This album is their first, and one of their finest. This is a very different Red Hot Chili Peppers than their present day music, but every bit as good. Twenty years after its release, it holds up powerfully.

If you have never heard "True Men Don't Kill Coyotes," you are missing one of the finest Hollywood/Southern California anthems ever written. Pop? Rap? Rock? I honestly think there is no way to properly classify this song, it's the perfect tune to announce the rival of the Chili Peppers, and pretty much personifies their offbeat charge into the music world.

You can find the abovementioned song on one of their "Best Of" albums, but the rest of the songs on this CD are too good to pass off. The mightiest tracks are 1 through 6, with "Buckle Down" and the overdrive-paced "Get Up and Jump" stealing the show. The diversity of the songs on these first six tracks is impressive.

The Chili Peppers were such a rush of fresh air when they hit the scene in 1984. I remember a plethora of heavy metal and new wave all over the airwaves & record stores; some good, lots bad. No new group, however, crashed the music scene that year quite like The Red Hot Chili Peppers. Pick up this CD and compare it to the playlists of the mid 1980s, and I bet the sheer contrast will show you what a cutting edge band The Red Hot Chili Peppers were when they hit the scene.

Give this album a chance, and I think you will find that the Red Hot Chili Peppers didn't get better with time: they started out great, and since then have tinkered with their musical style, all the while keeping their unmistakable Funky spirits in full force. Yes, The Red Hots still have "Baby Appeal!"

I love the Chili Peppers, have all their albums and videos, and have seen them in concert many times. In fact, they are probably my favorite band of all time. This album, their first, is fun, but it ain't worth no 5 stars. It's interesting to hear the beginning of the Peppers' sound and how it has since developed and matured. But the songwriting is weak compared to later albums, and the playing is merely adequate. With each successive album, the band got better and better. I would give Freaky Styley 4 stars and everything else 5 stars, except for One Hot Minute which was disappointing. This debut album is, at most, 3 stars. But Peppers' fans should own it anyway.

One of the most sucessful and influential bands of their generation, the Red Hot Chili Peppers are also one that would evolve over time more than anyone could have ever anticipated, alienating portions of their fanbase over and over again in their relentless pursuit of the future. This album shows a band very different from the act that sells out ampitheatres today.

Originally formed by friends in high school-- drummer Jack Irons and guitarist Hillel Slovak turned jazz trumpet prodigy Michael Balzary onto punk music, and Balzary picked up a bass and a nickname (Flea). The Chili Peppers were completed when friend Anthony Kiedis began singing some of his poetry over the top of the funky punk music the band was puting together. But after putting together several demos and gaining local acclaim as a live act (with a reputation for performing naked with a sock covering up choice portions...), Slovak and Irons decided to quit the band to focus on another act. Kiedis and Flea soldiered on, eventually recording their self-titled debut album in 1984 with gutiarist Jack Sherman and drummer Cliff Martinez (who had played with Captain Beefheart). The results are decidingly mixed.

The band's sound revolved around funky punk licks with Kiedis' rapped vocals over the top-- Sherman never quite sounds like he belongs with the band, and his playing lacks the energy that the rest of the group has (curiously, recruited drummer Martinez seems to fit in quite a bit better with the group-- but playing with Beefheart is good practice for virtually anything). Even in this situation, several pieces standout-- the explosive, driving "True Men Don't Kill Coyotes" and the powerful "Out in L.A." (featuring Sherman's finest moment as a Pepper with a fierce guitar solo). But in the midst of this, an irritating Hank Williams cover ("Why Don't You Love Me") , a thoroughly annoying self-referential piece ("Baby Appeal") and at least one truly ill-conceived number ("Mommy Where's Daddy") don't make for a good album.

This reissue is remastered, putting the album way in your face-- it sounds superb, loud, crisp and focused, and is augmented by a handful of demos (originally released on "Out in L.A.") featuring the original Peppers lineup. These pieces succeed a great deal better, but still are lackign in something (although bass-and-vocal duet "What It Is" is really superb). The liner notes feature an essay about the record from Flea.

Things would get better on the next album, "Freaky Styley", with Slovak returning to the fold, but the band had a long way to go before conceiving a real masterpiece. Nonetheless, those interested in their beginnings should check this out.

Personally, I believe this is their third best release ever, behind Mother's Milk and Freaky Styley, respectively. The hard bass lines were at their best, making their way around funk filled vocals and loud guitar touches. Maybe some of you will be disappointed to find no blues riffs on here, no catchy choruses, nothing that would fit on MTV. But this album should be in no way ridiculed or critisized just because they don't sound like they do now. Recently, I had an interesting experience with some of my Chili Peppers CDs/Cassettes that I'd like to tell. I was on my way to Seattle to visit my sister. I decided to drive from LA straight, just to save money. On the way up I found that I was really into the Chili Peppers that day, so that was mostly what I listened to. First I put this on, in all of its funky glory. Next I slapped on Freaky Styley, listening closely to some of their better guitar work. Next it was Mother's Milk, which brought back some old memories of high school, drizzly afternoons playing my bass...that was great. Then I put on Blood Sugar Sex Magic, which was a great way to end the day, funk and blues mixed perfectly together. As night rolled around I put on One Hot Minute, an excellent soundtrack to a summer night, more of the early 90's alternative feel. As I drove around the city and towards my sister's house, I had Californication on, with those same basslines I had heard what seemed to be a decade before, still banging in my head, incessantly. An evolution through a great band's career. Suggested tracks: Out In L.A., You Always Sing, and True Men Don't Kill Coyotes. Suggested bands: Jane's Addiction, Fishbone. Suggested albums: Jane's Addiction's Nothing's Shocking, Porno For Pyros' Good God's Urge, Red Hot Chili Peppers' Freaky Styley.

All you people who think this album is "ok," well then you don't know what the Chili's are all about. They're are defiantally better at playing Funk/Rock then what they're doing now. But, even if you don't really like this album you have to like Flea's kickass bass lines.