oppyu vs Red Hot Chili Peppers

This is the only one I didn't own, back before I quit this band in 2003. I listened to it at some point, but "True Men Don't Kill Coyotes" is definitely the only memorable track. Though it would be more interesting if it was sung the way anyone reading that phrase would pronounce it, it's still a decent song.

My hillbilly in-laws all say "cayoats," for whatever that's worth.

Freaky Styley (1985)


Background: Still from the days of anonymous Red Hot Chili Peppers, Wikipedia notes that the writing of this album involved lots of George Clinton and heroin. Is considered in somewhat higher regard than the first album.

Tracklist
1: Jungle Man
2: Hollywood (Africa)
3: American Ghost Dance
4: If You Want Me to Stay
5: Nevermind
6: Freaky Styley
7: Blackeyed Blonde
8: The Brothers Cup
9: Battleship
10: Lovin' and Touchin'
11: Catholic School Girls Rule
12: Sex Rap
13: Thirty Dirty Birds
14: Yertle the Turtle

1: Jungle Man

I am immediately enjoying the sound more than last album.

Still impossible to understand with or without the lyrics.

"I get all the bush I can". Okay, so that's probably a sex reference.

There's an incredibly annoying thing where one word will come from the right side of the headphones, then the next word will come from the left, and then it keeps alternating.

Still overall enjoying the sound more. Less ROCK SOUNDS IN YOUR FACE, more listenable.

Presented without comment: "Deep inside the soul hole of Mother Earth, Father Time came with a supersonic supersonic burst. His soul money sperm tribes racing to be the first, her ruby fruit jungle giving bush baby bush baby birth."

Is funk music generally as confusing and sexual as this?

Also, is "I am a jungle man" racial? Yes, I know, I'm definitely reading too much into it. But still though.

You can definitely see the influence of heroin in the songwriting.

2: Hollywood (Africa)

Ok going back to the racial question thing.

Are these very white people singing about going back to the brotheland of Africa?

Heh, brotheland. I'm leaving that in.

"Where the woman is the woman and the man is the man" Okay what does that mean?

Yes, this may be the album review where opp mostly talks about the possibility of RHCP being sexist and racist. Have fun reading it!

I'm not seeing what Africa has to do with any of this.

I'm guessing I'm strongly missing something.

Still enjoying the sound though.

3: American Ghost Dance

"Give me a home where the buffalo roam and the death of a race is a game" Hot takes again!

"Where seldom is heard a peacable word from the white trash who killed as they came." This would be a lot more controversial if it came from a time where people listened to the Red Hop Chili Peppers.

He was a jungle man in the first song, then he was Hollywood-African, and now he's an Indian Brave. Anthony Keyring won't be happy until he's assumed every culture and ethnicity.

There is a secret he keeps it's called the talking leaf. It's drugs. It's clearly drugs.

So this is a song about how European settlers killed a lot of Native Americans. And now let's all groove down.

4: If You Want Me To Stay

So is all the songs on an album sounding the same a thing with this band? Even if the sound drastically changes between the albums, the sameiness with the music remains. Also the lyrics which are questionable for a number reason.

Upside, still less grating than the first album.

There really isn't much worth talking about with this song.

I think it's a love song?

The softer and gentler side of RHCP.

If this is what Anthony Keyring's love voice is I pity his many former and current partners.

5: Nevermind

This track opens with what I think is Anthony Keyring rapping.

Return of Antwan the Swan!

And now to the actual song. Nevermind indeed.

Basically they list a bunch of music acts that people should ignoreand listen to them instead.

Notable change in tempo and sound though! That's new!

Here are a list of things you should not bother minding in favour of minding the RHCP
Pac Jam
Gap Band
Zap Band
Funk Scam
British bands
Synth funk bands
Wham Wham band
Duran Duran
Soft Cell shit (strictly for the twits)
Men At Work (for jerks)
Hall and Oates (couple of goats)
Culture Club (one big flub)

They turned "cause we're the red hot" into one syllable.

6: Freaky Styley

Ooh, the title track.

I'm sure this will be the best, most detailed song of the album. Maybe with more hot takes!

Or extended drug references instead.

Or sex references.

Or something.

Yeah, you can guess where this leading.

I fuck em, just to see the look on their face
I fuck em, just to see the look on their face
I fuck em, just to see the look on their face

Say it loud
I'm freaky styley
And I'm proud

[repeat]

That's the entire song.

