Blood Sugar Sex Magikrelease date: Sep. 24, 1991
format: 2 lp vinyl (gatefold)
[album rate: 4 / 5] [4,12]
producer: Rick Rubin
label: Warner Bros. - nationality: USA
5th studio album by Red Hot Chili Peppers following two years after Mother's Milk (Aug. 1989) is the band's first after signing with Warner and the second to feature new guitarist John Frusciante and drummer Chad Smith.
Blood Sugar Sex Magik introduces a new sound of the band. Like Mother's Milk was a turn away from the psychedelic and funky acid-rock into something with a stronger heavy rock profile, Blood Sugar Sex Magik is yet again a move in a new direction. On this, they still play as a tight energetic unit, but where the predecessor was in a way more focussing on old school rock with a heavy metal influence, this appears as a conglomorate of psychedelic rock, funk rock, and punk rock with room for other stylistic influences and melody-based compositions but held together in an original soundscape of their very own.
The album was met by critical acclaim, overwhelming sales numbers and it basically sky-rocketed the band from theatre concerts to stadium arenas. Apparently, the success was more than Frusciante had ever wanted and he found it more than difficult to come to terms with the fact that the tight unit he had only just entered now was about to be promoted as a major act. Disillusioned, following the release and still well into a promotion tour, Frusciante eventually left the band in early '92 and was subsequently replaced by Arik Marshall for the rest of the tour.
The album is enlisted in "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die". In retrospect (as of 2015), Blood Sugar Sex Magik remains the band's best album.
[ allmusic.com, Mojo 5 / 5, Rolling Stone, Q Magazine, Select 4 / 5 stars ]
