Blood Sugar Sex Magik

Like a lot of teens/twentysomethings in the 90s, my entrance to funk-rock-rap was through RHCP and this album in particular. I thought this album was incredibly cool back then, although Sir Psycho Sexy made me cringe ("There's a devil in my dick and some demons in my semen"??? Made me go ugh then, makes me go ugh now). Some of the tracks continue to blow me away - The Power of Equality, Blood Sugar Sex Magik, Under the Bridge (yes, overplayed and all). Other top tracks include Funky Monks, I Could Have Lied, Breaking the Girl, The Righteous & The Wicked, and Give It Away (another overplayed track, but still love the bass line). The one common trend through pretty much the entire album is outstanding musicianship and very cool writing. Even the lyrics are good for most of the album. I'll move past the lyrics on Sir Psycho Sexy and past the fact that I overplayed it when I was younger and give it the 5 it deserves. It's their breakthrough album for a reason.

Love Under the Bridge. Wish Soul to Squeeze was on this album. Give it Away is solid...the filler songs are really bad. Glad I never bought this when I was younger. 2.5/5

El disco preciso en el momento justo. Puros 90. "The Power of Equality", "Breaking the Girl", "Suck My Kiss", "The Righteous & the Wicked", "Give It Away", "Under the Bridge", "Naked in the Rain", "My Lovely Man", "Sir Psycho Sexy" y para terminar "They're Red Hot".

Ah, one of the most famous albums of the 90's.

This album shows the Chili Peppers at their peak creative form and thanks to producer Rick Rubin as a cohesive and great sounding band.

But, clocking at 72 minutes, it's almost a double album and with it come double album problems. There are songs that feel like filler on this classic, and a small cull to make it 45 minutes might not have been misplaced.

Some brilliant songs on this album, but it’s also a bit all over the place in parts. Some of the rap style songs are a bit cringe now too.

This came out when I was 11 years old and "Under The Bridge" was one of the first songs I ever had a deeper emotional reaction to. It showed me that music had a much wider range of expressive possibilities than I had previously thought. It likely had alot to do with the simple coincidence of my own emotional development at the time, but it will always be an important song for me for that reason.

The rest of the album is, on the whole, a fun, all over the place, almost wreckless affair. In a way I love it for having those extremes contained within it. Sort of runs the gamut emotionally. A quintessential example of CD era bloat, but I can't fault them for the excitement they must have felt at this creative peak - with a great producer behind them who understood them and encouraged them to grow.

It's also a great example of an album recorded in a house, where life and work temporarily converged into the same thing. I'm a huge fan of this method and tend to romanticize the records which are produced this way.

Certainly not a perfect record by any means, but chock full of passion and some real stunners and jams throughout.

Yet another 90s nostalgia kickback! Funk rock, love it. But the album length felt a bit too long now.

Ah! Back when I was not embarrassed to admit I enjoyed RHCP. I could not get enough of this album when it first came out. The union of rock and funk was something my musical ear had apparently been craving.

Flea, Frusciante and Smith (and arguably Rick Rubin) put together a masterpiece, that has easily endured the decades since. Smith's jazz drumming is relentlessly precise and uncharacteristically diverse for that era of popular music. Flea elevated the bass guitar to a main instrument and also brought explosive personality to the stage and to recordings. And yet, they together never compromised on remaining the tight-knit rhythm section. In and amongst all of that, Frusciante steers clear of the need for a rhythm guitar part at all by magically weaving a sonic fabric of riffs, solos and powerful chord explosions.

What is on a bit shakier ground are Kiedis' contributions. While some of the sincere songs like 'I Could Have Lied' and 'Under the Bridge' are quite powerful, much of the lyrical content across the rest of the songs range from fractional thoughts, to gibberish, to outright celebrations of misogyny. I remember gleefully singing along to all of these songs, so this is definitely also a lot about my sensibilities changing over time, but it's sad how much it takes away from my fond memories of the album.

Plenty of personal history with this album. Greased funk bassline grooves with Anthony's mercurial lyrical delivery comes together to make a really sonic statement. Power of Equality into If You Have You Have To Ask is smooth and sets the tone for the real groove flexibility the Chili Peppers display on the album. Breaking The Girl is a titan of a song. Suck My Kiss is another. The connective tissue on this record does the important work of creating the space for these monster hits. I Could Have Lied is a sleeper hit on the record. Give It Away punches us all in the face with how it takes over, with the most absolute insane soundscape. Followed immediately by Under The Bridge. Goddamn the hits literally cannot be stoped. The best part is there is this true thread that runs through all of these songs. They're Red Hot is a nice little bow on the end of the sprawling Mr Psycho Sexy. What a goddamn album.

Onhan tää ihan hyvä levy. Ei jotenkin koskaan oo vaan kauheesti RHCP iskeny, joten 3/5

ahhhhhhhh va

It remembers my teenage years so I have some good memories of all RHCP's career. However, this album is not so great that I remember, even with the last songs being great examples of all the RHCP power and dominance of their style. I'll give it 4 stars for it because of all, the memories, the sentiment, and the good songs.