|
|
Music CD - Red Hot Chili Peppers: By the Way
|
Music CD: By the Way
Artist: Red Hot Chili Peppers
List Price: $18.98
Our Price: $5.79
Your Save: $ 13.19 ( 69% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Warner Bros / Wea
|
Average Customer Rating:  
|
|
Tracks:
|
1. By The Way
2. Universally Speaking
3. This Is The Place
4. Dosed
5. Don't Forget Me
6. The Zephyr Song
7. Can't Stop
8. I Could Die For You
9. Midnight
10. Throw Away Your Television
11. Cabron
12. Tear
13. On Mercury
14. Minor Thing
15. Warm Tape
16. Venice Queen
|
|
|
Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0093624814023
Label: Warner Bros / Wea
Manufacturer: Warner Bros / Wea
Number Of Discs: 1
Publisher: Warner Bros / Wea
Release Date: 2002-07-09
Studio: Warner Bros / Wea
|
|
|
|
|
|
Spotlight customer reviews:
|
Customer Rating:
Summary: A great finish to a great book
Comment: Yeah, so this record was the last one I picked up (with the exception of Stadium Arcadium) as a result of reading the Anthony Kiedis autobiography 'Scar Tissue'. I actually started my little Chili Peppers kick about halfway through the book, and listened through the albums (starting with the original 1984 self-titled release and then into the excellent 'Mother's Milk') as the band was writing and recording them in the story. It DEFINITELY added a new dynamic to each of them, and this particular record is the one the band is working on at the end of the book. I have been listening to 'By the Way' for many weeks following my completion of the book, and actually have enjoyed this one the most. No disrespect to the others -they are all great, but this album is just 'sticking'. I highly recommend this record, and for a deeper appreciation for the entire Red Hot Chili Peppers catalog, the book to go along with it.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A adult contemporary version of their former selves!
Comment: I bought this album based on a friend's opinion. At first I loved the change in pace for a more consistent song by song approach. As usual this album like the others is diverse ranging from funk, physch, and reggae. Unfortunately, it didn't take me long to realize how boring and stale this album turned out. The songs for the most part are pretty good to listenable. There are a few stinkers in the bunch such as the sappy tear, and dosed, also the dreadfully boring I could die for you. The melodies are rich and beautiful throughout. Can't stop is the closest they get to their vintage sound. Flea is basically on stand-by during by the way except for a handful of songs. Songs like By the Way, Can't Stop, throw Away your television are great examples of Flea being utilized correctly. Instead John Frusciante's layered guitars and Anthony Kiedis's vocals are featured and in control. John plays beautifully but never exciting enough to keep me interested. On Mercury is about as interesting as it gets for it's the catchiest song on the record. Anthony is in his finest form vocally but his lyrics are his most cliched and irritating. Midnight is where Kiedis shines and is my personal favorite despite it being one of the few too many ballads on this disc. By the way is a very listenable but at times sappy effort that would make you go back to the period of the early days to Blood Sugar Sex Magic.
Customer Rating:
Summary: THEIR BEST
Comment: No matter what album they won awards for, this is their masterpiece. Buy It! You would never be disappointed. This is in my top five favorite albums.
Customer Rating:
Summary: By the Way
Comment: This is probably the Chili Peppers' best album, because all the tracks but 11-13 are great. My favorites are "By the Way", "The Zephyr Song", "Can't Stop", "I Could Die for You" and "Throw Away Your Television". Out of these, the best is "By the Way". I like it because it's extremely catchy and has a great guitar riff and awesome drumming. And Flea has too many tattoos, but that's off-topic. I hated "The Zephyr Song" when it was all over the radio, but it redeemed itself. I like it because the lyrics are inscrutable, and like "By the Way" and like all their hits, it's catchy. And the guitar solo. You can never forget that. I like to sing with "Can't Stop", though I mess up the lyrics pretty much every time, and the video is great. "I Could Die for You" is a nice change of pace. "Throw Away Your Television" is good, even though I disagree with its title. It's still a good song. "Midnight", like "I Could Die for You", is ballady, but I like it. It sounds like "I Could Die for You", but it has strings. I mean, most orchestrated songs are stupid, but it's not. It makes me think of the Smashing Pumpkins songs "Disarm" and "Tonight, Tonight", because of the strings. It's not as good as my favorite orchestrated song, Bruce Springsteen's "Jungleland", but I like its epic feel. But I am not epic. By the Way is one of the two best starting albums for the group. I also recommend Californication. Those two are the classics. (Stadium Arcadium hasn't been around long enough to be called a classic, even though it's good). The Chili Peppers will stand the test of time.
