By the Way

This is an album full of complete competence, rarely stepping above and beyond to bring it like they used to, but offering a lengthy album full of non-threatening, radio-ready rock in a way that did not completely insult the listeners intelligence.

I bought this and Stadium Acradium at the same time. This cd stinks. Stadium is so much better. By the way is their weakest cd. I cant believe all the good reviews this has gotten. If your a die hard fan I guess you have to buy this but this is a clunker. Two ok songs on it. The rest are forgettable.

How can this not get five stars from someone? It takes many, many listens and all the songs grow on you at their own rates. My favorites are the title track, Universally Speaking, Dosed, The Zephyr Song, Cabron, On Mercury, Minor thing, and Venice Queeen, which are all essential. This group has taken it upon themselves to get our generation out of the shadows of the Beatles the Doors, and Hendrix. Fortunately, they are succeeding. Stadium Arcadium is also very good.

I've been a RHCP fan since their debut. As such, I'm much a fan of the style of music they pioneered in the 1980's and played on their early efforts, even as late as 1995's One Hot Minute. I faithfully bought By The Way right when it came out, as a loyal RHCP fan. Boy.... What a let down. Where, uh, is the "red hot?" The band took the musical idea behind "Otherside" from Californication (probably the most annoying song on that album) and created a whole album of "Otherside" remixes and reworkings. Well, almost. There are maybe 4 or 5 tracks here that are listenable. One or two of them are actually really good. But the rest is just slow, boring, mostly acoustical stuff that lacks energy or drive. They should have changed their name for this album to the Tired Chili Peppers. Or maybe the Medium Mild Chili Peppers. Or maybe the Weak Pepperoncinis. Or.... You get the idea. It actually makes me upset to see all these kids that are "hardcore RHCP fans" and their only exposure to the band is By the Way and Californication. These people have no idea what the RHCP are about. It's appalling. "OMG 'BY THE WAY' IS SOOOOO COOL DOOD OMG1!!!!!!!!!11!! RHCP ROCKS$%#$#@!!" Umm, yeah. Right. Let's go rock out to "The Zephyr Song" together.

The good: "Can't Stop" and "Throw Away Your Television" are far and away the best tracks on the record and are actually really good. The band must have decided not to take any downers the day they wrote those. Too bad they didn't make that decision for the rest of the album sessions. The title track tries to be good, and succeeds at times, but it all comes crashing down for the awful chorus.

The bad, boring, bland: Everything else. The only reason this album didn't earn 1 star is because of the two tracks mentioned above. There are a few tracks that actually make you want to throw away your *stereo*, they're THAT BAD.

"By the Way" singlehandedly turned me off of all future RHCP efforts. To this day I haven't listened to Stadium Arcadium for fear I may do something rash. If you're a teen punk who's music-listening life started in 2001 or later, do yourself a favor and go buy the Red Hot Chili Pepper's debut album (self-titled), "Freaky Styley", "The Uplift Mofo Party Plan", and hell even "Mother's Milk" and find out what the Red Hot Chili Peppers are REALLY all about.

On the other hand, this is a great album to listen to if you want to go to sleep. Red Hot Chili Pepper's worst effort of their 24-year career.

Some reviewers said they lost their passion and energy during this album. I'd like to state clearly that they certainly did not, but they definitely redirected it into a somewhat slower-paced but more introspective group of songs. I see this album as so much more of a reflection on what the group had done as a whole, the obstacles they overcame, the people they lost along the way (Hillel is def. referenced), and a great bunch of somber-type love songs. The California sun-drenched melodies permeate through the entire album and although it ends up feeling bittersweet, the mix of emotions through the whole CD are a perfect blend. I especially like Warm Tape and Venice Queen as songs that took some time to grow on me, but after a few years of loving this album, these two have come back into my favor. Venice Queen is such a great epic song how it goes into an acoustic transition at the end, but still keeps it's energy. It's more poppy of an album as a whole, but it makes it much more listenable than their early funk stuff and what it might lack in musicianship, it makes up for with very, very catch songwriting. To me musicianship is a misnomer for playing incredibly fast and intricate stuff. But as a guitar player myself and really "listening" to John's work, musicianship is also about playing what "fits" the song or sometimes when not to play. It's having that clever taste and writing "music", not shred or super funk. Frusciante is at his finest in the studio, layering his Brian Wilson-type vocals with incredible precision. I think as a production piece, this one is definitely the Chili's finest by far. It's such a THICK album and that's what I love about it - all the textures. It's fully playable from beginning to end, no need to skip songs, but I'd say my favorite is 'Don't Forget Me'. That song is so haunting and powerful and to any reviewers who said they lost their energy on this album, I suggest viewing the Slane Castle live version of this song, then try to tell me they put more passion into their wildly ridiculous funk from the early 80's and 90's. Not to take anything away from their older stuff, but they have matured into songwriters as opposed to untamed virtuosos back then. And even now on Stadium Arcadium, they've found a happy medium of both. Still, any Chili's fan should have this album and I think many of you sincerely love it as much as I do.