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Rating: Strange album this one by the Red Hot! Certainly the strangest of their long (in '96 it wasn't that long, okay) career. After four years of silence and the departure of the prodigy child John Frusciante who had poured his soul into the masterpiece "Blood Sugar" of '91, the four Californians (back to four with the addition of Dave Navarro, former guitarist of Jane's Addiction) return to the scene with this "One Hot Minute".
The reactions from the public, as you may have certainly seen (yes, even on this site), were not among the most enthusiastic. Too many were expecting the perfectly mixed funk-rock of the previous album... and too many were indeed disappointed.
I was disappointed first of all... with the difference that I was coming from the listening of that masterpiece called "Californication" and I was making a journey "backwards" to discover the other albums of the Kiedis & Flea creature.
"One Hot Minute" is definitely not what one could call an "objectively" beautiful album. It's true: NO album in history can be defined in such a way, but there are certainly some that are recognized as masterpieces by almost total unanimity (I repeat, ALMOST) ("Blood Sugar" is among these... "Californication" is not... but it comes close ;) ).
But "One Hot Minute" is not among these. It is an album that probably today is not even liked by the Red Hot themselves... a significant example is the fact that, since Frusciante rejoined the lineup, live they have NEVER played a single track from this record, except for "Pea", a short and funny interlude sung by Flea; or the fact that on the greatest hits just released, the only track from this album is "My Friends", probably the most successful track, which generally pleases almost everyone, even the most hardened detractors of this album in particular.
What is it about this album that doesn't convince? Why do even Red Hot fans struggle to digest it? Well... simply because in this album it's NOT the Red Hot playing, but rather a copy of themselves leaning more towards heavy sounds.
It really is hard to believe that the same band who four years earlier composed "Under The Bridge" now conceived "One Big Mob" and "Warped", tracks that are really intense, halfway between rock and metal (!!!!).
Of course, the songs are really well played: from this perspective, we are probably facing the album with Flea's best performance in terms of virtuosity (the bass lines of "Aeroplane" are unforgettable!), not to mention Chad Smith on the drums, more powerful than ever!
Indeed, as already mentioned, it is really strange to hear the Red Hot tackling this kind of songs, but the result certainly shows them holding their heads high on a technical level.
Also, the fact that the songs, once they get into your head, are hard to get out. Besides the already mentioned "My Friends" (it really is one of the best RHCP songs, in my opinion), the various "Tearjerker", "Shallow Be Thy Game", "Coffee Shop" remain ingrained in your mind for a long time. The problem is getting your ears to accept that these are not Incubus, but the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Once you accept this, you can easily go beyond "My Friends" and appreciate even semi-masterpieces like "Transcending" (if it weren't for the final part that I just can't get over, I would have removed the "semi") and "One Hot Minute".
But the obstacle is tough to overcome! Then in the long run, it might get boring too, since variety is certainly not the strong point of the album and even the ballads are purely rock-hard-rock or whatever you want to call it.
Not an album for everyone: if you don't care about the Red Hot you might find it beautiful already after the first listen, then set it aside, then listen to it again after some time and so on.
If you are a Red Hot fan you will probably hate it, but in the end admit it: how would you feel if at the next concert (uh? Did someone say June 8th S.Siro?) they hit you with the adrenaline rush of "Shallow Be Thy Name" or the never too mentioned "My Friends"?
Think about it :D
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Warped (05:04)
My tendency
For dependency
Is offending me
It's upending me
I'm pretending see
To be strong and free
From my dependency
It's warping me
So much love
So rare to dare
Afraid of
Ever being there
Take me home
I need repair
Take me please
To anywhere
Descended from
Demented men
Struggle with
The art of Gen
Please don't look
Too close at me
You might not like
What you see
Night craving
Sends me crawling
Beg for mercy oh
A vacancy
That's full of holes
Hold me please
I'm feeling cold
CHORUS :
Descend all the way all the way
Everyday
Warped and scared
Of being there
02 Aeroplane (04:45)
I like pleasure spiked with pain
And music is my aeroplane
It's my aeroplane
Songbird sweet and sour Jane
And music is my aeroplane
It's my aeroplane
Pleasure spiked with pain
That motherfucker's always spiked with pain
Looking in my own eyes hell-o
I can't find the love I want
Someone better slap me
Before I start to rust
Before I start to decompose
Looking in my rear view mirror
Looking in my rear view mirror
I can make it disappear
I can make it disappear! Have no fear!
