FEATURE:
Vinyl Corner
Red Hot Chili Peppers – By the Way
___________
THERE is relevance behind selecting this album…
PHOTO CREDIT: MTV/Getty Images
for inclusion in Vinyl Corner. For a start, I have not included the Red Hot Chili Peppers in anything much for a long time but, more importantly, they are going to release a new album this year. Not only that, but their estranged guitarist John Frusciante is back with them! It is good news for Chili fans, and I am interested to see what their upcoming album sounds like. This article provides more details:
“After confirming late last year that estranged guitarist John Frusciante is back in the fold, Red Hot Chili Peppers have now announced that work is underway on a new album.
Talking to Rolling Stone, drummer Chad Smith has confirmed that the band, including Frusciante – who played on the band's classic albums – are writing and recording together again. In an interview about his new art exhibition, Smith let a few details slip about the new material.
"I was given strict orders for this interview: ‘DON’T TALK ABOUT THE BAND,'" Smith tells Rolling Stone. "But, yes, John is back in the band, and everyone knows that. We’re psyched.
"The festivals are the only shows booked. For now, we’ll mostly be concentrating on new songs and writing a new record. We’re all real excited to make new music."
When asked to clarify if that means the band are in the middle of recording new music, Smith replies: "Yes. That’s all I can say".
It is great Frusciante is back with the band, as I love his work and I think the Red Hot Chili Peppers are stronger with him. That is not disrespect to any other band members, but there is a magic and chemistry you get with Frusciante that you do not get with anyone else. By the Way is an album you will want to get on vinyl, because it sounds incredible. It is their eight studio album and was released back in 2002. I remember when the album came out. I was in my second year at university and had just moved from London to Cambridge. It was a scary time, because it was a new city and university. I settled in pretty quick and was surrounded by some great people at the halls of residence I was staying. A lot of good music was played here, but the Red Hot Chili Peppers were a common soundtrack. Not only was I hearing Californication – the band’s previous album released in 1999 - playing a lot; By the Way became a new and firm favourite. It is not a surprise the album sold so many copies in its first week (286,000), and it was a chart success. Singles like Can’t Stop and By the Way are instant classics. In fact, I think By the Way contains so many of the band’s best songs.
Maybe the Red Hot Chili Peppers were a bit more challenging and innovative earlier on; delving deeper and not quite as commercial as they were in 2002. That said, listen to Universally Speaking, The Zephyr Song and Dosed, and these are songs that you will recall to mind and sing to yourself long after you have listened to them. Maybe the Red Hot Chili Peppers were at their peak earlier in the 1990s, but they were still very much on fire in 2002! If previous Chili records wee more outward and less personal, there was an air of reflectiveness on By the Way that marked a welcome shift. Maybe the album is calmer and more emotional than we are used to, but I think it brings new sides from the band – and tracks like Can’t Stop are definitely as energised and kicking as anything they have produced! John Frusciante was a crucial element regarding By the Way’s sound as he wrote most of the melodies and backing vocal arrangements; he also penned most of the bass lines and guitar progressions. Some diehard Chili fans felt the new direction took the band away from a more Punk-scented style and softened them. Every great artist needs to progress and change, and I think By the Way is a record where the band sound connected and committed. Frusciante has said the recording of By the Way was one of the happiest of his life – let’s hope the guitarist’s return to the brand is equally happy and productive!
After the immense Californication tour, the band members started working on the new album in the spring of 2001. The band laid down new ideas and songs in practice locations and (band members’) homes, as Frusciante and Anthony Kiedis (the band’s lead singer) collaborated. They would sit and discuss song ideas, lyrics and arrangements; Frusciante was back to his normal self – In 1998, he successfully completed drug rehabilitation and rejoined the Red Hot Chili Peppers -, and things were back to the golden days of the band. Legendary producer Rick Rubin was back on production duties, having helmed Californication, and he allowed the band freedom to create what they wanted without too much direction and dictation. I am not sure what the band had originally planned for By the Way, but the final sound is very different from what was suggested. I think the band were going to include more Punk-Rock songs but, inspired by groups such as The Beach Boys, Frusciante took By the Way in another direction. He was also listening to The Beatles and Emerson, Lake & Palmer, and you can hear touches of each in By the Way. Flea (the band’s bassist) felt his voice was not being heard and, when it came to the guitar and bass parts, Frusciante composed them himself, rather than collaborating with Flea. This was not a personal beef: Frusciante had a solid idea of what he wanted and felt the Red Hot Chili Peppers needed to move in a new direction.
