..:: audio-music dot info ::..


Main Page      The Desert Island      Copyright Notice
 Aa Bb Cc Dd Ee Ff Gg Hh Ii Jj Kk Ll Mm Nn Oo Pp Qq Rr Ss Tt Uu Vv Ww Xx Yy Zz


The Red Hot Chili Peppers: Californication

 A l b u m   D e t a i l s


Label: Warner Bros. Records
Released: 1999.06.08
Time:
 56:24
Category: Alternative Rock
Producer(s): Rick Rubin
Rating:
Media type: CD
Web address: www.redhotchilipeppers.com
Appears with:
Purchase date: 2012
Price in €: 1,00





 S o n g s ,   T r a c k s


[1] Around the World (The Red Hot Chili Peppers) - 3:58
[2] Parallel Universe (The Red Hot Chili Peppers) - 4:30
[3] Scar Tissue (The Red Hot Chili Peppers) - 3:35
[4] Otherside (The Red Hot Chili Peppers) - 4:15
[5] Get on Top (The Red Hot Chili Peppers) - 3:18
[6] Californication (The Red Hot Chili Peppers) - 5:21
[7] Easily (The Red Hot Chili Peppers) - 3:51
[8] Porcelain (The Red Hot Chili Peppers) - 2:43
[9] Emit Remmus (The Red Hot Chili Peppers) - 4:00
[10] I Like Dirt (The Red Hot Chili Peppers) - 2:37
[11] This Velvet Glove (The Red Hot Chili Peppers) - 3:45
[12] Savior (The Red Hot Chili Peppers) - 4:52
[13] Purple Stain (The Red Hot Chili Peppers) - 4:13
[14] Right on Time (The Red Hot Chili Peppers) - 1:52
[15] Road Trippin' (The Red Hot Chili Peppers) - 3:25

 A r t i s t s ,   P e r s o n n e l


Anthony Kiedis - Lead Vocals, Art Direction
Flea - Bass, Backing Vocals, Art Direction
John Frusciante - Lead Guitar, Backing Vocals, Keyboard, Art Direction
Chad Smith  - Drums, Art Direction
Additional Musicians, Art Direction
Greg Kurstin - Keyboards, Art Direction
Patrick Warren - Chamberlin Organ on [13]

Rick Rubin - Producer
Lindsay Chase - Production Coordinator
Jim Scott - Engineer, Mixing
Mike Nicholson - Additional Engineering
Greg Collins - Additional Engineering
Greg Fidelman - Additional Engineering
David Schiffman - Additional Engineering
John Sorenson - Additional Engineering
Jennifer Hilliard - Assistant Engineer
Ok Hee Kim - Assistant Engineer
Chris Holmes - Mix Engineer
Vlado Meller - Mastering
Lawrence Azerrad - Art Direction
Sonya Koskoff - Photography
Tony Wooliscroft - Photography

 C o m m e n t s ,   N o t e s


Recorded in December 1998 - March 1999 at Cello Studios in Los Angeles, California.



Many figured that the Red Hot Chili Peppers' days as undisputed alternative kings were numbered after their lackluster 1995 release One Hot Minute, but like the great phoenix rising from the ashes, this legendary and influential outfit returned back to greatness with 1999's Californication. An obvious reason for their rebirth is the reappearance of guitarist John Frusciante (replacing Dave Navarro), who left the Peppers in 1992 and disappeared into a haze of hard drugs before cleaning up and returning to the fold in 1998. Frusciante was a main reason for such past band classics as 1989's Mother's Milk and 1991's Blood Sugar Sex Magik, and proves once and for all to be the quintessential RHCP guitarist. Anthony Kiedis' vocals have improved dramatically as well, while the rhythm section of bassist Flea and drummer Chad Smith remains one of rock's best. The quartet's trademark punk-funk can be sampled on such tracks as "Around the World," "I Like Dirt," and "Parallel Universe," but the more pop-oriented material proves to be a pleasant surprise - "Scar Tissue," "Otherside," "Easily," and "Purple Stain" all contain strong melodies and instantly memorable choruses. And like their 1992 introspective hit "Under the Bridge," there are even a few mellow moments - "Porcelain," "Road Trippin'," and the title track. With the instrumentalists' interplay at an all-time telepathic high and Kiedis peaking as a vocalist, Californication is a bona fide Chili Peppers classic.

