Californication

Just so MEH

Of all the RHCP albums why this one?

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Undeniably playful and catchy! The music really suits the album cover's refreshing but wild pool day aesthetic. I found some of the lyrics to be mindless at times but this wasn't an egregious issue. Very cool tunes and I'd jam out if some songs ever come back on during shuffle.

3 incredibly gifted musicians and whatever that shirtless guy with the microphone is, the weak link is what he is.
Being a world class musician doesn't make someone a world class songwriter as the majority of this album proves. Though that could be said for any of the RHCP albums.
If we are talking singles this is 4 stars all day every day. As a whole album 2.7.

Such an iconic album, a great listen that is filled with bangers. Just what I needed for today's workout.

8/10 [KEEP]

Easy

Favorite track(s): Scar Tissue, Otherside, Get on Top, Californication

Heard before
Previous rating: 7/10

This albums sounds like it was recorded on a potato, making it very hard to enjoy. It almost sounds worse than them playing live.. ALMOST.

Regardless of the timeless classics on this record it sucks balls. Anthony Kiedis' "lyrics" and "style" is so childish; wtf was that ding dong dang ding ding dong in the first song?

I used to listen to this album quite a bit, but eventually got tired of it. This is my first time listening to it start-to-finish in more than 25 years.

...And now I'm remembering why I got tired of this album: Anthony Kiedis. Otherwise, Flea, John, and Chad are really solid on this album.

The other day, I was just thinking about the conflict over this album and Mr. Bungle's "California" ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_(Mr._Bungle_album)#Red_Hot_Chili_Peppers_conflict ). I feel Mr. Bungle's album is the better one and has had more staying power for me.

genuinely, genuinely, no idea what the lead singer is saying at any point in this album. of course I had heard the red hot chili peppers before. It was about what I expected! Vibey and likely very good road trip music while driving contemplatively through hilly plains. I liked it but it wasn't anything life-changing. Maybe if I had listened to it in the early 00's? Alas, I was not alive for that.

Otherside or the eponymous Californication were probably my favorite. Easily was also really good!

It’s strange for its nonsensical lyrics this album felt like a coming of age album for the Chilli Peppers. Yes they’d had tracks like Under the Bridge long before tjis, but across a whole album it just felt more sustained. Obviously that view is undermined to some degree by the ding, donging of Around the World but if nothing else the instrumentation feels tighter, led by Flea’s bass. Parallel Universe feels like you’re in a speeding car hurtling toward the age of a cliff, which i’m not sure i enjoy as much as a 48 year old as i did when the album originally came out.

Scar tissue is however still a great song. The guitar sound is just so chilled and chimes like a sweet bell. It shows that RHCP had the ability to deliver great songs when they slowed the high energy impulses down a tad. Otherside maintains this momentum and feeling of slight nostalgia of sunny days.
Get on top is more traditional RHCP fare but you cant knock Frusciante’s guitarmanship.
Californication is another ageless, beautiful track with its chilled instrumentation and more laid back Kleidas vocals building to “Dream of Californication”.
After this there is a definite dip with songs like I Like Dirt and Purple Paint just unnecessary filler.
Road Trippin makes for a good close, but overall not as good as I remember.

I discovered during this listen that 56 minutes of Anthony Kiedis's singing in one go, is too much Anthony Kiedis for me. His vocals are distinctive but pass over into annoying very easily.

However there are some really good songs on this album. Scar Tissue is the highlight of the singles for me, but I also like Californication a lot. There are some pleasant enough album tracks too.

Then there are some absolute stinkers. I mean, did the world need Get On Top or I like Dirt? I suspect RHCPs think they're sexy as hell during some of these songs, but they were in their mid to late 30s during this period and it's just cringey.

Overall, I think this is just scraping a

3/5

It's weird how nostalgia can be a key factor in determining whether you enjoy an album or not. Within the first seconds of “Around the World,” I am immediately drawn back to one particular warm and lazy summer when I was in my early teens. All my friends were away on holiday; I spent my days lying in the grass or biking around the neighbourhood, beginning to dig deeper into music and hanging around in our smalltown record store. Time did not seem to pass at all; the days blended into each other, and for the last time in my life I felt free of responsibilities (or, to put it more drastically, I was bored in the most positive sense — a state of boredom that cannot be replicated when you're an adult and your mental load tends to be so overwhelming that you count the days until your next day off). Californication soundtracked a lot of these days.

In short, this album gives me a feeling that's impossible to describe in just a few words (and, most importantly, a - positive - feeling that I will most likely never be able to revisit, even though it is a state of mind I thoroughly long to be in again). Reminds me of the good old madeleine that drew Proust into a swirl of memories thought to be lost to time.

Is Californication a great album? Nah, I don't really think so; not at all. It has so many duds (mostly the lyrics and/or the boilerplate drumming + guitar playing), and its runtime should have been generously trimmed (oh, the ’90s / they could have cut more than half of the tracks on the second side), but still, Californication is an album where profound criticism would feel out of place for me. Because I like it for reasons other than the quality (or lack thereof) of its songs. Of course, Flea's bass playing and Kiedis's idiosyncratic vocal style mayke this fun to listen to listen to.

I cannot recall listening to the record with the utmost attention back then (especially since my English, as a non-native speaker, was terrible at the time and I understood onyl a few words at best), so I was pretty surprised that even the most remote details felt familiar when I put it on today.

Long-term memory… you fascinating phenomenon. It seems I know Californication's first half "better" than some of the records I actually call my favorite albums of all time. Haha.

Lovedddd

one of the best ways to get any audio setup to sound like a Motorola RAZR

This is one album I instantly got hooked on when I listened to it at the Ricordi Mediastore in Milan (yes, we used to go to music stores to listen to albums through wall‑mounted headphones!) I also love the cover, it fits the album perfectly.

It's a very nostalgic album for me because I heard it throughout my whole childhood. Got a lot of earworms on this album.
* Around the World - peak start to the album
* Parallel Universe - good continuation of RHCP jam
* Scar tissue, Otherside - 10/10 songs, perfect summer songs, funky with melancholy tones if you listen close
* Get on Top - Kind of stupid lyrics, but yes go white boy go! It's fun little bop if you don't listen to the words
* Californication - 10/10, just lyric-wise reminds me of Radiohead's 'Fake Plastic Trees'
* Easily - Meh, when he starts singing briefly it sounds good
* Porcelain - Pretty sad, short song, good one but I dunno if I'd listen to it on its own (maybe just as a part of this album)
* Emit Remmus - The guitar in the background of the verses is really grating
* I Like Dirt - I LIKE DIRT, peak song
This Velvet Glove - Decent song
Savior - I really like the overlapping of his voice in the bridge, relatable reflection on his father
Purple Stain - genuinely what the fuck
Right on Time - The chorus is nice
Road Trippin' - truly does sound like 'road tripping', not in a bad way though it's nice

three bangers on here: Scar Tissue, Californication and Otherside. Some songs are pretty annoying (I like Dirt, Right on Time)

2nd half of the album struggles in quality a bit but overall an enjoyable album