I review CDs then distribute them for free.

First things first – it turns out I have to approve the first comment people post here, so I guess that’s an incentive to post here or else get denied a dib.  It happened once, let us not sadden any more fellows.

This was one of the first albums I burned.  A friend of mine was in a huge Red Hot Chili Peppers phase, and I had remembered seeing this album cover somewhere in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, so I decided to see what the hype was about.  I never really liked harder rock, but when I heard this album, I became temporarily addicted.

Two things stick out in particular about this album – it is almost 80 minutes long, and its good songs are spread out all the way through.  Most bands use the A-Side, B-Side approach, which works, and so I was surprised to stay interested in such a long album even at its end.  However, this also promotes the album’s biggest flaw of too much material.  The first couple songs are not that impressive, but things start building up with “Breaking the Girl” and eventually die down before the last 15 minutes.  I wish the Red Hot Chili Peppers has taken the middle of this album on its own for a more compact and powerful music experience, because the few really good songs on here are diluted by the mediocre.

Everyone reading probably knows the funk-inspired basslines that make Blood Sugar Sex Magik so remarkable and more memorable than most of the lyrics.  The exceptions are the songs “Under the Bridge” and “Give It Away” which, though standard favorites, really are the best this album has.  Honorable mention goes out to “I Could Have Lied,” a particularly emotional-seeming song I had forgotten.

The album is fun, and it makes the listener want to dance, but it is weighed down but too many extraneous forgotten melodies.

5/8