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One Hot Minute by: Red Hot Chili Peppers

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Rating: - One Hot Hour

This is the fourth Chili's album I've bought. In chronological order the others are: Californication, By The Way & Blood Sugar Sex Magik.
As you can see I'm quite a new Chili's fan, but with those four albums they have become my favourite band in the world. This is their heaviest, most troubled and most depressing album out of the four. It's also absolutely brilliant.
I love John Frusciante on guitar, I think he's superb, but this record is no worse by having Dave Navarro there instead, for the simple reason that he's just as good. Dave's style is obviously quite different, and the songs on this album just wouldn't fit in on the other three post 1990 LP's. The style is very different. Navarro doesn't go for the blasting, twinkling, joyous guitar style that has characterised such Frusciante-led tracks as Universally Speaking and Under the Bridge. His style is far more metallic, grungy and, in other places, he employs a shimmering technique which lights up songs like Transcending and One Hot Minute.

This album is one of wild contrasts. It begins with Warped, basically just a warm-up track which has found it's way onto the start of the record. It's OK, and worth listening to. This one is where you first notice Navarro's guitar style for the first time. If you don't like this song don't worry, it doesn't mean you won't like the rest of the album.

There are two beautiful ballads, My Friends and Tearjerker, similar in some ways to Californication, Under the Bridge etc., but the different guitar methods somehow set them apart. That is not to say they are better, just different. Tearjerker in particular is an absolute masterpiece, beginning with those shimmering guitars and Anthony Kiedis whispering "Can you turn the track up a little bit please?" before launching into a beautiful first verse, and a chorus ("Left On The Floor!!!") which justifies the name of the song. It gets even better, climaxing magnificently with a lovely guitar solo and then a few more ever-passionate chorus repeats.

Then there is the heavy, fast songs like One Big Mob and Coffee Shop. The latter includes the legend chorus "meet me at the coffee shop, we can dance like iggy pop". As always, RHCP make us smile.

Then there are the funky tracks, which pick up very well where Blood Sugar Sex Magik left off. Walkabout is a relaxed, chilled funkfest which sets the tone perfectly for Tearjerker, which follows it. Shallow Be Thy Name and Falling Into Grace follow a similar pattern, but the funk is more refined and wise than most of that which appeared on BSSM.

Then there's Pea. I'm sorry, but in my opinion this track is absolute garbage and I can't believe it got on the album. It's just a ridiculous excuse to swear alot, contains zero humour or wit. It's simply crap.
Then we have Deep Kick, which begins with a long, poetic spoken vocal from Anthony and then explodes into a riot of noise. It doesn't seem to make a large amount of sense, but is mildly entertaining, and Navarro's guitar breathes some life into the track.

Aeroplane and One Hot Minute are both great examples of a mixture of two or more of the different Chili's styles. (all of which they are great at) Aeroplane is funky but mellow and has a great sing-along chorus which is complemented by some slightly surreal but nonetheless interesting kids vocals. One Hot Minute is a slightly misleading name for the title track, because it goes on for six-and-a-half, but is a great heavy, furious but melancholy song which is punctured by the heart-wrenching bridge "Am I Aaa-lll Alone!??"

RATINGS;
Warped 4
Aeroplane 9
Deep Kick 4
My Friends 10
Coffee Shop 7
Pea 0
One Big Mob 5
Walkabout 8
Tearjerker 10
One Hot Minute 9
Falling Into Grace 8
Shallow Be Thy Name 7
Transcending 7

Overall, this is a very good album which I would recommend to anyone who has liked at least two other Chili's albums. There are some highs, some lows, and this album is not perfect, but then not many are. This is a very good way to spend £11-12.

Rating: - Different....... but still pretty good!