I'm sure the instrument players enjoyed the limelight though.

7: Blackeyed Blonde

Something I've noticed about both these albums is that they're both way off what I remember as the band's signature sound, and yet both very different from each other.

The first one felt like an indecipherable rock album, and this one feels like an indecipherable kinda funk album.

"That blackeyed beauty with the golden crotch French electric sex a cock shocking swamp fox" I don't even okay whatever.

I continue to get the impression I'm completely missing the point by even worrying about what he's actually saying.

*headbobs unconcerned about what, if any meaning there is in the lyrics*

This song also features stylised nonword grunting.

I use stylised in a very general sense.

8: The Brothers Cup

Okay, I know I said I wasn't bothering with the lyrics anymore.

But I seriously have no idea what this song is about.

What is the brothers cup? Is it a cup owned by brothers? A number of cups who are brothers? And what kind of cup are we talking here?

So I default to this song being about drugs or sex. But which? WHICH I ASK YOU.

"We are the brothers cup coming to your town, bringing tubs of love we're going to spread it around."

Well that just raises more questions than it answers.

Update: Music still listenable even as I stare bemusedly at the lyric sheet.

9: Battle Ship

I think we've gotten to the point in the album where all the full songs are over and now we just have vaguely musical snippets.

This feels like a song from the first album. Still better though.

One of the Wikipedia fun facts about this album is that Kiedis attempted to offset his severe heroin addiction by using cocaine instead.

Is it mean to say you can tell? You can really tell though.

Do they even bother writing lyrics? Or is it improvised once he's behind a microphone and when he finds something good the band says "yup, lets go with that"

10: Lovin' And Touchin'

Loving, touching, laughing, squeezing, walking, joking, smiling, teasing, loving, kissing, rubbing, scrumping, styling, slumming.

THERE'S SCRUMPING AGAIN. WHAT DOES THAT MEAN.

What a sweet song. I'm sure nothing will immediately come up that shoots down the sentimentality of this clearly sincere and not satirical song.

11: Catholic School Girls Rule

Huh. Well that's not cool.

"In the class she's taking notes, just how deep is my throat" Well that's definitely not cool.

"But who cares what the good books says, cause now she's taking off her dress." See above.

"Lead us into temptation, we are pure divine creation, talkin about my generation, injected with the seed of emaculation"

Assuming that's different from emasculation.

I object to this song.

12: Sex Rap

I object to Anthony Keyring rapping.

This song is intensely offputting.

I will not transcribe any quotes here, as I'm already trying to forget I ever heard this.

Sex may have just been ruined forever.

13: Thirty Dirty Birds

Short and inconsequential.

Make it end make it end make it end.

14: Yertle The Turtle

Based on a Dr. Seuss book.

Well, at least it's not horrifying.

Make it end make it end make it end.

Summary

Please don't fetishise schoolgirls. They are literally kids.

And, less importantly, teenagers are fuckin' gross man.

They develop and cultivate that teenage musk as a defence mechanism against adults who would fetishise teenagers.

And don't release songs about sleeping with Catholic schoolgirls.

And don't sleep with Catholic schoolgirls.

And don't rap.

If you want actual analysis of this album from before the horror and offputness, scroll up I guess.

Leave schoolgirls alone guys.

This has been another fun and upbeat review of a fun and upbeat album! Tune in next time for another episode of Moral Outrage Against Red Hop Chili Peppers.

Grade: 

Hmm, I guess I didn't listen to this one much despite owning it. The only song I remember from the title alone is "Catholic School Girls Rule", their most overtly creepy song.

This is going to be a point of discussion throughout, I'm afraid. And it's not completely clear-cut. They talk about race and American Indians a decent amount in the early years (and we haven't even heard "Fight Like a Brave"); Anthony Kiedis has these two tattoos. These days we would call that cultural appropriation. And lord knows they talk about sex constantly throughout the first half of their career. Before the recent revelations of how creepy at least some of the band was in real life (this link has a big tube sock photo at the top, so maybe NSFW), the music and musical performances were a mixed bag. From this point forward I don't remember anything creepy like singing about teenage girls, just "sex is cool, you're hot, let's do it". I had a live performance of "Me and My Friends" where Flea tells the crowd not to grab on women in the audience and reminds them that a a woman's body is her personal property. It means a little, but much less in light of the recent revelations I linked. So the music wasn't advocating being a sexual predator beyond "Catholic School Girls Rule" but was hardly progressive.

