Review Summary: Stop Making Sense
In 1985 the Chili Peppers were already on the edge of collapsing, not for the first and certainly not the last time. The first album had gone nowhere (artistically & commercially), they didn't vibe at all with their guitarist, their first producer was a complete mismatch and the two remaining forming members had serious drug problems to a life threatening extent. Given their success story since the early 90s, it's a forgotten miracle that we ever heard of these guys in the first place. And given those inner struggles it's even more surprising that the two driving forces in the band, Flea and Anthony, still had the self awareness to correct all of the mentioned issues on record number two, with the exception of the drug use.
First of all, they parted ways with producer Andy Gill and hired funklegend George Clinton. Thankfully, he provided the natural and organic sound the debut desperately lacked and needed. Clinton also inspired the band to deep dive into their funk roots more than ever. A lot of tracks are enhanced with backing vocals and horns but surpringly none of those elements feel distracting or out of place. This album sheds all of the dated 80s sounds that made the debut so mechanical and misguided. Because of that quantum leap in production Cliff Martinez finally gets his time to shine on the drums (just take the excellent jazzy intro of „Yertle the turtle“ as an example). The very first seconds of the opening „Jungle Man“ show immediately that the Peppers made the record the way they wanted to make without anything disturbing them for first time (with the exception of the drugs).
And as we speak of drugs: Hillel Slovak, founding guitarist and the guy who introduced no less than Flea to rock music and the bass guitar, was back in the band and the chemistry between the two alone makes this record better than its predecessor. He effortlessly changes between minimal yet perfectly effective funk licks, Hendrix inspired solos with a psychedelic edge or distorted hardrock riffs. And Flea? Well he slaps his bass like there's no tomorrow as you would expect and hope.
The Chili Peppers were rarely as versatile, experimental and all over the place as they are here and for the most part it pays off:
„Jungle Man“ opens bouncy, muscular, catchy and is easily one of the best songs of their early phase. „American Ghost Dance“ has a charming old school hip hop feel to it, while „The Brother's Cup and „Yertle The Turle“ just groove like hell.
The title track is a very unusual krautrock experiment with only few vocals thrown on top, allowing Hillel to go full-psychedelic rock and „Battle Ship“ jumps back and forth between hardcore punk and a funky chorus with gang shouts (i'm a little ashamed that I enjoy roaring „BLOWJOB PARK“ as much as I do).
The nowadays common buzzword „cultural appropriation“ may understandibly come to mind while reading this review about 4 white guys playing black music, but don't you worry and save your accusations for people who really deserve it (How is Drake getting away with these fake varibbean accent?). The Peppers never failed to wear their 70's funk influences on their sleeve and worshipped them in a respectful manner by prasising them in interviews, covering them on their liveshows, or even on this album (George Clinton was also part of their RnR Hall of fame induction). Seriously, me as a 26 year old guy from the German suburbs would have probably never heard of Sly & the Family Stone or The Meters (I adore both of them today) without the Chili Peppers and I don't think I'm the only one, so I fail to see the issue here.
Even better: Those cover songs are performed absolutely fine. The Meter's "Africa" gets some new lyrics (it is now -how could it not be- called „Hollywood“) but the music is actually a little too close to the original. Sly's „If You Want Me To Stay“ however even fixes my only issue with the original: It doesn't suddenly fade out way too soon after three minutes, Hillel adds some really tasty licks here and there and most surprisingly Anthony actually manages to do Sly's vocals justice.
With all that being said, „Freaky Styley“ could be a top-5 Chili Peppers album for me (I'm serious), but Anthony ruins it near the end with his horny-teenager-energy on the self explaining „Sex Rap“ (great drum intro, though) and the even more revealing „Catholic School Girls Rule“, which...just look at the title and think of Zappa's „Catholic Girls“ minus the satire. I usually don't mind Anthony's carefree silliness, but he's a lot more enjoyable when he sings about stuff like turtle kings or informs you that the Men At Work are „for the jerks“ on the hilarious „Nevermind“. To his credit, the frontman's rapflow has improved significantly and weirdly enough he sounds way less nasal than he would later. And the fact that he raps more than he sings definitly plays to his strenghts.
Sure, „Freaky Styley“ is a mess and nothing here flows in any logical way, but I'd rather be disappointed if it wasn't this chaotic. I mean, look, it's called „Freaky Styley“ and it's an early Chili Peppers album, if you want cohesion, go back to your progrock.
On the plus side, you get a quirky, unpredictable, fun with a refreshing and unfiltered „Devil may care“-attitude, that most mainstream rock nowadays lacks way too often. I mean, who in their right mind would even think about the idea of interrupting a song for a basssolo and monkey noises (They actually do that on „Blackeyed Blonde“)? The Chili Peppers went on to bigger and more focused things in the future, but nothing showcases their wacky weirdness more effectively than „Freaky Styley“.
If you want to explore their early stuff, this is a good starting point and 70's funk fans might get more enjoyment out of this than they expected. Just don't look for anything even close to „Under the Bridge“ here. Or anything that makes sense.
