Red Hot Chili Peppers "Blood Sugar Sex Magik" (1991) - got it
I’m a big Chili Pepper’s fan, so here’s some band history. The Chili Peppers formed, and recorded 3 albums of punky, speedy rap-funk characterised by busy slap-pop bass, minimalist guitar and sex-inspired rhymes, but also exploring elements such as RnB, psychedelic rock and metal.
Original guitarist Hillel Slovak died of a heroin overdose and drummer Jack Irons decided to leave music (though he’d later join Pearl Jam for – arguably – their best albums).
Mainstays Anthony Kiedis and Flea recruited drumming behemoth Chad Smith and teen guitar prodigy John Frusciante and together they released the much heavier “Mother’s Milk” album with wall-to-wall distorted guitar on some tracks, and with each of the players showing off their musical chops. The band parted company with EMI, and signed to a new label. They joined forces with young producer Rick Rubin, who had co-founded Def Jam records and was making a name producing rap and metal albums (LL Cool J, Run DMC, Slayer etc.). He suggested that they rent a house to live and record in, and in that laid-back setting, this collection of tracks was created.
For a time this was my favourite album (in general, not just for the Chili Peppers), until I realised that ‘favourites’ with music are somewhat transitory. There's over an hour of music across 17 tracks, yet to my tastes, it does not sag at any point. One of those albums where every other song has been my 'favourite' at some point.
The studio polish that defines the Chili Peppers now was barely starting to show then, which is a good thing. Where their records now feature tight, compressed polished production; the drums on "give it away" sound like they were recorded in someone's bathroom, and it's fantastic.
Whereas they are now serial offenders for COS (Chorus Overuse Syndrome), on BSSM they would play around a lot more with structures and parts, with lengthy jam sections being injected into songs. There's something like "Power of Equality" which just keeps going with multiple verses before breaking into a slappy bass outro that eventually winds down to scattered applause. Even a 'hit' song like "Under the Bridge" has that beautiful opening guitar part... that never pops up again in the rest of the song!
Frusciante would later become somewhat overbearing creatively, but here he is balanced by still finding his place, so provides brilliant playing and ideas but more as a facilitator than as a leader.
The album is diverse, yet has a certain internal logic, helped by the band's MO at that point of having the tracks segue into each other, creating the feeling of an "album" as opposed to just a collection of songs. The sound is mostly slow, minimalist funk with interplaying parts that don't necessarily ape each other. There is rock in tracks like "Suck my kiss" and "My lovely man". There's melodic balladry with songs like "Breaking the girl" and "I could have lied", there's the leisurely psychedelic outro of "Sir Psycho Sexy" and the fun coda of Robert Johnson cover "They're Red Hot", recorded outside at night (you can hear cars driving past in places).
This was lightning in a bottle, and even the Peppers themselves while promoting other albums have often acknowledged that it was special album for them.
