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Red Hot Chili Peppers: By the Way
A very sonically beautiful album. You can tell the Peppers are accepting that they are growing older, and this music while energetic is so polished and tight.
It furthers RHCP's position (in IMHO) as the most talented mainstream band of my lifetime. Flea is without a doubt one of the best bassists ever (only Les Claypool comes to mind as anyone better). John Frusciante continues to amaze and he really stands out as one of the few guitarists of the 90's and 00's to have a distinctive style that can be picked out from other songs (like the RHCP's sample on Crazytown's "Butterfly"). Chad Smith doesn't have the type of "Wow" factor as Blink 182's drummer or the amazing power and metronomic consistency of Dave Grohl, but his drumming is perfect for keeping the music tight. His drum beats are always perfectly placed. Anthony Keidis is everythign you could ever want in a front man, and lyrically he's very interesting, as well as being very talented at singing and rapping.
The album itself is just a great easy listen, the melodies and harmonies are wonderful without feeling forced. It doesn't have the type of power singles that 'Californication' had but song for song this is the stronger album. I would definately reccomend this CD if you liked Californication.
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