Red Hot Chili Peppers
One Hot Minute

THE REVIEW

The year is 1995, and the Chili Peppers come from a difficult period caused by the departure of guitarist John Frusciante in the middle of the world tour of their most famous and successful album, "Blood Sugar Sex Magik".

To replace the essential Frusciante, the Peppers opt for former Jane's Addiction Dave Navarro, an excellent guitarist but perhaps too different from his predecessor to be immediately digested by fans and critics.

After this brief introduction, I am about to talk about the album itself; the most striking thing is the sharp change in themes and atmospheres that envelop the work compared to those that characterized the Peppers' previous releases. If before the main themes were love for life, sex, fun, and the music conveyed great vitality, with this album the atmospheres become darker and magnetic, and a perpetual melancholy envelops the entire album, even the songs that are apparently more joyful and lively. The themes addressed in the lyrics are mainly sadness and loneliness ("My Friends"), addiction (above all "Warped", but there are also hints in "Aeroplane" and "Deep Kick") and death which serves as the main theme of two of the best songs on the album: the moving "Tearjerker", dedicated to Kurt Cobain and the beautiful "Transcending" aimed at the promising actor River Phoenix, recently cut short by an overdose.

As for the music, the coordinates do not change drastically compared to the past, the four offer their usual crossover, perhaps a bit hardened, but where Navarro's influence is felt, especially in the introduction of almost psychedelic elements in tracks like "One Big Mob" and "Falling Into Grace".

Overall, the album is well done, the opener "Warped" is a great track with an enveloping and powerful riff, and Kiedis' singing adds a touch of originality and extra psychedelia to the piece.

The second track, "Aeroplane", chosen as a single, is good, not transcendental, noteworthy is Flea's superb bass performance, which in this album reaches truly dizzying heights and will self-celebrate in the fantastic "Pea".

Other excellent tracks are the title track with a scorching riff and surrounded by the magnetism I mentioned earlier, the "psychedelic" coupling "One Big Mob/Falling into Grace" (note the use of the cry baby in the first by Navarro) and "Shallow Be Thy Game".

The best tracks and true strength of the album, however, remain the three ballads, the already mentioned "Tearjerker" and "Transcending" and "My Friends" also chosen as a single.

Perhaps the fact that the ballads are the strong point of the album (an unusual thing for the Red Hot), the transition to a guitarist with a style very different from Frusciante, and the comparison with the masterpiece "Blood Sugar.." have often led to hasty judgments about what is instead a good, if not excellent album, very original and intimate, which, however, obviously cannot hold up to its predecessor.