From Wikipedia: "His paternal grandfather's family emigrated from Lithuania in the early 1900s; the remainder of his ancestry includes Greek, English, French, Dutch, and Mohican."

So, white.

There was a group of indie kids in my high school who loved RHCP. This is prior to Blood Sugar Sex Magik, though. I can't imagine they moved forwards with them after that, or even still liked them by the time it came out. But they were already starting to break by our senior year, with Mother's Milk.

scrump - /skrʌmp/ verb 1. (dialect) to steal (apples) from an orchard or garden

The thing is, though, I'm guessing that Kledis et. al. probably weren't referring to stealing apples from an orchard or garden, are probably unaware of this definition, and it's probably referring to a sex thing.  And, indeed, dictionary.com provides a slang definition of "scrump", meaning "To do the sex act; boff, jazz" and gives its derivation as possibly being a portmanteau of "screw" and "hump".  So, that's my guess as to what Kledis et. al. meant.  But I'm just going to pretend that they meant stealing (apples) from an orchard or garden in the context of the song.

Also, Jesus Christ are these first two albums truly godawful.  The only track I much cared for off of either album was "True Men Don't Kill Coyotes".  And good lord "Catholic School Girls Rule" is super creepy (somehow managing to top even their debut album's super skeevy "Mommy Where's Daddy").  But even putting aside the creepiness, the songs are pretty bad, and the lyrics are super dumb.  I just assumed you were joking when you wrote that "Baby Appeal" was actually about a baby dancing, but nope, that's literally what the song was about.

On a lighter note, re: the debate on what "The Brothers Cup" is supposed to be about, is it not limiting to think that the title could only be referring either to a cup owned by a number brothers or a number of sentient cups who are brothers?  It could also be a number of brothers with the surname Cup.  If so, was this song meant to become an integral part of the Musical Canon in much the same way that Dostoevsky's The Brothers Karamozov has entered the Literary Canon?  If so, Kledis et. al. failed at that pretty miserably.  Or, what if it's referring to a single cup owned by a single brother, as in "The Brother's Cup"?  Or, maybe it's a trophy given out to the winners of some sort of sporting tournament, each team of which must be composed of only brothers, and hence this trophy is aptly called "The Brothers Cup"?  Personally, I think the most persuasive case is that which can be made for the theory that Kledis et. al. were too busy being shitty musicians and all-around shitty people to bother even spacing out their words correctly when they wrote down the title of the song, and some graphic design person working for EMI couldn't make out Kledis et. al.'s handwriting when they were designing the liner notes and track listing for the album, and accidentally transcribed this song's title as "The Brothers Cup" when in reality it was supposed to be "The Brother Scup", and that what the song is really about is about somebody having a conversation with a scup, as in Stenotomus chrysops, and that perhaps this person was telling the scup a story about another person and that other person's brother, and the brother in this story did something, but the scup was confused about who it was that did that aforementioned thing, so it was like "Wait, who did that?", and the person telling the story says "The brother, scup" as a means of clarification, and that's what the song title is referring to.  It seems pretty clear to me, at least, that that's what the title of the song must be referring to.

The Uplift Mofo Party Plan (1987)



Background: Last of the trilogy of albums released before their big breakthrough. The last album before the death of founding member Hillel Slovak and the permanent departure of other founding member Jack Irons. As with previous albums, the production of Uplift Mofo Party Plan is noted to have involved much illicit heavily addictive narcotics. But hey, also their first album to chart on the Billboard 200. At #148, but still.

Tracklist
1: Fight Like A Brave
2: Funky Crime
3: Me And My Friends
4: Backwoods
5: Skinny Sweaty Man
6: Behind The Sun
7: Subterranean Homesick Blues
8: Special Secret Song Inside
9: No Chump Love Sucker
10: Walkin' On Down The Road
11: Love Trilogy
12: Organic Anti-Beat Box Band

1: Fight Light A Brave

We're back! With assurances that the Catholic schoolgirls song is peak creepiness and we're not going back to that place.

If it gets anywhere near that place again we're skipping right past Red Hot Chili Peppers and moving on to oppyu vs. Dolly Parton.

The first thing that must be mentioned here is that Anthony Kodos is not a Native American. He is a very white man who keeps singing about being Native American.

