Firstly, let me say that for those of you who do not really give a shit about the Red Hot Chili Peppers, or their last two albums, "By The Way" and "Californication"; do not even bother reading this, 'cause it'll just be a waste of your time.
Another disclaimer, this one for you Peppers' fans, and friends of mine:
I think "By The Way" is an abso-fucking-lutely wonderful compilation of sweet-sweet fucking music...I just don't think it's as good as "Californication".
That said, I press on.
_____________________________________
I notice that quite a few members of this board (namely the one's who greatly admire the Red Hot Chili Peppers...such as myself) seem to think that the album "By The Way" is not only better than "Californication", but quite possibly the greatest album ever.
(I quote this from tonguegina only to have some sort of a source for this post...tongue, don't take it personally, I just found this post by you sooner than I could find anyone else's):
<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally Posted by tonguegina:
thier latest album, 'By the Way'...quite possibly the greatest album ever.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
I sorta think this is bass-ackwards. A lot of "important" people agree with me too. This is illustrated in the fact that,
Californication Won Best Album at the Grammy's whilst
By The Way was not even nominated for Best Album at the Grammy's.
But in the end, who really gives a shit about what the Academy thinks. They're probably a bunch of assholes anyway; after all, they didn't even nominate a wonderful album (By The Way) for Best Album at the Grammy's this year.
So I came up with a way I think I can possibly illustrate the point I am trying to make here. I will compare each track of each album side my side with their respective track numbers, and we'll see which album is better:
A Comparison: 'By The Way' and 'Californication'
By The Way:
<UL TYPE=SQUARE>
<LI>
01-By The Way-Helluva song, but it's no
'Around the World'.
<LI>
02-Universally Speaking-In my opinion, one of the weaker songs on this album, which really says something, because this song is good. But nevertheless, not quite as good as
'Parallel Universe'.
<LI>
03-This Is The Place-It sucks for this song that it got paired up with one of my personal Peppers' favorites,
'Scar Tissue', because this really is a gem of a song, one of the upper 50% on this album.
<LI>
04-Dosed-God bless this song, and everything it stands for.
WINNER...easily.
<LI>
05-Don't Forget Me-I say,
WINNER, but I still insist this track is overrated.
<LI>
06-The Zephyr Song-When I first heard this album, this track was my favorite song. Unfortunately for it though, it's paired with the phenomenal title-track from it's rival CD.
<LI>
07-Can't Stop-
WINNER, 'nuff said.
<LI>
08-I Could Die For You-Not what I'd call a "horrible song", but it's no
'Porcelain'.
<LI>
09-Midnight-A truly great song, and for that, I give it a prize.
WINNER
<LI>
10-Throw Away Your Television-I'm gonna go ahead and be honest with you now. I
hate this song. I really do...
<LI>
11-Cabron-Eh, I'm really not a fan. Ten and Eleven on this CD aren't really all that great.
<LI>
12-Tear-Jesse and the Rippers, baby. Great song. Easy decision here.
WINNER
<LI>
13-On Mercury-We regret to inform you...you've lost.
<LI>
14-Minor Thing-"It's just a Minor Thing, and I'm a minor king".
WINNER
<LI>
15-Warm Tape-
'Road Trippin'' is way too good...
<LI>
16-Venice Queen-I'll tell you what. I could just throw this song out of the competition, because
'Californication' does not field a 16th song for competition. But I won't do that.
WINNER...by default. (I will say though, this is a really good song, so
'Californication's' 16th track would have had to be a gem to top this one).
Californication:
<LI>
01-Around The World-Kick-ass song, makes you want to rock-out like none-other.
WINNER
<LI>
02-Parallel Universe-I love the intro with the guitar. God bless this song.
WINNER
<LI>
03-Scar Tissue-Quite possibly my favorite Red Hot Chili Peppers song.
WINNER
<LI>
04-Otherside-Although this song may be one of the top two or three tracks on this album, it got paired up with the best track from
'By The Way', thus, it loses.
<LI>
05-Get On Top-I'll be honest, neither of the number five songs are that great from either of these albums. Don't get me wrong, they're great songs....but when you compare them to the rest of the Peppers' songs, they both tend to lack.
<LI>
06-Californication-It pains me to see
'The Zephyr Song' lose...it really does.
WINNER
<LI>
07-Easily-This is another damn good song. The guitar solo at the end is one of the Frusiante's finest. But one beautiful guitar solo fails to beat one beautiful song,
'Can't Stop'.
<LI>
08-Porcelain-This song is so unique when compared to the rest of the Pepper's songs. It's tracks like these which really make this album wonderful. Without some variation, CDs (and bands for that matter) blow-dick.
WINNER
<LI>
09-Emitremmus-The name of this song is cooler than any name from either of these CDs. It's just too bad that cool names can't beat cool songs.
<LI>
10-I Like Dirt-As long as this song doesn't sound like
'Hanson's M-Bop', it easily beats
'Throw Away Your Television'. Well guess what, it doesn't sound like
'Hanson's M-Bop'...
WINNER
<LI>
11-This Velvet Glove-It's not that
'This Velvet Glove' won, it's that
'Cabron' lost.
WINNER
<LI>
12-Savior-Not a horrible song really, but it's no
'Tear'.
<LI>
13-Purple Stain-Wins, but I'm not too sure if it deserves to. It's one of the lower 50% songs on the album, but not quite as low as
'On Mercury' comparatively.
WINNER
<LI>
14-Right On Time-In my mind, this is the closest battle between the CDs. While this is a
really really cool song, I gotta go
'Minor Thing' here. Sorry...
<LI>
15-Road Trippin'-I love this song. This is
easily one of my Top 5 Favorite Chili Peppers' songs, and quite possibly my favorite song on the album (it battles with
'Scar Tissue').
WINNER[/list]
Let's tally up the totals...shall we?
Californication-9
By The Way-7
Now, I feel I've been pretty un-biased during this review. And I feel I have pretty fairly stated why
Californication is a better album than
By The Way. Of course, it's all up to your own personal view. This is just how one simple person sees things...
I would like to close with a little something that sort of quirks me a bit. I've heard a small handful of people say that
'By The Way' is maybe the Greatest Album of All Time. I mean seriously, can you really put "By The Way" up there with
Led Zeppelin's 'IV' or
Jimi Hendrix Experience's 'Are You Experienced' or
Nirvana's 'Nevermind' or
Beatles' 'Sgt. Pepper's Hearts Club Band' or
Pink Floyd's 'Dark Side Of The Moon' or...well, you get the idea.
What I'm saying is: Sure,
"By The Way" is a phenomenal album. But (in my opinion) it's not as good as "Californication". And in the vast majority of the world's opinion, it's not the Greatest Album of All Time. So if you want to say that
'By The Way' is your
favourite album of all time, go right ahead. But honestly...may God help if you truly think it's the Best Album of All-Time.
-Ugly Bastard