Review Summary: Ask Blood Sugar Sex Magik if your heart is healthy enough for sex.
If you don't get an erection (or at the very least a tingling euphoria from your balls) from
Blood Sugar Sex Magik, then ask your doctor if your heart is healthy enough for sex. This album is
hot, plain and simple. No questions asked here - the material here is basically sexual overdrive in musical form; everything from the lyrical delivery, musicianship, and vocals are all naughty and sexually delicious, and will more than likely make you even more sexually horngry than you once were - it happened to me, and it hasn't toned ever since. After hearing this in full, it became pretty clear that the 4 men were extremely frustrated at the time and nothing but walking hormones. Released in 1991, the peppers were more than likely extremely wild, arrogant (and rightfully so), sex-deprived at this point in time and weren't afraid to cross any boundaries with their music, both musically and lyrically (view the
Funky Monks DVD and see the sexual action for yourself, if you wish). Although some material here though
is in fact serious, the bulk of
Blood Sugar Sex Magik is a tight bundle of sexual curiosity and youthful, spontaneous energy that we've all come to love.
..Because honestly, this album is
dirty, bar none. This is easily one of the dirtiest albums I've ever heard, and I've heard many lust-soaked albums. With lyrical themes such as anger, resentment, love, lust, desperation and other "manly" topics, this album is an apocalyptic beast and covers pretty much every type of idea and observation you can think of. Unlike the rest of their albums, there's much more playfulness on this record and the whole idea of restraint is utilized throughout most of it - for example, instead of Flea playing intense, aggressive (sometimes a bit overpowering) basslines, he foregoes the slapping and popping and demonstrates a new melodically rich sound for the audience, and uses that to his best ability to deliver a smooth, vibrant atmosphere. There are a bunch of emotions on this record believe it or not (hence the blood, sugar, sex, magik reference) that seem to fluctuate gracefully on this record, and as a whole every song gently transitions into one another.
Album opener "The Power of Equality" is a good example of the chili pepper's energetic, graphically raw sense of style; as soon as the song begins we are interrogated with a manic-blade sounding guitar riff and hate talk mainly pointed towards racism and other touchy subjects. On the contrary, "If You Have To Ask" has a more minimal gist attached to it with a subtle, rolling bassline and mysterious, dark rap-talk from Kiedis - I've actually heard many people claim this song to be the weakest on the record, but I however strongly disagree and think it's one of the catchiest, believe it or not. A nice groove overall.
"Give it Away" is probably the catchiest song on the record with its head-bobbing rhythm and undeniably fun, wacky lyrics from Kiedis; together they both create a supersonic blast of joy and youthful, accessible energy that anyone could probably tap their fingers to. "Under the Bridge" is probably the closest thing to serious on this album, as Kiedis seems to let his emotions drip gracefully on the microphone by reflecting upon a time where he evidently did a lot of drugs under a bridge in Los Angeles as a youngster. The musicianship here is much more subtle and airy, and almost non-rhythmic. The ending to this song is incredible - a children's choir create a wonderful euphoric climax towards the end with lyrics repeating "Under the bridge downtown" along with Kiedis overlaying "Is where I drew some blood", markedly being one of the more softer moments on the album, and a nice exit from the highly sexual lyrical themes.
Blood Sugar Sex Magik's passionate intimacy and burning, sex-craved desires can be found on tracks like "Breaking the Girl" - a sugary-sweet, melodically vibrant tune with a hell of a junkyard percussion breakdown, to the pummeling musical sandstorm that is "Suck My Kiss", to the tender and deeply soulful bliss of "I Could Have Lied", to the unmistakably filthy aura of sexually starved lust episodes (and yet strangely romantic) that conjure up "Sir Psycho Sexy"; these songs are probably the greatest examples of how magical and lustful this album can truly get.
This album is about as sexual as it gets, but that doesn't take away the fact that this album is one of the greatest sounding records to ever be released. The production is spotless, the musicianship is absolutely jaw-dropping and beautifully arranged, Kiedis writes some hilariously uplifting lyrics involving sex... and more sex, and everything here just seems like they were wild, creatively vivid, and horny at the time - I'm sure any guy could relate to the bitter stages of sexual frustration and raunchy fantasies that probably occur every minute of the day. There's just something so darn satisfying when listening to
Blood Sugar Sex Magik, and I don't know what it is - perhaps the firm sensuality of the music? Whatever it is, it has blown me away over these past few years, because this album is probably my all time favorite.
Recommended listening:
.....all of the tracks, but if you have a raging boner then listen to "Sir Psycho Sexy"