Greg Prato - All Music Guide



Reunited with producer Rick Rubin and guitarist John Frusciante (both of whom were on board for the 1991's breakthrough Blood Sugar Sex Magik), the Chili Peppers waste no time in burying their last effort, the so-so One Hot Minute. Californication's kickoff cut, "Around the World," swaggers around the room, reacquainting itself with old fans and welcoming new ones. Fuzzy Hendrix vibes and popcorn bass lines still rule the roost, along with a heaping helping of disco magic and some unexpected twists. Ten years ago, Anthony Kiedis and company wouldn't have been comfortable doing revamped new wave ("Parallel Universe") or unpretentious ballads (the acoustic "Road Trippin'"), but such material fits Californication's extra-wide canvas. Except for a few meandering numbers that could have been excised, the Red Hot Chili Peppers succeed and regain their footing on the mountain of adrenalized funk.

Jason Josephes - Amazon.com



A whole album's worth of tunes that tickle the ear, romance the booty, swell the heart, moisten the tear ducts and dilate the third eye.

Rolling Stone



I actually frightened friends of mine when I declared that I was looking forward to the new Red Hot Chili Peppers record. Dan simply replied sardonically, "Dooooode." BloodSugarSexMagik was the first CD I ever purchased. Listening to a CD on headphones after a decade of cassettes was revelatory. Faint, echoing harmonies, popping bass, and crisp, finger- lickin' guitar swirled in my ears. (In retrospect, I guess technology had a lot to do with my infatuation with the album.) Now, Californication sees the same players (John Frusciante and Rick Rubin included) from the that album return. As expected, it's considerably better than the bone- stupid One Hot Minute, but not quite as funky- assed as their acclaimed 1991 effort.

But wait. Before we go any further, let's talk about Dave Navarro. Dave Navarro was a horrible fit for the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Thankfully, he's off in some private velvet- paneled studio pouring hot wax on his nipples and applying mascara. Look up "wannabe rockstar" in the dictionary and you'll find a picture of Dave Navarro's pierced nipples and school- of- Depeche Mode black nail polish. So, weighing in at a stunning 85 pounds, the band's former guitarist John Frusciante and his quavering, pasty, skeletal body rejoined for the Californication sessions.

In his off time from the Chili Peppers, John Frusciante recorded a couple of drug- induced solo mishaps and had a best- selling Italian novel named after him. The man brings a rucksack of real emotions with his guitar. I'll also wager my credibility that he's the best big- time American rock guitarist going right now. His fingers can effortlessly switch from the pickin' funk of "I Like Dirt" to the sculpted feedback of "Emit Remmus" to the tender, lovely (yes, really, a tender, lovely Chili Peppers track) "Porcelain" to the clever, stadium- sized solos throughout. But best of all, he makes you forget about that crazy monkey on bass.

Eh, but let's face it, the biggest obstacle in your enjoyment of a Red Hot Chili Peppers album is horny crooner, Anthony Kiedis. If you can stomach lines like "Go-rilla cunt-illa/ Sammy D and Salmonella," "Up to my ass in alligators/ Let's get it on with the alligator haters," and "To fingerpaint is not a sin/ I put my middle finger in," you're good to go. If those lines make you wince like Pitchfork Editor Ryan Schreiber, keep in mind that I pulled those from only two of fifteen songs.

In a way, you have to be familiar with California to appreciate Kiedis' lyrics. I mean, Los Angeles is shallow, sunny, fun, and tragic. So, in this age of unfathomably horrible choruses like, "I did it all for the nookie/ The nookie/ So you can take your cookie...," "Because you did my homies," and "Bawitdaba" (a five- spot to anyone who can explain that one), we can cut the Chili Peppers some slack. Plus, the sincere, hook- laden, mellow jams of "Scar Tissue," "Otherside," and "Road Trippin'" more than make up for whatever knuckle- dragging Kiedis executes. That the Chili Peppers even gave us a single you can actually tolerate on the radio should be heralded.