I like pleasure spiked with pain
And music is my aeroplane
It's my aeroplane
Songbird sweet and sour Jane
And music is my aeroplane
It's my aeroplane
Pleasure spiked with pain
That motherfucker's always spiked with pain
Sitting in my kitchen hey girl
I'm turning into dust again
My melancholy baby
The star of mazzy must
Push her voice inside of me
I'm overcoming gravity
I'm overcoming gravity
It's easy when you're sad to be
It's easy when you're sad... Sad like me!
I like pleasure spiked with pain
And music is my aeroplane
It's my aeroplane
Songbird sweet and sour Jane
And music is my aeroplane
It's my aeroplane
Pleasure spiked with pain
Just one note
Could make me float
Could make me float away
One note from
The song she wrote
Could fuck me where I lay
Just one note
Could make me choke
One note that's not a lie
Just one note
Could cut my throat
One note could make me die
I like pleasure spiked with pain
And music is my aeroplane
It's my aeroplane
Songbird sweet and sour Jane
And music is my aeroplane
It's my aeroplane
That's spiked with pain
It's my aeroplane x 9
05 Coffee Shop (03:08)
I am just a lousy burn
Searching for the unknown crumb
The crumb the crumb
Nothing or someone to come
Come along illuminate my lust
Combust
Confucius might have been confused
And Buddha might have blown a fuse
I ooze
The muse
Meet me at the coffee shop
We can dance like Iggy Pop
Another go in the parking lot
Freak the cheek on your hotspot
Back and forth my body's jerking
Will to thrill will not stop working
Work and work
I'll take you on a honeymoon
Jumping on a bed in a hotel room
The room
The groom
Meet me at the coffee shop
We can dance like Iggy Pop
Another go in the parking lot
Freak the cheek on your hotspot
06 Pea (01:47)
I'm a little pea
I love the sky and the trees
I'm a teeny tiny little ant
Checkin' out this and that
I am nothing
Ahhhhh Ahhhhh
So you have nothing to hide
And I'm a pacifist
So I can fuck your shit up
Oh yeah, I'm small
Oh yeah, I'm small
Fuck you, asshole
You homophobic redneck dick
Big and tough and macho
You can kick my ass
So fucking what?
So fucking what?
So fucking what?
So fucking what?
07 One Big Mob (06:02)
I am you are me
Good woman said you gotta believe
Submerge into the urge of we
Deliciously the mystery
One big mob aw yea aw yea
One big mob aw yea aw yea
Eh bara mala aw yea aw yea
Eh bara mala aw yea aw yea
Ooze into into my noodle
East or west shepherd or poddle
Lady bug pinetree
To mingle with the bumblebee
A lover to the sun
And a brother to the cool breeze
Chorus :
Scrawled upon the wall
Of a bathroom stall
A stranger wrote a note
That spoke to all
One two buckle my shoe
Take care of me
Cause I might be you
We live in the city
We live in the jungle
It's time to be drinking
A thimble humble
Everything you ever see
Is never more than you and me
Give it on into the beauty of the mystery
One big mob in one big home
A broken home
I'd like to share some air with you
Some air with you
A morning forest full of truths
The green is blue
The head that's getting pregnant lives
to give and give
What was I thinking in my head
The color red
Breaking hearts instead of bread
Something I said
Checkmated by frustration
Need to be cut loose
A different kind of being lost
A sullen cost
Picaboo street in Timbuktu
Do I need repeat
That a boy named Sue ?
Rockin' to the beat
Of the kangaroo
Let me kiss your feet
And your forehead too
08 Walkabout (05:07)
I think I'll go on a walkabout
And find out what it's all about
And that ain't hard
Just me and my own two feet
In the heat I've got myself to meet
A detective of perspective
I need to try to get a bigger eye
open wide
Bloodwood flowers in my gaze
Walkabout in a sunny days
Do me now
On a walkabout
You could do it in the city
You could do it in a zone
You could do it in desert
You could do the unknown
On a walkabout
High desert skies are what I spy
So fly - you gotta wonder why
The stingrays must be fat this year
I'm moving slow in my lowest gear
The digirido original man with a dream
I believe the Aborigine
On a walkabout
You could do it with a shuffle
You could do it with a stroll
You could do it with a stride
You could do the unknown
On a walkabout
A walk could cure most all my blues
Bare feet or in my two shoes
One two
I think I'll go on a walkabout
And find out what it's all about
Use your legs to rock it wide
Take a ride to the other side
09 Tearjerker (04:19)
[Anthony]
Could you turn up the
track a little bit, please
My mouth fell open
Hoping that the truth
Would not be true
Refuse the news
I'm feeling sick now
What the fuck am I
Supposed to do
Just lose and lose
First time I saw you
You were sitting
Backstage in a dress
A perfect mess
You never knew this
But I wanted badly for you to
Requite my love
Chorus :
Left on the floor
Leaving your body
When highs are the lows
And lows are the way
So hard to stay
Guess now you know
I love you so
I liked your whiskers
And I liked the