Frusciante would record one more album, 2009’s Stadium Arcadium, before he departed the group; I think Flea felt that, in hindsight, Frusciante was not valuing his opinions and taking too much charge. Whatever slight tension there was from Flea, one cannot deny the brilliance and range on By the Way. There are few weak moments, and the band sound completely in-step and tight. Whilst there were lots of positive reviews – I shall bring two in soon -, some felt By the Way was not an adequate and notable improvement on Californication; more like a sequel rather than a whole new album. Others, knowing lyrics were not necessarily the strong suit of the band, wondered if Kiedis missed a trick. The singer is not the strongest writer around, but it is the fun and slight nonsense you get with Red Hot Chili Peppers that makes them so appealing. By the Way is a more supplicated and nuanced album that Californication, whilst Kiedis’ voice sound incredible throughout. AllMusic remarked the following when reviewing By the Way:
“The Red Hot Chili Peppers' eighth studio album finds the California foursome exploring the more melodic freeways of harmony and texture, contrasting the gritty, funky side streets of their early days. Luckily, with this more sophisticated sound, the Peppers have not sacrificed any of their trademark energy or passions for life, universal love, and (of course) lust. Although they recorded the spiky Abbey Road EP in 1988, this album actually sounds a lot closer to the Beatles' Abbey Road, with a little of Pet Sounds and elements of Phil Spector's lushest arrangements all distilled through the band's well-traveled funk-pop stylings. Harmony vocals and string arrangements have replaced some of the aggressive slap bass that the group was initially recognized for, but fans of both the gentle and the fierce Chili Peppers styles will embrace the title track and first single, "By the Way."
In fact, this song on its own could almost be a brief history of everything the Red Hot Chili Peppers have recorded: fiery Hollywood funk, gentle harmonies, a little bit of singing about girls, a little bit of hanging out in the streets in the summertime, some rapid-fire raps from Anthony Kiedis, some aggro basslines from Flea -- the song plays like a three-and-a-half-minute audio version of Behind the Music. Overall, the album leans more toward the melodic end of their oeuvre, but they have grown into this kinder, gentler mode organically, progressively working toward this groove little by little, album by album. What once were snapshots of a spastic punk-funk lifestyle have grown into fully realized short stories of introspection and Californication. Though the pace of the album falters at times (particularly in the verses; the choruses are all pretty spectacular), it is refreshing to see that as the four Chili Peppers continue to grow older and more sure of themselves, their composition and performing skills are maturing along with them”.
It is hard to rank the Chilis’ albums, because they sound very different on Mother’s Milk (1989) as they did on 2016’s Getaway. I think By the Way would be top of my list, then I’d place Blood Sugar Sex Magik (1991) above Californication. I think we can all agree that By the Way should be in every fan’s top-five! I want to highlight this review from The Guardian before moving on:
“The Chilis have definitively taken the socks off their cocks: now they wear them to keep their feet warm while they sip cocoa and concoct lovely melodies. Far from the gloriously brutal funk-metal workouts of old, By the Way is their most relaxed and mellow album yet.
A grainy string orchestra swells through cosmically minded love song Universally Speaking, ballad Midnight features a theremin, and Cabron is a pungently surprising flamenco singalong. That said, the Chilis haven't forgotten how to dance. Self-explanatory manifesto Throw Away Your Television boils with Flea's bass rumblings and an irresistible tom battery, On Mercury brilliantly rehabilitates the idea of ska, and Can't Stop is possibly the funkiest thing they have ever done.
Singer Anthony Kiedis does his rap-shouting thing while backing himself with a swooning falsetto countermelody; drummer Chad Smith cunningly saves his hi-hats for the most devastating moments; and John Frusciante's clean-toned guitar is thrilling: you can almost hear the wound metal of the strings scraping against the fretboard.
The lyrics throughout are the usual rhyming nonsense, and all the more pleasing for it”.
If you are new to the Red Hot Chili Peppers, I think you can be a bit selective regarding the album you listen to. I would definitely suggest you spend some time listening to By the Way – preferably on vinyl, but go and stream it if not. It is a remarkable album that, I think, is defined by John Frusciante. As he is back with the Red Hot Chili Peppers after a decade away, I think now is a good time to highlight By the Way. I am excited to see what the Los Angeles band come up with this year and whether their new album matches the sheer beauty of…
THE exceptional By the Way.