Longevity in rock music is about as rare as hip-hop spellcheckers these days. The idea of albums has given way to the force- feeding of singles. Teens reposter their walls with the face- of- the- moment more frequently than undercover advertisers placard boarded- up fences and buildings in New York. Basicially, the Chili Peppers are the closest thing we have to a Led Zepplin today. If you want quality, commercial, Jeep- stereo, headphone, stadium- filling, champion Rock that you can get behind, where else are you going to turn? Not to Eminem, you ain't.

Brent DiCrescenzo - June 8, 1999
© 2015 Pitchfork Media Inc.



Do you see what the Chili Peppers have done? They've dovetailed the words 'California' and 'fornication' in an effort to signpost the seamy pit of amorality, starlust and bumcrack bleaching that is LA and environs. And they've made the tune sound vaguely like 'Stairway To Heaven', so that you know to 'feel' to it.

It's a little more skilful than that whole 'Blood Sugar Sex Magic' juxtaposition all those years ago, but - unlike then - you do wonder whose side the Chilis are on. Is this a biting satire on casting couches, the price of fame and - possibly - the fist-fucking of virgin-fresh dreams from the formerly hyperactive penis-socked dudes, whose latest LP has incidentally gone sextuple platinum in New Zealand? Or - like the last missive from the Tinseltown state, Hole's 'Celebrity Skin' - do its distressed, bittersweet folk-chords ring fractured, more like tribute than tribulation? You know it. It's the done thing in Malibu, darling, to cackle over freshly-squeezed Prozac juice and low-tar shiatsu about how shallow and tawdry being a wildly successful star is. Damage, baby: it's as essential as collagen.

PS Can we have our brain-dead, half-dressed funk-hop rock animals back now, please? All this false empathy is starting to make my removed rib tingle.

KiTTY EMPiRE - www.nme.com



The Chili Peppers are supposed to be one of the pillars of the alternative genre, which only goes to prove how musically bankrupt the entire format is these days. This mediocre thrash outfit, which long ago stumbled on a couple of Meters albums and thinks it knows something about syncopation, here attempts a few rewrites of "Under the Bridge", the yawn-inducing band's painfully overrated 1992 hit, along with heaping portions of the usual cliche-ridden punk-funk. The much-heralded return of guitarist John Frusciante amounts to little, since the guy was nothing special to begin with, although he's on the same musical bottom rung as the rest of these stale Peppers. "Californication", the band's first album in four years, simply treads water. One and one half stars

Fred Shuster
Copyright © 2015 Farlex, Inc.



Californication is the seventh studio album by American rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers. It was released on June 8, 1999, on Warner Bros. Records and was produced by Rick Rubin. Californication marked the return of John Frusciante, who had previously appeared on Mother's Milk and Blood Sugar Sex Magik, to replace Dave Navarro as the band's guitarist. Frusciante's return was credited with changing the band's sound altogether, producing a notable shift in style from the music recorded with Navarro. The album's subject material incorporated various sexual innuendos commonly associated with the band, but also contained more varied themes than previous outings, including lust, death, contemplations of suicide, California, drugs, globalization, and travel.

Californication is the Chili Peppers' most commercially successful studio release internationally, with over 15 million copies sold worldwide, and more than 5 million in the United States alone. As of 2002, the album had sold over 4 million copies in Europe. The record produced several hits for the band, including "Otherside", "Californication" and the Grammy Award-winning "Scar Tissue". Californication peaked at number three on the U.S. Billboard 200. The record marked a significant change in style for the band: Rolling Stone '​s Greg Tate noted that "while all previous Chili Peppers projects have been highly spirited, Californication dares to be spiritual and epiphanic".

