Greatest Hits [Explicit]

I'm a German, oh yeah, but I hate the Nazis, as you can see in my Name, and oh yeah I love the Chili Peppers and their real cool sound!
Although I already got every (every!) CD of the band, I bought the greatest Hits CD and it was a real good decision!
This Album rocks!
The exploding mixture of Rock,Funk,Punk and some other styles is the best for everone to hear!
Sayonara your favorite German Punk Rock guy, Antinaz!

Reviewing a compilation is a difficult thing for a fan-- really you have to look at it from a different perspective than you normally would-- does this serve the purpose it's trying to serve? And as a first entry point for a casual listener, is it going to provide a good introduction to the act? It seems that compilations have a habit, regardless of their original intent, of being the first thing people look for. And finally, you have to get past personal preferences on track selection-- everyone has their favorites, but does what is on here serve the purpose it needs to?

So the Red Hot Chili Peppers released an album titled "Greatest Hits", and long and short that's about what this is. It restricts itself to the John Frusciante-era (most likely because any earlier Chili Peppers material, including the piece off of "Mother's Milk" included here, would have had to have been licensed, but also because none of the early stuff saw any real commercial success), and yeah, it provides a good overview of that time in the band's career, it covers pretty much all the hits, so it does what's trying, and it'd serve as a good entry point for a casual listener.

The record leans heavily on "Blood Sugar Sex Magick" and "Californication", with all of the singles from both albums-- "Suck My Kiss", "Give It Away", "Breaking the Girl", and "Under the Bridge" from "Blood Sugar..." as well as recorded-around-the-same-time soundtrack hit (and as a sidenote seemingly endlessly played on radio when I was a junior in high school) "Soul To Squeeze" and "Scar Tissue", "Parallel Universe", "Otherside", "Californication" and "Road Trippin'" from "Californication". This is further augmented by one track from "Mother's Milk" (Stevie Wonder cover "Higher Ground"), one from "One Hot Minute" with Dave Navarro on guitar ("My Friends"), two from "By the Way" (the title track and "Universally Speaking", which did quite well in Europe as I understand it) as well as two new songs.

This is a pretty fair represenation of the band-- it covers pretty much the breadth of the sound they've explored over the past few years-- from the deeply funky ("Higher Ground") to balladry ("Under the Bridge") and quite a bit in between. Just about all the hits are on here-- curiously left off were "The Zephyr Song" and "Can't Stop" from "By the Way" and "Warped" and "Aeroplane" from "One Hot Minute". All of these received substantial airplay, and with the compilation only stretching to 66 minutes, there's certainly room to put them on. Again, I'm not one to argue my favorite album cuts, but it seems odd that these were left off (although oddly enough the companion video disc on the CD/DVD edition includes the videos for all of these but "Warped").

The two new tracks are both pretty good-- "Fortune Faded" has a funky beat like we really didn't see on "By the Way" (not necessarily a bad thing) and a suitably esoteric lyric. "Save the Population" is a bit moodier, and actually of the two the one I prefer, with an odd, sort of mid-tempo muddling (but a superb beat from Chad Smith) and all in all just a kind of wacky piece.

One other point to be made-- the album sounds fantastic-- particularly the "Blood Sugar Sex Magick" material, which really could benefit from a remastering. The liner notes include brief essays (well, some not so brief) from each of the four band members and a number of photos.

All in all, it's a great compilation, and no doubt a good entry point for a newcomer. I'd usually recommend seeking the albums out rather than going after a compilation, in that case I'd recommend "By the Way", which wasn't overflowing with hits, but in my assessment was the best record the band did, but this is certainly as good a place to start.

Ok, they did it in the early nineties after releasing ONE album that was a hit. Maybe thats why that album was called WHAT HITS?
So, these guys should have a greatest hits package. After all, UNDER THE BRIDGE is still as huge as it was back then- although I believe that BLOOD SUGAR SEX MAGIK is a must own album.
But, a lot of people like AEROPLANE and MY FRIENDS but not the rest of ONE HOT MINUTE and maybe I'm just in the mood for the radio friendly stuff instead of the crazy weird stuff some day. Not to mention SOUL TO SQUEEZE, one of my favorite RHCP songs that does not have a home on any other album. GOD FORBID I go find THE CONEHEADS soundtrack, you know?

This is a pretty damned good collection.

Weird. This is like the third greatest hits package that I haven't sh** on in like two days. It feels good.

If you like Red Hot Chili Peppers then you will love this album, it is just that simple. It is also great for any fan of rock or 90s music.

An album full of Red Hot Chili Pepper Hits! Even if you are just a casual fan strongly consider buying this album. It is thick with peppery goodness. I am really happy to own this album. It is the Red Hot Chili Peppers at their best. If you are just going to own one Red Hot Chili Pepper album, make it this one.