Red Hot Chili Peppers
By The Way

THE REVIEW

I've read the reviews about this album, but finding them not very exhaustive (no offense to the de-reviewers), I want to analyze one by one the songs of this album and see what scandalous things the Red Hot have done in this record.

It starts with "By The Way" and the song in question isn't bad: energetic, strong, very tough: the beginning isn't bad at all and the chorus immediately sticks in your head. Good. Very Good. Let's move on with "Universally Speaking" this piece isn't bad either: good drums, a tight bass, in short not a masterpiece, not an aggressive piece but a piece that can be listened to. Nice, not exciting. A few bass notes bring us to "This Is The Place" this song too isn't the best but it's not bad either. Well, let's move on waiting for something stronger, there will be something stronger, damn. Three/four overlapping guitars introduce me to "Dosed" and here I start getting annoyed; listening to Kiedis's voice being all romantic at forty doesn't feel great, even though the song is beautiful, but, damn, you're the Red Hot Chili Peppers, you can't do such a song!! Bad, bad. A kind of slowed-down Otherside makes me realize it's "Don't Forget Me"'s turn... and this is yet another piece that leaves one indifferent, although this is perhaps the most "rock" track (pardon the term) heard so far. Let's see, let's go to the sixth track, who knows... no way, here we're faced with an electric drum, damn, and again Anthony with the romantic voice and Frusciante howling at the moon, nothing, nothing, nothing, we're bordering on scandal! "Can't Stop" and finally my eyes light up, damn it, did it take so long?? a nice little riff, a crescendo of drums, Anthony rapping something but... Flea, damn Flea, I don't hear him anymore!! In all the Chili Peppers' records, the great Balzary always made himself heard, but here, he's not there, Flea's bass isn't heard!! "I Could Die For You" makes us understand that we are facing yet another love song, which reminds me of something by Lenny Kravitz and I don't know why... I'm really pissed, it's a pure crap record, but let's move on, something will come out of the hat. "Midnight" has a scandalous intro: what is it?? orchestra?? and then?? the wind blowing?? what the hell kind of introduction is it?? And then the lyrics people, the lyrics here are mummified, not an expression of joy, not a swear word, there's not even a parental advisory... "Throw Away Your Television" lets us notice that Flea also plays in the band and finally makes himself heard. Oh, finally a nice track where Flea does the Flea of the good old days and the band keeps up with him, nice piece huh, the explosive ending then raises the average of the song, making it one of the best on the cd. Let's hope the next one is up to par, maybe the last tracks are really tough... let's see... little guitar, arpeggios, it seems nice but then... hearing the singer sing "Cabron" makes me want to vomit... again we're faced with something unclassifiable, that is, can someone tell me what it is?? what genre is it?? It sounds like being at a Mexican fiesta complete with sombrero and little guitar. I'm aghast. "Tear" well, another love song with Anthony crying and Flea not being heard, but... wait a moment here it plays... the trumpet!! Not a note of bass was heard for the whole record and here it is playing the trumpet!! Really moving, well done idiots! "On Mercury" is something like ska I guess, but I'm not sure, the fact is that this piece is cheerful and engaging, in short, a not exceptional track but neither is it the crap heard so far. "Minor Thing" is also a nice track, sunny and aggressive in the chorus, I really liked Frusciante's guitar in this track but as always I don't hear a note of the bassist... Warm Tape has a spectral start and then a chorus that refers to the Far West, nothing special, barely reaches sufficiency. I reach the last track depressed and disconsolate. It's "Venice Queen"'s turn and I'm dazzled. Wow. Beautiful guitar riff, the drums come in... beautiful song!! Kudos to Frusciante!! Sure, it's not "Give It Away" but it remains one of the most beautiful tracks, note then the subsequent tempo changes. In short, a beautiful song to close a crap record.

We can classify this album as a crappy album, but the fact is with this CD, back then, the Chili Peppers conquered pimply fourteen-year-olds, as happened a few years earlier with Californication (and in that case, the pimply fourteen-year-old was me). But at least Californication sounded more rock, the instruments were well assembled and everything went much better. It's pointless today to expect a new Blood Sugar Sex Magik from this band, but at least they should not make these "musical experiments" present in the record anymore. Amen.