Music Is My Aeroplane

The Red Hot Chili Peppers had a tough assignment: create a successful follow up to their huge smash, Blood Sugar Sex Magik. Many say they failed, but I see One Hot Minute as a very good album that just couldn’t live up to its predecessor.

I think the main problem was that it is stylistically all over the place. Maybe less jumpiness would have helped. Also, this album contains less funk and rap and a lot more rock. Fans may have been expecting different. Whatever the reason, this album deserved more popularity than it had.

The album opens with the first single, Warped, which has a demented-sounding intro followed by a wild yet droning few minutes discussing insanity. I love the lyrics: “Descended from demented men/ Struggle with the art of Zen/ Please don’t look too close at me/ You might not like what you see.” After this, the sound lightens up with Aeroplane, another release that got a fair amount of airtime. This one has a playful sound over sadder lyrics about “pleasure spiked with pain.” The addition of a chorus of children makes it odd yet cool.

Deep Kick begins with a spoken word intro before blasting into a heavy, very fun song about two brothers on an adventure. This leads into probably the album's biggest hit, My Friends (not to be confused with Me and My Friends). This slow number is melancholy and sentimental. Anthony’s voice sounds wonderful in this tribute as he sings, “I love all of you.” This is one of the Peppers’ finest songs.

Coffee Shop took a while to grow on me. It is fast and funky and contains some great lines: “Confucius might have been confused/ And Buddha might have blown a fuse.” I don’t know why this was my least favorite for so long, but I enjoy it now. What follows is a very short and slow one called Pea. Anthony sings softly while Flea plucks loudly at the bass. The lyrics are strange but very funny. He sings about being very small and peaceful, and then he lets the vulgarity fly. It may be filler, but I chuckle every time I hear it. After this slow one, they explode back with One Big Mob, which is heavy, then slow, then heavy again. I think this song would have been better had the slow part been omitted.

Walkabout is a laid back, nearly spoken word track about strolling around like the Aborigines. Tearjerker lives up to its name with its sad, from-the-heart lyrics about breakup: “My mouth fell open/ Hopin’ that the truth would be not true/ Refuse the news/ I’m feeling sick now/ What the f*ck am I supposed to do?/ Just lose and lose.” The title track is one of the best on the album. It’s hard and epic with a chorus that can easily get caught in your head:
“OnehotminuteandI’minitcomeandgetit.” Listen and you’ll see why I had to write that as one word.

Falling Into Grace lays the funk on thick with Middle Eastern sound and metaphors. This one is very fun. Shallow Be Thy Game is a great rock song about being religious out love rather than fear: “I was not created in the likeness of a fraud/ Your hell is something scary/ I prefer a loving God.” The album ends with an amazing song called Transcending. This is one of those songs that is so great I can barely put into words its brilliance. All I’ll say is that it has three very different but cohesive parts. It starts slowly and crescendos to loud, angry screaming.

Basically, One Hot Minute is a great album that had the unfortunate expectations of being a follow up to an immensely popular album. Personally, I’ve listened to this album more than I have Blood Sugar Sex Magik. Many have disagreed with me, but I consider One Hot Minute a work than can stand up to any other Chili Pepper effort.