My Amazon Reviews: Red Hot Chili Peppers "Californication"

4.5 on the Californication Fault Lines
4 Out Of 5 Stars

Starting off with squalling guitars and Anthony Keidis letting loose a banshee wail, he soon launches into the first verse. Belting out "Romping and stomping 'cause I'm in my prime" with the band in full bore behind him, you can tell that, this time, they mean it. "Californiacation" was the sound of a band that was now mature but not mellowed. John Frusciante, who'd left the band for the "One Hot Minute" album, had cleaned up and returned to the fold, and his presence is immediately felt.

RHCP are in lock-step with their punk-funk rock and roll heyday, and Frusciante is the guitar gasoline to Flea and Chad Smith's bass and drum spark-plugs. "Around The World," "Get On Top" and "I Like Dirt" pound like the band's best, while "Otherside," "Emit Remmus" and the title track boast mature songwriting. The apex of the band's new growth comes at the end of the album. Comprised mostly of Frusciante's acoustic guitar and an unusually soulful vocal by Keidis, "Road Trippin'" is smooth and clean, a statement that not only applied to the music, but to the players themselves. Like "Knock Me Down," "Under The Bridge" and Californication's "Scar Tissue," "Road Trippin'" contemplates the RHCP past while making good on a future of creativity.

I played this song over and over at the end of 1999, because it made me think that the path to the new century might be a bright one. For the Peppers, it was a way to say goodbye to a decade with one of their best albums.