Scratch a Track: Music Review and Commentary Podcast · The Dude and Grimm Show

Why do people hate ONE HOT MINUTE by the RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS?

·42 min·2 clips

"My Friends" is a top-three Chili Peppers song here, with the line "music is my aeroplane."

The Dude and Grim open by talking about Red Hot Chili Peppers' *One Hot Minute* as a forgotten record that still deserves attention. They frame it as the band's overlooked album and argue that it has enough strong moments to warrant a second look. A lot of the conversation centers on why the record got such a bad rap. They point to the personnel change as a major reason. John Frusciante had left midway through the tour, and the band later brought in Dave Navarro from Jane's Addiction as the guitarist. That shift matters to them because a lineup change can make a band sound like it is fighting itself. Here, though, they hear something different. They hear balance instead of the band wrestling with itself. The hosts keep returning to the idea that the record has a nice funky middle section. They also note that the guitar tone is not overly harsh or in-your-face. For them, that makes the album feel more balanced than its reputation suggests. They call out a couple of lines that still stand out strongly. The lyric about "pleasure spiked with pain" gets special attention. So does "music is my air and music is my aeroplane." They joke that if you only knew the radio version, you might never have heard those words the same way. Then they move to "Deep Kick." Its spoken-word opening catches their attention right away. They admit they did not hear critics talk much about that detail. One of them wonders aloud whether the spoken-word section might connect to Flea's *Acid for Children*, even while admitting the timing does not line up neatly. They treat Anthony Kiedis as a writer with real instincts. At the same time, they can see why listeners would be thrown off by the intro. The album's length comes up too. They note that there are three songs over six minutes long. One of them is surprised that the whole thing runs for more than an hour. When "Deep Kick" finally opens up, they hear it as a release. The track shifts from spoken-word setup into something that hits harder and feels more in your face. They connect that energy to Dave Navarro's influence. By the end, they circle back to the bigger question of whether the album should be remembered differently. The idea of rerecording it comes up as a joke, but it also shows how much the record still invites arguments. They would listen to a Navarro-led version, but only once, which is about as honest as the bit gets.

As heard by us

A steady defense of One Hot Minute's overlooked place in the catalog.

Scratch A Track makes a convincing case for One Hot Minute as a record worth another listen, especially in how it treats the album's mixed reputation as more than a footnote to Dave Navarro's arrival after the earlier departure.

Read the full review in PlayNext →

Why you'd press play

If you want a real defense of One Hot Minute, start here.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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