The sound progression feels like we've dropped some funk and picked up more rock bordering on metal? Punk? Don't ask me to describe or assign genres, it will end poorly.

But it feels like a different sound from their second album, which in itself was a different sound from their first.

And is again a different sound from their later hits.

One noticeable thing is that they seem to have mostly given up on the concept of 'singing', not that they did much of that before.

Lyrically I have nothing new to add beyond the lyrics don't make much sense and he doesn't sing/talk them coherently.

Still not Native American.

2: Funky Crime

More singing on this one.

"Don't you know funk's colourblind". It does make sense that he would think this.

In this song Kodos lashes out at race barriers that suggest that white men can't funk. Which, fair.

I do wish he'd stop singing about being Native American though.

As for the sound, as I said there was some more singing and also more funklike than the first song. Maybe this is the album where there are noticeable differences in the sound of each song.

Also, robovoice. Little did they know this would later evolve into autotune.

There is some good usage of autotune (hello Kanye West with '808 and Heartbreaks') but I generally side with Jay-Z's 'Death Of Autotune'

Unrelated, Kanye West has really gone off the deep end since then. Or, further off the deep end.

I blame reality TV.

3: Me And My Friends

Aww, male friendship.

Also, another distinctive sounding song! Band evolution!

I am glad that at some point in their band evolution Red Hot Chili Peppers ditch the rapping.

I'm not enjoying the rapping.

So, the three friends mentioned here are Bob, Hillel and Jacky. Process of elimination, is Flea really named Bob? Fuck, I'd take the name Flea if my real name was Bob as well.

Bob aka Flea has 67 smells and is a hell a swell fellow.

Hillel is a man for who Kodos' love is woul brother sacred. The lyrics I'm looking at may not be correct.

Jacky drives a kooky green chrysler and is as strong as a horse.

This song gets much sadder when you remember Hillel Slovak died shortly after the release of the album and Jack Irons quit the band as a result.

But Jack went on to be a part of Pearl Jam, so... yay?

4: Backwoods

"Take me to your backwoods now" sounds kinda like a sex thing.

Hey, halfway through the song and no rapping yet.

Wait, is this rap rock? Is RHCP responsible for Linkin Park?

I suppose in the end it doesn't even matter.

Yup, the rap has started again.

I'm very confused.

Something about rippling nipples, lickity split finger licking licks, and a man named Little Richard who was born to make them bitches stir?

I don't think making bitches stir is an actual divine or biological imperative.

5: Skinny Sweaty Man

hot

This is an eighty second rap about a skinny sweaty man in a green shirt.

Wait, chipmunk voice. Are these fuckers also responsible for the Chipmunk movies?

I watched three of those movies back to back while babysitting. These guys have a lot to answer for.

Once again I am very confused as to what's happening.

I think from Me And My Friends the skinny sweaty man referenced here is Hillel.

6: Behind The Sun

"One day while bathing in the sea, my talking dolphin spoke to me" Again with the dolphins, man? They're ridiculously evil!

Also, hey look, the hippie stuff is back.

Also the very apparent heavy drug use.

This fucker really loves dolphins.

Also, rapping.

You know dolphins use porpoises and baby sharks as beach balls? They beat these animals to death. For fun.

I will give the song credit for again being noticeably different from the previous songs. The sameiness with the songs is greatly decreased with this album.

The music is almost pretty! Almost. For a rap reggae funk metal punk rock band.

7: Subterranean Homesick Blues

This is a cover of a Bob Dylan song.

I think if you were looking for the band who sounded the absolute least like Bob Dylan, you'd either settle on Red Hot Chili Peppers or some Norwegian doom metal band.

Now I have to know what this song sounds like when arranged and performed by Bob Dylan.

This is the one time I will ever say the Bob Dylan version is nicer sounding and more melodic.

Aside: Bob Dylan is a wonderful songwriter, and I'm a huge fan of his music... when performed by other people.

You can throw things at me now.

Really though. Bob Dylan's songs are typically so much better when performed by someone who can sing. Exhibit A: Nina Simone's cover of Hollis Brown.

8: Special Secret Song Inside

This song was originally called 'Party On Your Pussy' but the label made them change it.

'Special Secret Song Inside' sounds so much dirtier.

Note that they definitely kept the lyric "party on your pussy" in the song. And repeat it about 20-30 times.