The making of One Hot Minute was the Chili Peppers first time recording scince 1991. John Frusciante's departure had left them looking for a guitarist for the 5th time. Former Jane's Addiction guitarist Dave Navarro was asked to replace him.
Navarro's influence is very easily identifiable. The music has a much heavier vibe to it than Blood Sugar Sex Magic. Navarro's talants really come out on songs like Tearjerker and My Friends.
One of the few things that this record has in common with Blood Sugar Sex Magic is Flea's funky bass playing. His unique style dominates songs like Aeroplane and Tranceding. One of Flea's only solo songs is Pea which has a very solid rhymic beat.
Songs like One Big Mob and Coffee Shop hear the Chili Peppers returning to their fast funk like rhythms of their early albums. Although the true brilliance of the band can be heard on most of the tracks, some of the songs however seem to lack in creativity and melody (e.g.Deep Kick,Warped).
Despite the few not so artisticly heightned songs on the record this is a fairly good album so I was surprised at the poor album sales compared to the sucsess of Blood Sugar Sex Magic.

Rating: - Hmmmm...

What we have here is a classic example of an album that is destined to divide opinion for all eternity, even amongst the group's most loyal fans (other examples of this type of album could include Metallica's Load & Reload and Miles Davis' Get Up With It). In some ways, it's certainly more progressive than BSSM, combining mid-song time signature changes, psychedelia and bizzaro lyrics with Dave Navarro's uninspired-yet-prodigious guitar shredding, which pushes the album in a more metallic direction; yet, in other ways, it retains many of the Chilli's signature sounds (indeed, the ballads, such as My Friends, could be interpreted as blatant attempts to retain the audience the band gained with the success of Under the Bridge). For an album that was apparently such a downer to make, the overall mood is decidedly up, and there are numerous high points, many of which allow Flea to demonstrate his mastery of the bass (Aeroplane and Coffee Shop being too such examples). However, Dave Navarro (despite being a fantastic guitarist) never quite seems to gel with the rest of the group, giving one the impression that the album would have turned out largely more favourable had John Frusciante not been away in the pits of heroin addiction at the time.

This is really an album you need to listen to before making your mind up; there's not much I can write here that would be of much use, except that if you are a more recent Chilis convert (i.e. you only own Californicaiton and/or By The Way and you're looking to pick up their back catalogue), you may find the slightly more prog-metallic sound of this album jars considerably with their more melodic approach of recent times. This album does lean quite heavily on the Chili's signature funk-punk-metal sound, so if you were never really a fan of this, it's probably best to steer clear. My advice would be - try before you buy.

Rating: - Their best album

Despite what a lot of music critics and fans say, I think this is by far the Chilli Pepper's best album. It's much more consistent than the sprawling mess of Bloodsugarsexmagik, yet still has the funk that they lost on Californication. I think the album's closing track "Trandscending" is probably the best song that the band have recorded and it has some of the best lyrics ever (it was written about River Phoenix's death). I also prefer the "shimmery" guitar sound that Dave Navarro uses on this album and think it gives the album a psychadelic feel which makes it perfect for listening to on a Summers day. If you take a risk and but this, I promise you will be rewarded for it by the musical goodness within.

Rating: - Terrifyingly Good

Awwwww you gotta love the Chillis, from the Godawful "Mummy, where's Daddy" from their first album, to Mr. Keidis looking like Princess Leiah (yes I know I probably spelt it wrong) in the video to "Breaking the Girl". Blood Sugar Sex Magik was the album that made the Chillis look all grown up and professional, and the follow up, One Hot Minute, is a masterpiece. I don't care who was playing guitar, who was singing what or writing whatever, from first to last track this is a damn fine album. It starts with Warped, a song that kicks the idea of time signatures firmly in the you-know-where, and incredibly it gets better from there. Aeroplane (despite it's disturbing video) shows what can be done with a bass guitar, My Friends shows off how well the Chillis have matured since their 80's roots, and probably the best song on the album, nay, of all time, Shallow be Thy Game, is an anthem, simple as that. Probably the best thing about this album is that it makes you feel happy. The music isn't necessarily all feel good stuff, but it leaves you feeling as though you have spent your time wisely listening to it.

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