The Good: One or two memorable songs
The Bad: Largely amelodic claptrap
The Basics: Disappointing and unrecognizable for who the Red Hot Chili Peppers became, What Hits?! is a dismal compilation.
Some bands have multiple lives. They begin as one thing and they become something else. When a fan comes in can often determine just how they enjoy or perceive a band. So, for example, Fleetwood Mac was almost two entirely different bands. When it began it is what is now referred to as "Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac" and the group was more bluegrass and blues music. Then, in the late 1970s, the band - which had gone through several other transitions - became what an entirely new audience came to know as Fleetwood Mac with a fairly steady quintet making pop-rock music that was quite different from the original music of Fleetwood Mac. The band Red Hot Chili Peppers has a similar story: they began as a funk-rock college band sound, lost half their members and revitalized as a more traditional rock and roll band that actually created hit albums.
What Hits?! is an awkward collection of Red Hot Chili Peppers music as it was released after the band had its first taste of real commercial success with Blood Sugar Sex Magik (reviewed here!) but the compilation is largely the music of the band as it originally was. The title is supposed to be ironic as the songs, outside "Under The Bridge" - which is on the album - were not hit songs by any stretch of the imagination. What Hits?! is a sloppy compilation that fulfilled the EMI recording contract for Red Hot Chili Peppers after they had already moved to Warner Bros. As a result, they had little actual involvement in the compilation.
With eighteen songs clocking out just over an hour's worth of music, What Hits?! is a poor compilation of mediocre music from a band that was not producing a sound for the mainstream. While bassist Flea and primary vocalist Anthony Kiedis are generally constants on the album, guitars alternate between those of original guitarist Hillel Slovak and replacement John Frusicante. Similarly, the drums are not always performed by Chad Smith. What binds the album more than anything else is a generally frenetic sound and a repetitive delivery that grates on the listener quite severely.
Vocally, the songs on What Hits?! are almost universally unimaginative. "Under The Bridge" is the only song with a real dominant vocal melody and Anthony Kiedis illustrates his beautiful tenor voice on the song. Unfortunately, that truly is the exception on the album. On "Taste The Pain," he leers the lyrics, like some sort of psychotic singing clown tormenting a nursery full of children. On most of the songs, the lyrics are more chanted out than actually sung. On "Knock Me Down," "Fight Like A Brave" and "Fire," Kiedis chants out the lines with heavy supporting vocals and the songs barely carry a tune. Instead, the songs sound like . . . well, rowdy, drunken noise.
The songs on What Hits?! are not even definitively original to the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Out of the eighteen songs, the Chili Peppers wrote or co-wrote fourteen. Considering how repetitive most of them are ("Catholic School Girls Rule" is essentially that line repeated for two minutes) this is not a great illustration of the creative talent of the members of the band. Outside a few of the songs, the tracks were not even produced by producers the Chili Peppers worked with again. In other words, this is a very juvenile compilation by a very young incarnation of Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Outside the singing which alternates between the noisy and the laughable (the rap on "Show Me Your Soul" for example) the album is problematic in ways that make it seem droll and repetitive. The instrumental accompaniment to the vocals is bland. While "Show Me Your Soul" has additional percussion which makes it sound funkier and danceable, most of the instrumental accompaniment on What Hits?! is simply loud thrashing on the guitars that is mosh-pit fodder. The songs are largely amelodic and loud, but not carrying any recognizable tunes. The drumwork is sloppy and they bang almost universally over each track, making for a monotonous overall sound of the album.
Outside the drums, the instrumental accompaniment is particularly unimaginative, though it is generally funky. The use of a trumpet on the opening of "If You Want Me To Stay" is somewhat innovative, though it actually keeps the song closer to the original than makes it a Red Hot Chili Peppers song. Largely, the songs are guitar, bass and drums combos and the Red Hot Chili Peppers have a funky sound to them. By that, I mean the bass is more important and the guitars tend to play in the higher ranges with repetitive riffs. The bass, though, is recognizable on virtually every song and it is produced to be heard, even when it is just acting as percussion alongside the drums, keeping a beat with little melodic progression.
What truly sinks the music of What Hits?! is the lyrics. For example, I have listened to the album a dozen times and "Get Up And Jump" quickly became repressed because the lyrics were so inane. Outside repeating the title of the song an inordinate amount of times, the song is hampered by the predictable rhymes "When you're just standing or sitting still / Think about the frogs gettin' a thrill / Take a little lesson from the kangaroos / Don't you know they're jumpin' fools, jump you" ("Get Up And Jump")! If this were a children's album that would be one thing, but on a funk-rock album this is just ridiculous.
Similarly, other virtually forgotten songs like "Jungle Man" have not held up over the years. How could it expect to when the Red Hot Chili Peppers now write songs like "Scar Tissue" and "Don't Forget Me?" After all, given the choice of dark, moody, and poetic lines and words strung together like "His soul shocking sounds / They make the mountains moan / This boy's become a man / It's time to take take take / Take the throne" ("Jungle Man")? Early Red Hot Chili Peppers lyrics often sound like gibberish and listening to them is a lesson in disappointment for serious listeners.
Even "Behind The Sun," which was a previously-released song that was released as a single to promote What Hits?! is lyrically lackluster. While some of the poetics are not terrible, the ultimate lines "An island flying through the sky / One day your son might ask you why / And if you son should be a girl / She too might ask you of this world / The sun shines sweet upon your beach / And yes my dolphin loves to teach" ("Behind The Sun") are fairly dismal and do not hold a candle to later Red Hot Chili Pepper lines.
In other words, What Hits?! is aptly titled; it is the works of an unknown band and a rightly lame compilation of a band testing the waters. Fortunately for us all, Red Hot Chili Peppers got much, much better and the resulting compilations have been much more worthwhile.
The best track is "Under The Bridge," the low point is "Jungle Man."
For other works by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, please check out my reviews of:
Mother's Milk
"Taste The Pain" (single)
"Give It Away" (single)
"Soul To Squeeze" (single)
One Hot Minute
Californication
"Otherside" (single)
By The Way
Greatest Hits And Videos
The Best Of Red Hot Chili Peppers
Stadium Arcadium
3.5/10
For other music reviews, please be sure to visit my index page by clicking here!
© 2011, 2009 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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