I think one song that is definitely odd, to say the least, is track three: “Aquatic Mouth Dance”. Now, I am not exactly sure what aquatic mouth dancing is, but I’m going to assume it means something sensual. The song sounds as if the fun and groovy bassline is trying to cover up the weird use of poetry, which many fans argue is something the Red Hot Chili Peppers are known for. If I had to pick the strangest lyric, I would say that Kiedis’ comparison of spilling beer to a mother’s breasts takes the cake just because I don’t know what that means and don’t want to know. 

     Let’s not get off the topic of the lyrics just yet because track six, “The Great Apes”, gets more absurd and is an example of why Kiedis needs a ghost writer. “She’s a box car rollin’ by/Like a black star in the sky/She’s a failure once or twice/Like a trailer spinnin’ out upon dizzy ice” is what we’re introduced with, but it just goes downhill from there. 

     The Red Hot Chili Peppers’ make up for their weird lyrics with fun beats and good instrumentals all around. My favorite track that proves this is track seven, “It’s Only Natural”, where Kiedis tells a love story in front of a happy bassline. The guitar feels jumpy with the drums perfectly sinking in with the bass. 

     The perfect music continues onto the next track, “She’s a Lover”, which feels warm and happy. Kiedis’ writing gets a little better here, but it still is odd. At least he isn’t rhyming some random body part with the sound of a girl’s voice or something like that. Many fans have said that this is the track that they have been anticipating the most, but personally, I was excited for track 14: “Veronica”. 

     I thought this would be a song about a girl he met, but instead it sounded as if he was telling the stories of many different people. The instrumentals sound about the same as every other song on this album, but it’s common practice for songs to have a musical theme on an album. Though my expectations for the track were wrong, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a bad song. It’s nice to listen to as background noise, but it’s nothing too fantastic really.

     Finally, we have the closing track: “Tangelo”. Instead of a bouncing bassline, we are met with a slow acoustic guitar followed by Kiedis’ beautiful singing voice. This is such an amazing ending track, because despite going through weird episodes of bad lyrics and weird metaphors throughout the album, we can end with an emotional and more sensical song.

     This album was decent, but I’m definitely not a huge fan of it. It has its pros and cons, but overall I’d rate it a six out of ten. I’d recommend it to anyone who is into weird songs that compare random things together but have fun instrumentals behind it.