Red Hot Chili Peppers - Blood Sugar Sex Magik

Blood Sugar Sex Magik is the second Chili Peppers album to feature the band's current lineup, although guitarist John Frusciante left afterwards and didn't return until before the recording of Californication. It's their most popular record, and it's pretty apparent why. They rock pretty hard, with Flea's famous bass and Chad's drums laying down the backbone while John picks merrily over the top of it and Kiedis provides mostly nonsense lyrics with his trademark funky-rap-voice thing. They are mostly pretty loud, although we start to see some of the softer, mellower stuff that they go towards more and more often as they get older. Raucousness is the order of the day and it's pretty enjoyable here, but I'm thankful for the other songs that break it up a bit and make it seem a little more whole and mature as a piece of work. Mother's Milk has a heavier party atmosphere, with lots of shouted group vocals, while Blood Sugar is more restrained, while still making good use of backup singers that stick out more than they usually do.

"The Power of Equality" does a great job of announcing Flea's presence as his bass barges into the intro to get things really rolling. The first example of changing the pace is "Breaking the Girl", which has strumming acoustic guitar, very unusual for this band. "Funky Monks" is pretty much exactly why I like Chili Peppers, except for the other good things they do. "Suck My Kiss" has a killer riff and lives off it pretty well. The next few tracks are a solid mix of catchy, funky, and pleasant tunes, leading into "Give It Away", the band's quintessential song. It's kind of fun in a goofy way but actually one of the lesser tracks on the album. The title track's guitar work isn't Frusciante's most technically proficient but among his most simply enjoyable to listen to. "Under the Bridge" is another classic song, from the minimal beginning, to the well-sung vocals to a change, to the weirdly affecting choir at the end. "My Lovely Man" can only be described as groove-tastic. Sorry for writing that. "Sir Psycho Sexy" is a bizarre epic of misogyny and musicianship that pretty much ends the album besides a throwaway track. I'll never like this older stuff as much as what they did from 1999 to 2002, but it's still pretty darn good.