Red Hot Chili Peppers - By the Way (2002)

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

A mature, introspective work from... Chili Peppers? It works far better than you'd think.

Key tracks: "Dosed", "Can't Stop", "Venice Queen"

By the Way, Red Hot Chili Peppers’ eight studio album, is effectively an album by two people.

One of them is John Frusciante. The tale of of Frusciante’s near-death and rebirth is a part of modern rock history: his return to the Peppers all sobered up in the late nineties was a large part of the band becoming one of the biggest in the world as his rejuvenation had blessed him with creativity and talent that made him the one member even the haters admired. Frusciante was in fact so overflowing with creativity that he could barely contain it. The first half of the 00s features an insane burst of activity in his solo career and in the band he started upsetting the formerly iconic harmony between its members. By the Way, the second album of Frusciante’s second coming, is the ur-example of it.

For all purposes it’s as much a John Frusciante album as it is a Red Hot Chili Peppers one: his touch and direction are everywhere from the dominating layered guitar melodies to the carefully arranged keyboard flourishes, and his backing vocals have such a great presence throughout the album that you could argue he’s become the co-lead vocalist in the band. Peppers had always been a band where four clear individuals used their individual talents in brotherly harmony - this time they had a clear leader. Sound-wise it’s not too a long distance away from Frusciante’s 2004 solo release Shadows Collide With People, in fact - you’d be surprised how much the two albums share in common in their DNA.

The other person is Anthony Kiedis. Kiedis’ reputation is somewhat that of an anti-Frusciante: his technical skills aren’t really much to praise for and he tends to be seen as the group’s biggest liability. Unfairly so, because he is undoubtedly the Peppers’ frontman and a large part of the band’s charisma throughout the years has come from him. He may not be much of a lyricist or a perfect singer but he’s always been the heart and soul, the connecting thread between the eras. He’s always operated his duty with bravado and pomp, only leaving himself emotionally vulnerable at the rarest of times which has worked to the band’s advantage: it’s made the rare personal moments all the more special. However, around the By the Way sessions he had found himself in an unusually introspective mood. Drug relapses and subsequent recoveries, loss of a close friend and general weariness of age had started to get to him and had left him contemplative. For the first time Kiedis didn’t want to just jump around and share his love of California, and he approached the next album sessions with a different kind of mindset.

By the Way began as another Peppers album of funky basslines and powerful guitars, but Kiedis’ wistfulness made natural friends with Frusciante’s wish to go to a more melodic direction and soon they began to take over the show; Flea has later reminisced that this was the album he felt the most creatively dismissed and isolated on, being shafted aside as the good ship Frusciante took over the wheel. The vast majority of the songs on the album are driven by Frusciante’s keen ear for melodies and the arrangement while keyboards play a bigger part than they ever have on a Peppers album. These back an unusually somber Kiedis who reflects on life, death and love - his typical random word generator ramblings are still present but half the time even then he croons them out in a way that indicates that at least for him there is a real meaning there.

As a result By the Way is an album where the Peppers are reflective of their age and where two of them in particular are catching up to the craziness of their lives. In other words, it’s a mature album - in the genuine sense rather than as a lazy shorthand for the energy dropping down. Even the band photos inside are somber and melancholy, a far cry from the wild and colourful rock & roll craziness of the past. It’s a personal and emotionally open album - not their first of such kind as One Hot Minute made it there first, but where that album was aggressive and confrontational By the Way takes a more toned down and ultimately hopeful tone. It’s not a sad album full of middle-age melancholy despite the photos, but a lush and often quite beautiful one that’s full of world-worn positivity. It’s an album lead by two people who went through hell, survived and now reflect back on it while resting under the sun at last.

None of that means it’s an album full of ballads. Not only do the more melodic pieces vary greatly in tone and tempo, but there’s a decent number of more muscular cuts thrown throughout the tracklist. Some actively remind you of the past works to show they’re still the same band (the sudden funk rock attack “Can’t Stop”, jam-esque “Throw Away Your Television”, the Californication evolution “By the Way”), while others incorporate the new mood into the familiar rock aesthetics (the atmospheric hidden gem “This Is the Place”, the dark and brooding “Don’t Forget Me"). It’s as varied an album as anything the band have ever released, even if the percentage of midtempo cuts is higher this time - but they all sound distinctly different, and in all honesty they set up the standard this band should attempt to match with their other slower cuts. On the flipside, it’s also as overlong as anything the band have released since the 80s and comes with the usual filler caveat. The sixteen-strong tracklist could have been reduced by some for a better album, namely the overrunning novelty country shuffle (!!!) “Cabron” and the happy-go-lucky but somewhat throwaway ska-pop “On Mercury”, both of which seem like they were thrown in to lighten the mood when it wasn’t actually needed at all.

But it’s those mid-tempo tracks and the melodic emphasis where the real grandeur lies. John Frusciante was honestly a genius at this point, riding his imperial phase wave high and mighty as he glimmered with inspiration. By the Way is a genuinely gorgeous and beautiful album, which even now feels odd to say about a Red Hot Chili Peppers album but the evidence is right there. The approximately five million layered guitar melodies frolicing and dancing around in “Dosed”, the ethereal keyboards of “Warm Tape”, the sunset finale of “Minor Thing” or the majestic strings of “Midnight” - they’re all discography highlights when it comes to being honestly straight-up lovely and gorgeous, and just as well as songs in itself. Even the musically slightly weaker cuts like “Tear” or “I Could Die for You” are lifted up to something special as soon as Frusciante decides to step into the spotlight with his guitar, his keyboard arrangements and especially his vocals backing up Kiedis’ surprisingly suave voice. “Tear” even gives Flea his minor special contribution with a charming little trumpet solo that gives it that little something extra. “Venice Queen” at the end is the victory lap: half atmospheric and dreamy, half wild and energetic like a sudden wake-up call, building into a towering anthem of remembrance and celebration as the band and Kiedis in particular, in what is possibly his most invested vocal performance, bids farewell to Kiedis’ close friend who left this earthly realm before the album sessions. It’s easily among the band’s very best songs, and it sounds like it was the most effortlessly composed thing they ever did.

The same applies for most of the album. The band is clearly playing against their presumed type, but they go about it effortlessly and successfully. There is the obvious caveat that if it’s the energetic bouncers and funky basslines that you want and expect from a Peppers album, this isn’t it. By the Way is barely even a rock album and the funky monks are equally elsewhere. When the album was released this caused so much drift among fans, including some incredibly divisive opinion splits between my friends and myself back when we loved everything the Peppers had ever released to that point. But age has done nothing if not improve the album and point out its strengths. Both Kiedis and Frusciante were on the top of their game in both performance and songwriting and while taking such a creative control was ultimately a bad thing for the band - the rifts between Flea and Frusciante healed but never seemed to vanish entirely - it resulted in the most beautiful and sublime album they’ve released. It’s a different side to a band that’s often seemed one-dimensional to non-fans and downright revelatory in some ways. Above all else though, it’s a discography quirk that is in fact one of the best things under their name.

Rating: 9/10