Guitarist John Frusciante left the band in the middle of a 1992 tour that promoted their critically acclaimed album Blood Sugar Sex Magik. It took over a year for the band to find a new guitarist with whom to record officially. Dave Navarro, formerly of Jane's Addiction, was invited to join the Chili Peppers after Arik Marshall, who had finished the remaining tour dates for Blood Sugar Sex Magik, was fired. Navarro influenced the band's ensuing album, One Hot Minute, by incorporating various elements of heavy metal and psychedelic rock, which was something that the Chili Peppers had not previously been notable for. Compared to "Blood Sugar Sex Magik", "One Hot Minute" was a commercial disappointment, selling only half of what "Blood Sugar Sex Magik" had originally sold. Critics dismissed the album, claiming it was weak and unfocused. Shortly after the release of One Hot Minute, Navarro was fired due to internal differences.

In the years following Frusciante's departure from the Chili Peppers, he had developed a vicious addiction to both heroin and cocaine that left him in poverty and near death. Friends convinced him to enter drug rehabilitation in January 1998. In April 1998, following Frusciante's three-month completion, Flea visited his former band-mate and openly invited him to re-join the band, an invitation Frusciante readily accepted. Within the week, and for the first time in six years, the foursome gathered to play and jump-started the newly reunited Red Hot Chili Peppers.

Californication received favorable reviews in contrast to its less popular predecessor, One Hot Minute, and it was a greater success worldwide. Rolling Stone credited Kiedis for his drastically improved vocals: "[his] vocal cords have apparently been down to some crossroads and over the rehab, and returned with heretofore unheard-of range, body, pitch, soulfulness, and melodic sensibility." Songs such as "Otherside" and "Porcelain" were called "Pumpkins-esque", while the album as a whole was "epiphanal" and the "RHCP furthermuckers are now moving toward funk's real Holy Grail: that salty marriage of esoteric mythology and insatiable musicality that salvages souls, binds communities and heals the sick." Other critics credited the album's success to the return of Frusciante. Allmusic's Greg Prato said that the "obvious reason for [the band's] rebirth is the reappearance of guitarist John Frusciante", considering him to be the "quintessential RHCP guitarist". The album as a whole was "a bona fide Chili Peppers classic". Entertainment Weekly also credits Frusciante with transforming the band's sound into a "more relaxed, less grating, and, in their own way, more introspective album than ever before". Mark Woodlief of Ray Gun commented that "'This Velvet Glove' strikes an intricate balance between a lush acoustic guitar foundation and anthemic rock," Woodlief continued "the disco intro to 'Parallel Universe' gives way to a scorching Western giddy-up motif in the chorus, and Frusciante's Hendrix-like excursions at the song's close."

While many critics found the band's new sound refreshing, NME criticized the Chili Peppers for rarely using their trademark funk sound, asking: "Can we have our brain-dead, half-dressed funk-hop rock animals back now, please? All this false empathy is starting to make my removed rib tingle." Pitchfork, while considering the album a triumph over One Hot Minute, felt Californication lacked the funk that was ever-present in Blood Sugar Sex Magik. It went on to scrutinize some lyrics for being overly sexual, but also considered Frusciante to be "the best big-time American rock guitarist going right now".

Over the years, Californication has maintained its popularity. "Scar Tissue" won the Grammy Award for Best Rock Song in 2000. The album was ranked number 399 on Rolling Stone magazine's 2003 list of "The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time" and, in 2006, the Chili Peppers recorded a five-set playlist for AOL Sessions that included "Scar Tissue" and "Californication". The album produced many staple hits for the Chili Peppers; five of the sixteen songs on their Greatest Hits album were taken from Californication.

The album received criticism for what Tim Anderson of The Guardian called "excessive compression and distortion" in the process of digital mastering. Stylus Magazine labeled it as one of the victims of the loudness war and commented that it suffered from digital clipping so much that "even non-audiophile consumers complained about it". An early, alternately mastered version of the album with a different track listing and mixing, probably a pre-release candidate, has been circulated on the internet.

Wikipedia.org
 

 L y r i c s


Currently no Lyrics available!

 M P 3   S a m p l e s


Currently no Samples available!