by Stephen Thomas Erlewine

Following up Blood Sugar Sex Magik proved to be a difficult task for the Red Hot Chili Peppers. In 1993, two years after Blood Sugar, former Jane's Addiction guitarist Dave Navarro joined up, but it was still another two years before One Hot Minute appeared, due to various personal problems. Navarro's metallic guitar shredding should have added some weight to the Chili Peppers' punk-inflected heavy-guitar funk, but tends to make it plodding. By emphasizing the metal, the funk is gradually phased out of the blend, as is melody; the grinding chant of "Warped" is hardly as twisted as anything on Freaky Styley, or even "Give It Away." The ballads "My Friends" and "Transcending" are blatant attempts to hold on to the mainstream audience gained by "Under the Bridge," but the melodies are weak and the lyrics are even more feeble. One Hot Minute is as musically ambitious as Blood Sugar Sex Magik, but is even more unfocused, which means it provides the fewest thrills of any of the group's albums.