Punk Rock Classic is good a few times for humour value, but grows short soon enough (although the appeal lasts longer than the songs it was inspired upon). The Jimi Hendrix cover Fire (which was, by the way, still recorded with Slovak and Irons) is repetitive and doesn’t add anything to the original. Magic Johnson is another basically rap solo for Kiedis, which starts getting boring after about half a minute. Mother’s Milk definitely has a few of those filler/annoying moments also present in the band’s earlier work. Really, nothing could go wrong with the Peppers’ fourth album. Flea is still all over the place, Kiedis’ singing is still growing, and both Frusciante and Smith make an impeccable début. The fantastic guitar/bass interplay in opener Good Time Boys, a perfect introduction, the perfectly fitting trumpet in Subway to Venus, the harmonized voices of Kiedis and Frusciante in the softer Knock Me Down (a tribute to Slovak) and the addition of female backing vocals in Johnny, Kick a Hole in the Sky are just a few examples of those small things that yet add so much to Mother’s Milk. This same chemistry is repeated throughout all of the album. Moreover, he song is everything the band had worked for in the previous years: it’s frenzied, energetic fun rock with a tremendous amount of chemistry between the players. Next to the fantastic title, the song has some of Flea’s finest and fastest bass slapping, and Kiedis is moving into more accessible vocals, making his first foray into clean singing, also heard on some of the other tracks. Another true classic is the also well-known Nobody Weird Like Me. In fact, it remains one of the best songs on the album. While maintaining the groove of the original, the band make it something completely their own, and the track has easily remained their best cover. Most will undoubtedly have heard the Stevie Wonder cover Higher Ground, a daring and very successful endeavour. With Mother’s Milk, Red Hot Chili Peppers became relevant. This all results in the band’s most consistent and rewarding album up to that point. Smith, on his part, has an even more driving beat than Irons, and while not known as being one of the most technically accomplished drummer of the scene, him and Flea have righteously earned the title of one of rock’s finest rhythm sections. Nevertheless, this resulted in Mother’s Milk being an excellent bridge between the band’s first and later era, in which Frusciante fully developed his clean playing. In the end, it became a recognizable feature of the album, but in recent years, Frusciante has even refused to play anything from the album, simply because of what he sounded like. This created tensions with producer Michael Beinhorn, who gave Frusciante’s playing a loud, overpowering and noisy sound. Frusciante had become a huge fan of Slovak, his predecessor setting a blueprint for him to build on, but liked to put more emphasis on melody than on grit. It is still very much a funk rock record, but Frusciante and Smith brought something new to the table. In ’89, fourth album Mother’s Milk was released, and it proved to finally become a minor breakthrough for the band.Īlthough nothing like their first era, Mother’s Milk is still rooted in many of the band’s earlier tendencies. After a longer search for a drummer, the band eventually encountered Chad Smith, who showed great interplay with Flea. Frusciante, only 19 back then, overwhelmed Kiedis and Flea with his playing, and was immediately admitted. Peligro was an acquaintance of a guitarist called John Frusciante, and recommended him for auditioning. Although the two were soon fired, this led to a vital point in Chili Peppers history. Peligro ( Dead Kennedys) were chosen as replacements, but the new formation failed to produce a chemistry akin to the one found on The Uplift Mofo Party Plan. At first, guitarist DeWayne ‘Blackbird’ McKnight ( Parliament-Funkadelic) and drummer D.H. Despite half the band falling out, Kiedis and Flea got themselves together and tried reforming a line-up. Jack Irons started suffering from depression following the loss of a good friend, leaving the band shortly after (later, he would go on to join Pearl Jam, only to leave there after two albums). The passing of Hillel Slovak left the Red Hot Chili Peppers in shambles. Review Summary: Frusciante joins the crew, and the boys slowly start ascending to stardom.