The last album was pretty solid

Either it was pretty solid or just everything else that came out last year really sucked

I think you know the truth.

Im With You is WAY better than The Getaway

Californication is the last good RHCP album. There are good songs that follow, but not albums.

I agree, actually.

I'm in the IWY camp as well. Danger Mouse really took some of the jam element out for sure. I'd love to hear what they were working on prior to bringing him in. I'm Beside You was really good, too. The Getaway is decent, but hopefully a one off as far as their sound is concerned. I actually do like it, but it reminds me of In Through The Out Door.

These guys get too much hate. Let's look at some facts:

1. Yes, Anthony Kiedis is a dink

2. Yes, they were/are a bunch of misogonysts

3. Every record from Mother's Milk - By the Way is awesome; Stadium Arcadium has its fans too (but not me)

4. One Hot Minute is a great hard rock album for the era, and Dave Navarro's contributions and turn of sound away from the Slovak/Frusciante stylings is one of the best things the band has ever done.

5. Soul to Squeeze is a gorgeous song

6. Their b-sides, outtakes, and deep cuts are often rewarding. Just listen to Gong Li:


7. The Flea/Chad Smith rhythm section is one of the best of all time

8. John Frusciante is one of the last instantly recognizable guitarists; the only other ones that got any heavy radio play in the same era would be Tom Morello and The Edge. You listen to any song featuring these three guys, and you can instantly pick out who's playing the guitar. In a landscape of ubiquitous rock music, this is a rare and special thing, and Frusciante's guitar vibe is not celebrated enough.

9. Yes the lyrics are ridiculous. That's half the fun, and also why the last few records have sucked so bad (anthony is too old to be singing about some of this shit).

I don't think they'll ever make another great record, but they are unfairly lambasted by the music elite.

+1 for Flea/Chad and and Soul to Squeeze. That's easily their best song. Also John was amazing for a while there. I just think that Anthony is such a perpetually insufferable fuckwit that the hate is, in fact, warranted.

Frusciante is one of my favorite guitarists.

Frusciante rules, they haven’t been the same without him. Navarro’s album was cool though.

Yeah, I've always loved One Hot Minute but hadn't spun it for a couple years. Threw it on last week and was surprised by how much I still enjoyed it, have been playing it a bit more since then and finding all sorts of pockets of sound and texture to enjoy.

It's funny that they did a lush album with lots of guitar overdubs with Navarro; stripped everything down when Frusciante re-joined for Californication; and then did another lush album with lots of guitar overdubs with Frusciante.

Now everything sounds like asshole regardless of how many guitars are tracked. Klinghoffer was great in PJ Harvey's backing band, but he has failed to leave any sort of discernible mark on RHCP.

RHCP are (or at least were) a great band, and Frusciante is an incredible guitarist.


In what way are RHCP misogynist?

They've often sung graphically about sex, and women, and women's bodies, but I don't think that's the same thing at all.


Agreed.

There are a lot of stories about their treatment of women over the years, and I think Kiedis was even convicted for putting his dick in some unwilling woman's face backstage after a show. A couple of other members also have a history (wasn't Flea arrested for something similar?). This band is garbage for unrelated reasons

But do you like their rock-funk grooves or don't you?

"Garbage" is too harsh, but yeah, I generally dislike RHCP. When I do enjoy a song of theirs, it's not the attempts at funk but the more melodic stuff.

I completely lost all interest in RHCP after Californication. I don’t even know what albums were released after that. But for some reason when the last album was coming out I was aware of it. I listened to and liked Dark Necessities quite a bit. The title track was decent too. I was shocked. After the album came out and was all over YouTube, I gave the rest of it a once over. It was boring and terrible. I never listened to any of those songs again. I’ll still occasionally listen to those first two singles and I still shockingly enjoy them.

Top 10?

Soul to Squeeze
Give it Away
Tearjerker
This Velvet Glove
Porcelain
Easily
Cabron
Minor Thing
Warm Tape
Bunker Hill

Their melodicism during the "Californication"/"By the Way" era was just off the charts. Great songs, great B-sides -- a really inspired creative period. I have no use for their '80's stuff, and haven't really liked anything since "By the Way," but I really enjoy that middle period.

I think "By the Way" is easily their best album from front to back -- worth a listen if you've never given it a shot.

it is certainly their most enjoyable front-to-back