Red Hot Chili Peppers in tier list
they take about six albums to stop being just… constantly gross. They keep a pretty consistent sound throughout the decades, and I like the music in early stuff and late stuff, but yeah. Early on they’re just gross, a lot. That aside, I really like ‘em, they’re consistent and vibing and they’ve got some fantastic songs. I do think their average song length is too long, but I don’t think it’s entirely senseless like it sometimes is with others. Really really fun, I like ‘em
RELISTEN1: early Chili Peppers I think is really actually not super my jam. There’s definitely stuff I like there, I dig it, but they’re a little bit… I think manic is a good word. It feels crazy, often in a way that’s more nonsensical than anything else. Like, it reads to me like the Chili Peppers were just so, so high, everything is at least a little bit gibberish. And yes, the early stuff is gross. Sometimes the gross things are too gibberish to readily register as gross, but reading through the lyrics makes it pretty clear that it is in fact gross, does make that grossness start to register- I don’t want those songs around me.
What’s tricky is that while the mania and grossness of those first half dozen or so albums (definitely the first four, albums 5 and 6 are definitely transitionary) are core and substantial issues, I actually really like the Chili Peppers from Californication on. Californication marks a pretty clear shift into the part of the Chili Peppers I like almost unreservedly. Language cleans up substantially, polish increases, and the vibe is just generally more to my tastes more often. That second phase I’d be down to give an A in isolation, I can see how I got there, but everything taken together that just doesn’t make sense.
That distinct difference between Old Chili Peppers and New Chili Peppers makes this a tough decision. It ultimately comes down to how committed I am to staying internally consistent. If I want to hold to the rules and definitions I’ve established for myself, particularly those regarding explicit sexual imagery that were clarified for me on my Chris Brown listen, I have to call it a C+. And of course, phrased that way my decision is made for me. Which sucks, ‘cause there really is so much about them I like very very much
tunafruitsandwitch 