Red Hot Chili Peppers
One Hot Minute

THE REVIEW

"One Hot Minute"... Here I am listening again these days to what I always considered the "unfortunate" album by the Peppers from Los Angeles. Oh yes, easy to understand why, right? Too easy: it's the album without Frusciante, with the guitar of the "rowdy Navarro", the first after the excellent "Blood Sugar Sex Magik", the one that precedes John's return with "Californication", in short: the one that gets forgotten. I confess, it had been over 4 years since I last listened to it.

I wake up early in the morning, a fairly long car journey awaits me, I randomly pick some CDs and start my trip. Among the CDs taken, I discover that there's OHM as well, and I think: "Wow, how long it's been! Come on, let's see if I remember how it is, 5 minutes and I'll change the disc!" "Warped" starts and I literally can't believe my ears: spectacular! I immediately appreciate the guitar riffs, Navarro gets something beautiful out of the instrument: it's objective, and the band sounds really good, with Chad Smith's performance worth highlighting; Kiedis's singing is stumbling, hallucinatory, full of echoes, the song ends, what can I say? A great piece, well written and played by real musicians. Literally stunned, I move on to "Aeroplane", a semi-funk track already melodic in pre-Californication style... an unbelievable Flea, to say the least, only he knows what he invents with that bass. After the children's final chorus comes the third track, "Deep Kick" which after a (1.40-minute long) soft spoken intro turns into a really engaging track, always imaginative and fun in writing, and very well executed. It is followed by the famous "My Friends", a beautiful ballad with an almost Neil Young-like intro and a more melancholic development: another excellent piece. The adrenaline-filled "Coffee Shop" follows, and the very entertaining "Pea" performed by Flea alone, who sings while accompanying himself on the bass. "One big mob, aw yeah aw yeah, one big mob, aw yeah aw yeah"... this one, even surprising myself, I find myself singing along while continuing my car journey, nothing to say: a beautiful, super-powerful song interspersed with a slower moment with an effect on Kiedis's voice, creating a great effect, and I wonder? "Could it be that the rowdy Navarro actually brought a breath of originality to the band with this album?" Next is a clear nod to BSSM, the funk track "Walkabout", introduced by a nice phrase from the guitar bass and drums and then characterized by a masterful use of the wah-wah by Navarro. And here's "Tearjerker", the true ballad of the album, a pleasant track that is easy to listen to. Even "One Hot Minute", the title track, manages to stand out and appear original due to its never predictable structure and the truly fitting sounds. It's the turn of "Falling into Grace", which I find myself, during the chorus, singing along cheerfully and more and more asking myself: "Fade into oblivion? Why should this be an album to forget?" "Shallow by the Game" is once again a nod, especially regarding the singing, to BSSM, just as original in sounds and innovative compared to the previous album (and here I clarify: I don't mean better, just different; a copy, even well executed, is never appreciable in my opinion). And here the album ends with "Transcending", a splendid song that transitions from a melodic piece (always rhythmic in perfect RHCP style) in the first part, to a true musical frenzy in the second, painful, scratchy at times disturbing but beautiful, very beautiful.

The album ends and so does my car journey, which really flies by in this single hot minute. And so, before starting with the day's commitments and thinking about something else, I seriously ask myself how I could have so denigrated this album in the past, so felt, inspired, and well interpreted by all the band members. I come to a conclusion: being prejudiced can play nasty tricks. In fact, I got to know the Red Hot from "Californication" and especially from "By the Way" onwards. So, knowing the band backwards, I found myself being a ruthless critic of OHM without even knowing it: what was this album to me? The album with a guitarist who distorted a band, a parenthesis without Frusciante, something to be forgotten a priori. What is it today (to me) "One Hot Minute"?

A splendid album, with a really good guitarist who in some ways is more creative, distinctive, and imaginative than Frusciante, with Chad Smith at peak levels, with a virtuoso and inspired Flea, and with an Anthony Kiedis better than in other works. So in conclusion: not a nice discovery but a spectacular rediscovery. Worthy of the highest rating.