The lyrical thrust of this song (heh) is Anthony Kodos has a lady with whom he has regular, loud, and sometimes public intercourse. He is often accosted by neighbours, his landlady, and the police for said regular, loud, and sometimes public intercourse. However he doesn't care and very much wants to continue having regular, loud, and sometimes public intercourse with this lady.

It may be a ribald song, but it doesn't seem to involve minors so I'll allow it.

I am amused that the police officer who catches Anthony Kodos and his lady sexing in a telephone booth remarks "That's uncouth"

Also, if you're having sex in a telephone booth, it's not really 'secret' is it?

I will be serenading my girlfriend with this song later.

"I WANT TO PARTY ON YOUR PUSSY BABY, WELL I WANT TO PARTY ON YOUR PUS-SAY"

9: No Chump Love Sucker

This song is a yelled, scathing indictment of a lady who has many personality flaws.

I'm guessing one of the members of this band, probably Kodos, dated this lady.

Life goals: At some point have a musical act of some notoriety write a song about what a horrible person I am.

I will start working towards this goal by catfishing Shawn Mendes.

"I'm through with your bluefish, I'm through with your gash." Eww...

I feel this song stresses the wrong insults. The chorus is 'she changes her mind real quick and won't just let things sit'. That's not a verbal dissection you want to base your revenge song around.

Like, "She's a bitch and a brat and a living disaster". That's some powerful hateful speech and hatespeech right there.

Better than SHE'S A FICKLE PERSON! THAT'S RIGHT! FICKLE! SHE SAYS SHE WANTS DINNER AT ONE PLACE, BUT ON THE WAY THERE SHE DECIDES SHE'D RATHER GO TO A DIFFERENT RESTAURANT! WITH NO CONCERN FOR WHETHER YOU HAD ALREADY MADE A RESERVATION!

Actually, that does sound really annoying. Carry on.

10: Walkin' On Down The Road

At this point in previous albums we'd already be past all the real songs and be listening to assorted bits of music added to pad length. Band evolution!

Granted, I still have no idea what this song is actually about, but it has a distinctive sound from previous songs on the album and actually sounds kinda nice.

"Everybody come in, everybody sing, sing my song. Everybody knows, everybody thinks, that I've done wrong. Everybody come in, everybody sing, sing my song". That's the chorus.

Lyrics remain far from this band's strong suit.

Maybe it's just a song about nothing. That's acceptable, conceptually. There are paintings that are about nothing.

Like that one from Daredevil? Where the art chick/Kingpin's future girlfriend did a speech about how a blank canvas was actually the peak of fucking artistry? And then Kingpin bought the painting and went back and talked to her about how soothing it was?

The beauty of a blank canvas is that its meaning becomes whatever the person imprints on it. To Kingpin, the meaning became "I really want to have a party on this art chick's pussy".

I'm sorry if I spoiled season 1 of Netflix Daredevil for anyone. I do recommend the show though. Great fight scenes.

So yeah, song doesn't have an apparent point. Woo music.

11: Love Trilogy

Anthony Kodos loves a lot of things.

"My love erection" Heh, he said erection.

"My love can be bigger than the Hoover damn, my love can hide behind a grain of sand" Heh. He has a Mr. Fantastic penis.

He mentioned the Zulu thing again. YOU ARE WHITE, ANTHONY KODOS. WHITE.

"My love is my dick in my head" Well I wasn't going to call him a dickhead since, you know, gendered slur, but it's okay if he says it about himself right?

The song is nice though. It's like, a song about his love. And the weird things that have his love. And love is good! We could use more love in this world. This song is almost sentimental.

And then he ends the song with what sounds like his orgasm noise.

12: Organic Anti-Beat Box Band

This song is about the band's roots as a Hollywood band.

Nothing really new to say here. So I'll nitpick random lyrics!

"I've got nothing against hip hop but there's a party in my town and no beat box jam that is" He says, not realising that he raps everything.

"The party's got girls the girls got hot, the party's got boys and the boys got socks" Huh?

Does that mean guys who are wearing sandals aren't allowed to party with the hot girls?

Actually, I approve of that rule. Carry on.

I remain unclear of what an organic anti-beat box band is. But it's not a hip hop band.

Summary: 

It's much more listenable than their previous albums. 

I appreciate that the songs sounded different. That is, as it turns out, critical to being a listenable album.

Significantly less disgust and horror than the end of the second album as well. 

I did get back into disgust and horror reading that article ganews linked about RHCP, but that's not actually a flaw inherent in the music.