Dimple in your chin
Your pale blue eyes
You painted pictures
Cause the one
Who hurts
Can give so much
You gave me such
Repeat chorus
11 Falling Into Grace (03:48)
What ever never knew
That I could feel so good
Smile in your eyes
What ever never knew
That I could walk through wood
I guess I never tried
A million years old
But just a little girl
Vibin' off the gong
Rubbin' on the bowls
Make you float around
Make your lovin' strong
And when we get
In the same place
At the same time
It is your grace
That I want to
Fall right into now
To love avow
I'm falling into grace with you
I'm falling into guru muhk
I'm falling into grace with you
I'm falling into guru muhk
She moves in a rapture
That her capsule might
Land on your star
Meditating in the morning
Head dressed in white
Beauty bazaar
You can smell the purple light
Comin' home her heart
Get lost and wet
I treat you like a teacher
`Cause that's what you are
I wanna be your pet
And when we get
In the same place
At the same time
It is your grace
That I want to
Fall right into now
To love avow
12 Shallow Be Thy Game (04:33)
I was not created
In the likeness of a fraud
Your hell is something scary
I prefer a loving god
We are not the center
Of this funny universe
And what is worse
I do not serve in fear of such a curse
Shallow be thy game
2000 years look in the mirror
You play the game of shame
You tell your people live in fear
A rival to the way you see
The Bible let him be
I'm a threat to your survival
And your control company
You'll never burn me
You'll never burn me
I will be your heretic
You can't contain me
I am the power free
Truth belongs to everybody
To anyone who's listening
You're not born into sin
The guilt they try and give you
Puke it in the nearest bin
Missionary madness
Sweep up culture with a broom
Trashing ancient ways
Is par for the course
It's fucking rude
To think that you're above
The laws of nature what a joke
Purple sashes feeding masses
Smoke on which to choke
I might be a monkey
When it comes to being holy
Fundamental hatred
Get down on your knees and
You'll never burn me
You'll never burn me
I will be your heretic
You can't contain me
I am the power free
Truth belongs to everybody
I was not created
In the likeness of a fraud
Your hell is something scary
I prefer a loving god
We are not the center
Of this funny universe
And what is worse
I do not serve in fear of such a
You'll never burn me
You'll never burn me
I will be your heretic
You can't contain me
I am the power free
Truth belongs to everybody
You'll never burn me
You'll never burn me
I will be your heretic
You can't contain me
I am the power free
Truth belongs to everybody
13 Transcending (05:46)
You are my god you are my dog
You kept me close love never lost
I called you hippie you said fuck off
Said your brother's a real punk rocker
Refrain :
Something gonna happen
Something very soon
Transcending flesh could be a breeze
Sending me oh over the Moon
Friends near death you gave respect
Sympathetic Intellect
Choices are, for one and all
All we are is, leaves that fall
Round and round inside your head
Smartest fucker I ever met
Vicious fish bit at your toes
Made you lie and numb your soul
Refrain
Mule donkey ass you bore the load
Of all creation's tortured souls
Choices are for one and all
All is, leaves that fall
Hey gone to stay
Entire lifetime flash before me
In a loving stream
Hey mother may I have lost a child
But she gave birth
To a loving stream
Ooh, never know
When the gods will come and
Take you
To a loving stream
Ooh, heart of gold
The most special things you gave me were
From your loving stream
In a loving stream
Fuck the magazines
Fuck the green machine
See the human being
In a loving stream
Fuck the legal greed
Fuck the nothing scene
See the family
In a loving stream
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Other reviews
By giov
This album is horrendous. It’s absolute zero, it’s nothing, actually, this album doesn’t exist.
Mainly, it must be said that Dave Navarro is to this album as wwwhatemoorenet is to Missy Elliott.
By bacarock
"Warped... the chills that this song gives me are incomparable to any other sensation I have experienced."
"It’s like listening to 'Stairway to Heaven' sung by Cristina D’Avena."
By POSTIN
A perpetual melancholy envelops the entire album, even the songs that are apparently more joyful and lively.
An original and intimate album which, however, obviously cannot hold up to its predecessor.
By DeMatteo
"Could it be that the rowdy Navarro actually brought a breath of originality to the band with this album?"
"A splendid album, with a really good guitarist who in some ways is more creative, distinctive, and imaginative than Frusciante."
By FabbioAW
This album should at least be vividly appreciated by every true fan of the Californian quartet.
Listening to One Hot Minute, you don’t deal with a hybrid sound. This album is much more Chili Peppers than some of the crap from the 2000s.
