The Chili's best album - what else can you say?

I bought this album in my local HMV for more money than I had (my sister had to lend me some), and played on my own CD player as soon as I'd got back. Considering I listened to this album after I listened to By The Way and Californication (which I both loved), I was interested to find that this was a very different style from their later material.

Track 1 - The Power Of Equality
The pace is set for the rest of the album with this bass driven rap number. Anthony raps lines about racism and (of course) equality, and I noticed the material was much more mature than later releases. I do like this song, and it links quickly into the next track.

Track 2 - If You Have To Ask
I don't like this track so much, as it seems rather subdued compared to The Power Of Equality. However, it has a great, distorted-sounding guitar solo, and a line that, in my opinion, sums up the entire Chili Peppers philosophy of this time - "Add a little lust to the funky a** Flea bass".

Track 3 - Breaking The Girl
This sounds more akin to later Peppers material, and I like it a lot. It's got a catchy acoustic guitar riff, and (slightly) more thoughtful lyrics than the second track. The instrumental part of this song is just plain wierd, but fits in well with the atmosphere.

Track 4 - Funky Monks
There's some great funky guitar at the beguinning of this track, and Kiedis starts singing lyrics that stop just short of completely anti-religious. It's a good song, but a bit too long, and I tend to skip it before it finishes. Especially as I love the next track...

Track 5 - Suck My Kiss
I totally love the guitar in this track, not to mention the bass, the drums, and the vocals.... Anthony sings mostly about girls he's made out with in this track, a theme that dominates much of the album. I love the solo in this track; this song helped me appreciate John Frusciante even more than I did before.

Track 6 - I Could Have Lied
A suprising fact - I prefer this track to Under The Bridge. Anthony sings about a failed relationship (or at least that's what it sounds like to me), and John provides a beautiful acoustic guitar riff, and a brilliant emotional solo by Frusciante. In my opinion, John Frusciante is a very underated soloist.

Track 7 - Mellowship Slinky In B Major
Some great thumping drums and a headbanging guitar riff open up this wierdly-named track. Some distorted vocals start singing about... well, nothing inparticular. This is wierd track, and sometimes gets skipped.

Track 8 - The Righteous And The Wicked
Another cool track, with lyrics of a similar theme to The Power Of Equality. A cool bassline thumps it's way through the entire song, and John Frusciante goes relatively unnoticed.

Track 9 - Give It Away
I expect you've heard this one. Suffice to say, it's a classic, and probably the best way to introduce yourself to the early Chili Pepper sound. All the musicianship is excellent on this track, even if I can't make sense of a lot of the lyrics.

Track 10 - Blood Sugar Sex Magik
One of the weaker tracks, due to barely noticable intstruments, but still good. The catchy headbanging chorus is the best thing about this track.

Track 11 - Under The Bridge.
A true Peppers classic, and a real showcase for John Frusciante's fantastic guitar abilities. Add the guitar to Anthony's haunting lyrics about his drug addiction, and you have a true masterpiece.

Track 12 - Naked In The Rain
From this song onwards, the album isn't quite as good (but nearly). Naked In The Rain is quite cool, and has some decent instruments (although it's lyrics make no sense). However, it's not quite as good as a lot of the songs before it, as I said.

Track 13 - Apache Rose Peacock
Another song about girls, with one of my favourite musical lines; "You wouldn't believe the things I've seen/Sittin' on my sack of beans". Again, Anthony's sex-filled lyrics sometimes take priority of the musicality.

Track 14 - The Greeting Song
Some people I know who own this album don't like this song, but I think it's one of the best, simply because of John's furious guitar playing. However, it's slightly annoying that I can't hear the words very well.

Track 15 - My Lovely Man
This is another cool song, with great lyrics. I didn't know at first, but this song turns out to be a tribute to Hillel Slovak, the Pepper's original guitarist. Once you realise this, the lyrics make much more sense than they did before. This song's got another good guitar riff, and a good bassline.

Right, just to clear something up. I haven't been mentioning him very much, but I thought I should now. Flea, one of the world's greatest bassists, totally rocks on this album! He constantly serves up fantastic bass lines that are complemented perfectly by the rest of the band. Just so you know. Anyway...

Track 16 - Sir Psycho Sexy
Now, this song freaks me out. I'm not sure whether I like it or not, as my opinion of it seems to change from listen to listen. Easily, the sexual content on this song totally surpasses anything else on the album. Bearing in mind that you really shouldn't take this song seriously, I don't mind this track. However, this song is a huge eight minutes long, and I normally listen to about half of it before getting bored and skipping to the next one.

Track 17 - They're Red Hot
It wasn't that long ago that I found out for the first time that this song is a cover, and I couldn't help one thought coming to my mind - who else other than the Chili Peppers would make a song as crazy as this? (However, I haven't heard the original, and it may be very different. I'm not sure.) Anthony raps very fast, so fast you can't hear what the words are. Everyone else just plays along. This is a cool track, but a rather wierd way to end the album.

So overall, this a great release from one of (in my opinion) the best bands of the last few decades. It's still my favourite Chili Pepper album, and I listen to it frequently. And you should too.