Just a strong indicator that the people making the music are shitty fucking people. 

I still wouldn't rank it with music I actually like and is good, but I wasn't going "make it end make it end make it end" by the end of the album.

In summary, meh. Not 'I'm falling asleep' or 'I'm disgusted' meh, but 'it was alright but not quite enough to earn the happy emoji' meh.

This presentation has been brought to you by Spotify, because it turns out that it doesn't really matter if the musicians are being fairly compensated as long as the service to provide said musicians is affordable and convenient.

Grade: 

She's one up on me. I've never heard any version of Subterranean Homesick Blues.

Mother's Milk (1989)



Background: Post 'Uplift Mofo Party Plan', the band lost two members, picked up two replacements, ditched the replacements, and picked up Frusciante and Will Ferrell who would be iconic with the band for years to come. Considered by many to be the start of good Red Hot Chili Peppers, at least among those who believe there is in fact a period in which the Red Hot Chili Peppers are a good band. I remain to be convinced.

Tracklist
1: Good Time Boys
2: Higher Ground
3: Subway to Venus
4: Magic Johnson
5: Nobody Weird Like Me
6: Knock Me Down
7: Taste the Pain
8: Stone Cold Bush
9: Fire
10: Pretty Little Ditty
11: Punk Rock Classic
12: Sexy Mexican Maid
13: Johnny, Kick a Hole in the Sky

1: Good Time Boys

Full disclosure, I've tried to sit down and do this three times now.

It's fair to say I have not become a fan of Red Hot Chili Peppers since starting this project. But I know a lot more about them.

I know I say this every album, but the sound of the band is once again different. Like, it's... more... rock... now? I don't know.

Kielbasa is still rapping though. I'm told there's a point where he stops rapping so much. Please let that be soon.

There's a confusing part in the song where it seems like it's changing station.

Am actually nodding along with the song here. It passes the crucial test of "do I want to sing along with the chorus a little bit"

He does call himself a Brave here again. Eye roll.

There's a thing at the end not included on the lyrics sheet where it kinda sounds like they're singing "fuck the hippopotamus"

2: Higher Ground

A Stevie Wonder cover!

Also apparently their first chart success.

Also, singing!

I'm not really a fan of covers. There's already a real version of the song. It's the original. Get your own song.

This is admittedly pretty listenable though.

They're definitely sounding more like a... you know, band, right now.

As opposed to what they sounded like before, which was some jerks set up in a storage unit somewhere.

Who perform on stage high as shit and fully naked except with socks on their dicks.

And repeatedly claim cultural affinity and shared identity with Native Americans despite being a white person.

And who think they can rap.

Just a random example of what they may have sounded like.

3: Subway to Venus

Musically this is definitely a large step up from their previous album.

Which was a large step up from the albums before that.

Even lyrically it's a big step up.

I mean, I still don't know what's happening, but at least now I'm not convinced that whatever is happening it's not great.

"Space is king or so I say, subway to Venus." Sure, whatever that means.

They still sound like the bastard child of five or so different genres, but now it's not necessarily in a bad way.

4: Magic Johnson

A basketball song!

I hope they were able to get this song played on some sports ads or in the arena sometime.

This is literally a song celebrating the players and achievements of the 80s Lakers.

The songs feel... busier, than previous albums. There's more going on musically.

I can't describe it because I'm terrible at describing music, but I do think it's generally better.

5: Nobody Weird Like Me

Another singing song!

"Intercourse with a porpoise is a dream for me, hellbent on inventing a new species" Oooooookaaaaaaaaay.

This is another one of the songs where you wonder what exactly is he singing about.

Were you aware that giraffes think gas is funny?

I will note that I'm five songs in and the eyerolling has been minimal.

6: Knock Me Down

Aww, this is a song for the guitarist who died.

It's... I dunno, a portrayal of out of control egotist rock star who out of controls to cover something up. And imploring them to accept help from their friends before something bad happens.

This may be the first time, chronologically, that the Red Hot Chili Peppers did a song which could be sincerely described as 'nice'.

The start of a kinder, gentler RHCP!

Well, not really. The Wikipedia article for the album mentions how multiple members of the band were charged with things like sexual battery following the release of the album.

But musically a kinder, gentler, RHCP.

They even have backing vocals in this track. They've really upped the production for this album.

7: Taste the Pain

Is that a trumpet?