Customer Rating:
Summary: (3.5 stars) Far from their best, but still a lot of zephyrs here to fly away on....
Comment: This, the follow-up to my favorite Chili Peppers album (Californication) isn't half-bad, but it isn't in the same league as Californication or Blood Sugar Sex Magik. The emphasis is again on melodic ballads like I Could Die For You (which is wonderful), Universally Speaking and Don't Forget About Me (very underrated!), with a few funk songs to remind you of what this group used to do. One of them is the song that got me into the band in the first place - The Zephyr Song, a mix of funk, rap, psychedelia and pure lush pop. It might by my favorite Chili Peppers song, but that's a tough call. This was the album's biggest hit, I think: Either that or the equally memorable Can't Stop, funk-rock-rap at its finest. The third single was the title track, which mixes quiet ballad with heavy funk: The weakest of the three massive singles, but a hard tune to beat regardless. Outside of the singles (and possibly I Could Die for You), my favorite song on this album is the multi-part Venice Queen, a touching tribute to a woman who helped John Frusciante kick his drug habit: Universally Speaking's a nice song too, but the psychedelic noises in the instrumental break were a bad idea. Minor Thing is again an underrated song: I like its metaphorical lyrics and the Santana-like guitar soloing. And Warm Tape's pretty funky and mellow, while Throw Away Your Television is a well-written protest song. And Midnight is the closest thing to epic the group's ever done. I like it, too.
Sadly, not all is that good. I loved Dosed the first time I heard it, but now it strikes me as kind of blah; same with This Is the Place. And the stretch between Throw Away Your Television and Minor Thing is the worst the Chilis ever achieved, just one awful song after another: Cabron (which I think means the M.F. word in Spanish), with some dirty lyrics - it's not the lyrics I mind, it's the nauseating Mexican arrangement. I've never been a Beach Boys fan, so the pastiche of the group Tear sounds like another failure to me. And On Mercury is simply too f***ed-up to be taken seriously, or even enjoyed. Take off these songs, and I'll give this a good 4.5 stars without question. The record's issue is in what is trumpeted as brilliant on its packaging: that this is 16 tracks and 68 minutes long. I would've liked it a lot more if it was 11 tracks and... 45 minutes, would it be? Oh well. Good stuff, much like BSSM, Californication and Stadium Arcadium. The Zephyr Song rules. A lot of awful music here though. Caveat emptor, I guess.
|
|
|
Editorial Reviews:
|
When the Red Hot Chili Peppers first appeared smeared in neon body paint with socks dangling precariously from their wieners, even the most faithful funk-metal convert couldn't have conceived they would be around some 20 years later, carrying on in much the same fashion. Despite a long history of tragedies and personnel upheavals, the California quartet's eighth album is mostly business as usual--and business, as usual, is quite good. The title track, "By the Way," is a powerful, bruised piece of slap-bass and intermediary white-boy rapping. "Universally Speaking" pays sweaty, soulful tribute to singer Anthony Kiedis's hometown of Detroit. And "Lemon Trees on Mercury" sounds eerily like it could have been lifted from 1984's Freaky Styley. The band's reliable eclectic side, meanwhile, surfaces on the Latin-flavored "Cabron" and moody "Venice Queen." But the biggest surprise is "Tear," a masterful homage to the Beach Boys that suggests the Chili Peppers' perpetual state of arrested development may someday lift. --Aidin Vaziri
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
