From a clippings pack so don’t know the magazine, etc. (Kerrang!? As it’s been given ‘KKKK’ and they use that theme)
Review of ‘Greatest Hits’
SUCK MY HITS
SUBLIME SINGLES COLLECTION FROM LA VETERANS
RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS
Greatest Hits (WEA) KKKK
RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS GREATEST HITS
BON JOVI aside, there aren’t too many rock acts that could release an album called ‘Greatest Hits’ without it being a misnomer. Even the Red Hot Chili Peppers – mainstream-straddling behemoths that they are these days – stretch the point a little at times. Fantastic though it is, their 1989 cover of Stevie Wonder’s ‘Higher Ground’ was hardly a worldwide smash, while ‘Soul To Squeeze”s main claim to fame was being the best thing in crapola Dan Aykroyd movie ‘Coneheads’. You could also argue that Warners are getting ahead of themselves by classing two new tracks that have yet to be released as hits. Though probably not too far, as the Chilis fart gold dust these days and they’d probably hit paydirt if they released a funk-metal version of ‘Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport’ with Rolf Harris drafted in on wobble-board and didgeridoo.
On the whole, though, this is a bona fide hits package and it’s a format that suits the Chilis well. Their recorded output has often been patchy; their live shows hit and miss. But in-between the fillers and stiffs they’ve also produced some moments of utter genius, and most of them are captured on this disc.
Conveniently skipping the band’s first three furiously funky but hit-free efforts, and with just one track each from ‘Mother’s Milk’ and the disappointing ‘One Hot Minute’, the collection revolves mainly around the majestic triumvirate of ‘BloodSugarSexMagik’, ‘Californication’ and last year’s ‘By The Way’. This might lead to a slight imbalance, with only the deliciously carnal ‘Give It Away’ and ‘Suck My Kiss’ representing the lascivious sex-groove that’s always been part of their sound, but there’s no denying the simplistic perfection of ‘Scar Tissue’ or ‘Under The Bridge’ – undoubtedly the best plaintive song about heroin ever to be desecrated by a girlband with more lips than brains. Of the two new tracks, ‘Fortune Faded’ is disappointingly bland, with only an irritating guitar hook that sounds like a kazoo to divert the attention from its moderate, mid-paced air. ‘Save The Population’, meanwhile, remains the subject of a record company ‘security embargo’, but even without the incentive of new material, this is a must for aficionados of the sensual, the stylish and the sexy.
PAUL TRAVERS