Another singing rather than rapping song.

Most of the album has been pretty high energy punk/rock/metal, but this is a different sound. It's almost... I don't want to say pop, but it's less loud and it's catchy and it involves singing.

Also a song with a clear lyrical thrust that isn't "we have a lot of sex and do a lot of drugs".

Instead, the song's protagonist is mourning the end of a dysfunctional relationship.

I cannot stress how much more listenable the song arrangements are than, say, the first album.

Yup, that's definitely a trumpet.

I dig the trumpet.

8: Stone Cold Bush

This is a song about a prostitute.

Done in a... way that is not particularly respectful. Or comfortable. Or coherent.

I think Kielbasa sings about the woman crying while giving him a blowjob?

I hope that's an uncharitable reading and he actually meant something entirely different.

Even musically this song feels like a return to form.

I don't mean that in a positive way.

9: Fire

A cover of a Jimi Hendrix song.

Notable that it's a recording from the original band line-up with Hillel Slovak and Jack Irons.

Lots of electric guitar.

Still not a fan of covers.

10: Pretty Little Ditty

An instrumental track.

It's nice though. Almost... well, pretty. It's a pretty little ditty.

There's a guitar bit that sounds almost familiar, and I was trying to place it... and I think I associated it with that old Crazy Town song 'Butterfly'?

Which is either a condemnation of that guitar bit, or my capacity to link guitar bits to similar guitar bits.

Probably the latter.

Wait, I checked, and Butterfly samples this song.

I demonstrated basic listening to music competence! Woooooo!

11: Punk Rock Classic

Wow is this a dramatic shift.

It's certainly back to... high energy. And is very far from pretty.

This song is an unflattering portrayal of some band, probably 'mainstream', who in this band's opinion compromise everything to get on MTV.

Note, this is back in the day where being on MTV was a sign of success.

Shorter track. Similar to the back-end tracks on previous albums.

12: Sexy Mexican Maid

Hrrrrrrm.

Did anyone in the band actually have a maid at this point? I hope not.

As you can probably guess, it's a song about a maid who is sexy and Mexican.

The song did feature a saxophone though. Points for that.

13: Johnny, Kick a Hole in the Sky

While I actually liked a number of the songs this time I am definitely ready for this album to be over.

This is a song about... Johnny... I guess?

Nope, it seems to be another 'Anthony Kielbasa associates strongly with Native American culture and identity despite not being Native American' song.

"Apache blood is in my heart thrashing through me like a shark" No it is not.

I suppose even as an eyerolly song it still demonstrates the progress that RHCP have made musically.

Yawn.

I'lllllllll just... end this song a little early.

If there's anything important in the last thirty seconds of the album I missed it, I'm sorry.

Yay album over!

Summary

A step forward for the band.

Instead of 'consistently bad' or 'consistently mediocre' like previous albums, I'd describe this one as 'uneven'. Which is better!

There are actually tracks I'd recommend on this album, rather than tracks I didn't hate.

For the record they are Knock Me Down, Taste the Pain, and Pretty Little Ditty.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers still aren't at 'music I'd choose to listen to if I weren't doing this thread'.

But, they're getting better.

Grade:

extra note about "Pretty Little Ditty": it's a guitar piece that Frusciante wrote specifically for the purposes of auditioning for the band. You also note the backing chorus vocals; those would be done by Frusciante for live performances, and eventually you hear him doing more backing vocals on the actual albums. John Frusciante is pretty great, is what I'm saying.

Mother's Milk is their first album where I can look at the track list and clearly recall most of, or at least the chorus of every song. I didn't remember anything except the chorus of "Stone Cold Bush". (The Genius.com annotation to the song is "He is telling her to stop letting herself get used and to come with so he can help her not let that happen." That only slightly ameliorates the creepiness, and just introduces the trope of rescuing a fallen woman.)

"Magic Johnson" - Hey, it's a song about L.A.! (Magic played for the LA Lakers.) Think they'll do any more songs about L.A.? This one is fun in concert recordings.

"Knock Me Down" is definitely the best song here. Of course, it's marred by the fact that Kiedis was still on horse and Frusciante got it so bad he had to leave the band for the space of an album.

I like the weirdness of "Subway to Venus". It sounds like something Yoko Kanno would write.

Hey oppy all along you should listen and review this at some point

www.idontevenownatelevision.com/2014/11/26/023-scar-tissue-w-ben-firke/