give it away now!”. Frusciante's phrases are impeccable, seamlessly fitting into a driving composition in perpetual motion.

10. Blood Sugar Sex Magik To close this continuum, without a moment of respite, comes the title track. Starting with Smith's rhythm, a slow, well-articulated 4/4, which sees the entry of a guitar and bass riff. The distortion transforms the verse into a psychedelic river, dense and vibrant, where Kiedis’ warm voice melts: “Every woman has a piece of Aphrodite / Copulate to create a state of sexual light / Kissing her virginity / My affinity / I mingle with the gods / I mingle with divinity”. The rest is monumental hard rock, made of electric slashes and burning solos, while the finale is just a prelude to the album's gem...

11. Under the Bridge The die is cast. Frusciante kicks off the legendary intro and accompanies Kiedis’ sincere and moving vocals. Smith and Flea join in, the former with extremely gentle rhythmics, the latter weaving an essential line. The piece grows progressively in its disarming simplicity while Kiedis speaks to us about his loneliness and Los Angeles, his only companion. “Lonely as I am / Together we cry”. After the second chorus—chills—the crescendo becomes overwhelming, with a new chord sequence leading the female choir—more chills—and the protagonist’s suicide. If the album ended here, we might go and commit suicide ourselves... What more could one want from life and music?

12. Naked In The Rain Pulling us from ecstasy is this somewhat over-the-top hard funk, with an explosive rhythm, in which Flea seems to have suddenly lost all restraint and engages in an exaggerated riff, before placing—yes!—the album’s first authentic bass solo.

13. Apache Rose Peacock Things slow down with a nice funk, set in New Orleans, where Kiedis tells us, sitting on a bean bag, about his crush on a beautiful mulatta. There's room for good riffs, some backing vocals, and even a trumpet more than vaguely jazz-like. But it’s clear that testosterone is taking hold of our heroes.

14. The Greeting Song Here’s another increasingly over-the-top hard-funk, where Frusciante happily strums along. The track is engaging, but perhaps a bit overloaded; the three instrumentalists seem to insist too much on virtuosity.

15. My Lovely Man Track 15 marks a very special moment, dedicated to the late friend and guitarist Hillel Slovak. Chad Smith enjoys himself the most, engaged in fast and elaborate rhythmics.

16. Sir Psycho Sexy A bass riff, melted in a very fluid distortion, opens the album's most rhetorical and pretentious track. The song runs for 8:16, with a series of good insights and an astounding Kiedis, who brings out the album's most vulgar and explicit lyrics, alternating with the inevitable choirs. It all resolves in a fantastic ending: an unsettling, almost psychedelic chord progression, worthy of concluding a shocking track.

17. They’re Red Hot Is it not over yet?! As the cherry on top, they take a Robert Johnson song, transforming it to create an extremely fast, very acidic, and delirious funk that closes the album, leaving us simply astounded.