By the Way is better than Californication

Every Chili Peppers fan has an opinion on these two albums. This is ours, from the editorial team at De Peppers. We play songs from both, and the more we play them, the surer we are: By the Way is the better album.

What Californication has going for it

The other side first, because it holds strong cards. Californication (June 1999) is the band's best-selling album, with more than fifteen million copies. It has the biggest hits: Californication, Scar Tissue and Otherside all have more than 1.6 billion Spotify streams. Scar Tissue won a Grammy. And it is a comeback you can hear: Frusciante had recently got clean and was back in the band.

Rolling Stone wrote in 1999 that the album "dares to be spiritual and epiphanal". It does.

Why By the Way wins

It sounds like one album

Californication has fifteen tracks, and among the classics are a few you skip. By the Way (July 2002) plays as one record from the title track to the closer, Venice Queen: the same summery colour, the same stacked backing vocals. You put it on and let it run.

Frusciante at his peak

On Californication, after six years away, Frusciante had to relearn how to be a Chili Pepper. Stereogum wrote that by By the Way he had long since worked it out. He wrote most of the melodies and backing vocals, and plays everything from the fuzz solo in Can't Stop to the calm of Don't Forget Me. In Rolling Stone, Tom Moon compared the album to the Beach Boys and summed it up like this:

We agree.

Kiedis sings better

On By the Way Kiedis sings melodies instead of rapping. That is his strongest side. Listen to The Zephyr Song or Midnight and compare them with Get On Top from Californication.

The honest counter-argument

By the Way has a darker side. During the sessions Flea felt shut out by Frusciante and thought about leaving the band. He told Q in 2006 that Frusciante made him feel he had nothing to offer. You can hear it: the funk that made the band big is barely on the album.

So if you see the Chili Peppers mainly as a funk band, you pick Californication. There, Around the World and Get On Top still have Flea's fast bass lines.

Our verdict

Californication has the bigger songs. By the Way is the better record. That is why, in our ranking of every album, By the Way is at 2 and Californication at 3. Only Blood Sugar Sex Magik ranks higher.

We wrote about the title track earlier in a column on By the Way. Disagree? Vote in the poll on the best album.

De Peppers editorial team

Written by the editors at De Peppers, the Red Hot Chili Peppers tribute band from Noord-Brabant, the Netherlands. Every fact is sourced at the bottom of the piece. Spotted a mistake? Email info@mia-automation.com and we will check it.

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