RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS: Californication (FUSION METAL): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

Summary of the previous episodes: following the departure of Dave Navarro, due to drug use, the Red Hot Chili Peppers call again on John Frusciante who had been discharged 6 years earlier for... drug use. Learning that their former mate is broke and homeless, they offer him to rejoin the group to make an act of repentance. Such a beautiful version can only end in a "Happy ending". And in fact the fruit of this union will be one of the biggest commercial success of the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

To come back to more musical considerations, we can consider that "Californication" is a continuity of the mature and dark "One Hot Minute" but with the addition of a little grain of madness and good mood drawn from the "Mother's Milk" period. Like its predecessors, the record still contains some unavoidable nuggets like 'Around The World' and its sublime bass solo or 'Road Trippin', at the same time melodious, soft and bewitching. 'Californication', is not in rest with its refrain calibrated for the radio which however hides a text of a big blackness in which the Red Hot Chili Peppers evoke once again Kurt Cobain. And finally the mega hit, 'Scar Tissue' and its strange guitar sounds... Frusciante had experimented them on his first solo album. The technique consists in playing 2 notes far from each other but producing a "cool rhythm" according to him. It is a pity that the music is a little served by lyrics that, depending on one's degree of indulgence, one may find either sloppy or poetic. Several texts are particularly obscure as for example 'I Like Dirt'.

Beside all these relatively mainstream tracks, there are still some small bombs of funky energy like 'Right On Time', an unbridled pogo and relayed by a harmonious chorus, and especially the pearl 'Get On Top'. This last track, inspired by a Public Enemy song, uses many Wah-wah pedal effects. The solo was originally meant to be flashier, but after listening to Steve Howe's solo on 'Siberian Khatru' (Yes' "Close To The Edge" album) he decided to create a contrast between a fast song and a much clearer and cleaner guitar passage. 'Around The World', another funky track, was one of the most difficult to complete. The ending riff was found by Frusciante very late in the day while listening to 'Carnage Visors', a bonus track from The Cure's 'Faith' album. These assumed influences are moreover quite numerous and we can add to this list 'Savior' whose numerous effects hide the fact that the guitar is directly inspired by Eric Clapton's soli, Cream period.

The rare criticisms concerning the commercial turn of the group will be swept away by the razor of water which will cause the release of the disc. This one will go up to the 3rd place of the US charts (n° 5 in England, n° 1 in the following countries; Finland, Austria, New Zealand and Switzerland, and finally at the first place of the French Hit parade). The album will be quintuple platinum in the USA and will exceed 15 million copies in the world. As a sign of its importance, 5 of the 16 titles of the "Greatest Hit" of the Red Hot Chili Peppers will be from "Californication". Unavoidable ! - Official website

RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS

CALIFORNICATION

WARNER

FUSION METAL