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Favorite Track: "If I Have to Ask" Least Favorite Track: "Apache Rose Peacock"
1991’s Blood Sex Sugar Magik catapulted Red Hot Chilli Peppers from a good punk/funk band into one of the most commercially successful and important alternative rock bands of all time. The record was on a new technical, musical, lyrical, and melodic level opposed to all of the bands previous work. The cohesiveness of Blood Sex Sugar Magik is what makes it such an incredible listen from cover to cover. Every single track on this album is woven into the next flawlessly. The complete sound of this record makes it one of the best cover to cover listens in the Chilli’s discography to date. Some of the transitions in between tracks on BSSM sound so smooth, and together that it's almost like you are listening to one complete seventy-three minute long emotional rollercoaster of a song. Some of the most notable include the sudden halt of the intro track “The Power Of Equality” into the records sophomore effort in the funky “If You Have To Ask”. John Frusciante plays two polar opposite riffs on each individual track but as one comes to a halt the other seems to be patiently waiting to begin, as the tracks guitar riffs are interwoven absolutely beautifully. A similar approach is taken in the gap between tracks 5 and 6. “Suck My Kiss” and “I Could Have Lied” are once again polar opposite tracks with completely different tempos and moods, however as one ends the other seems to replace it as if they were one coherent track. The contrast between these tracks is truly what makes this transition so great. “Suck My Kiss” could definitely be called of the more punk and harder tracks on the album where as “I Could Have Lied” is undoubtedly one of the slowest, yet they replace each other as if nothing changed. A few tracks later we get “Give It Away”. This hard rock epic is another case and example of one of the major hits that the Peppers saw come off of BSSM. “Give It Away” stays engaging and consistently hard hitting for almost five minutes in length. Anthony Kiedis’s vocal delivery on the hook and chorus is iconic and recognizable at first listen. One of the most emotional and important moments on both BSSM and in Red Hot Chilli Peppers discography as a whole is track number eleven in “Under The Bridge”. “Under The Bridge” is to this day the Peppers biggest and most popular song to date. Another track that's recognizable at first listen, John Frusciante’s intro guitar riff is one of the most important in alt rock’s history. The four minute emotional ballad deals with Anthony Kiedis’s innate problem with drug addiction on a surface level. However, on a deeper level Kiedis has described the song as more so of a ballad about loneliness. The countless times he describes sitting under a bridge with a drug addiction is more of an example of some of the times in Kiedis’s life where he has felt like he was all alone and the only thing he truly had was drugs. He sites a time in his life where he was searching for his next drug fix with a ex-convict on the streets of south central LA as the same time in his life where he would be welcomed under a freeway bridge with people like himself who simply felt like the only thing that was consistently there for them was drugs. Blood Sex Sugar Magik was one of the most important rock albums to come out of the 90’s. This and some of the Chilli’s earlier work paved the way for many future acts to begin experimenting with different genres the same way Red Hot Chilli Peppers did. As much as I love this record it still isn’t my favorite in the bands discography which I truly take as a testament to the greatness of this band, and how much they have shaped and still are shaping music as we know it. The expansion of genre territory and the experimental combination of musical techniques of the 90’s and early 2000’s will forever remain explored by Red Hot Chilli Peppers.