Red Hot Chili Peppers
What Hits!?

THE REVIEW

Before the global success achieved with the albums "Californication" and "By The Way," before the damned mainstream took over, before being charmed by Warner Bros and before leaving EMI, before all that, the Red Hot Chili Peppers were four addicts who were truly serious about music: an amazing crossover of funk, rap, and rock that at the time was almost unheard of. Chad Smith put his soul into playing the drums (not like in Stadium Arcadium..), Frusciante was just starting out, but you could already tell what kind of musician he would become, Flea played the bass with such fervor that he surely still has the calluses (and fortunately continues to do so), and Kledis wandered around the stage half-naked with his energetic and disjointed rap. In this collection, some songs are performed by the previous lineup (Flea, Kledis, Irons, and Slovak, the guitarist who died of an overdose in 1988).

Listening to them really brought to mind hot, spicy red chilies: every song is played with energy and a high adrenaline rate, even the more relaxed "Hollywood" (cover of The Meters) and "Behind The Sun." The same bassist Flea declared in an interview: "we always play angry and have fun, we play as if we always have a hard-on." And hearing songs like "Backwoods", "Fight Like A Brave", or "Fire" (Jimi Hendrix) I can't really disagree with them, but now I'd recommend a massive dose of Viagra: have you heard the triplet they threw at us with the last three singles? Every one worse than the last. Without a doubt, I preferred them back then: they had just found an identity, Kledis was seeking moral redemption after Slovak's death, and Frusciante could freely express his creative flair, while in the last "Stadium Arcadium" it seems he put it aside to back Kledis with his deflated-ball falsettos... shame... and to think that he is one of the best living guitarists...

And then the singer, indeed: I don't know and I don't care what Scientology is, but I know he’s not the same since he converted to this pseudo-religion: but have you seen him? With that side-parted straight hair? What is it? A parody of a guru? The drummer adapted to the group’s change in direction: decidedly calmer rhythms. The only one who seems unchanged is Flea, still hyperactive and crazy, but I just can't imagine him in a brown sweater playing the bass sitting on a chair...

There’s no doubt though: the RHCP are far from the old times... from the times when they played almost naked... from the times when they made people dance in underground venues with anger and energy... from the times when they used an image with obvious references to masturbation as the cover of a compilation...