10 Perfect Alternative Albums That Deserve A Lot More Love

For most of the late '90s, the Red Hot Chili Peppers always seemed to be coming from a place of pain on their records. They were already reeling from the loss of John Frusciante on the album One Hot Minute, and even when John returned for Californication, you could still see the scars that they had to work through to make that record. Once everyone was on firmer ground, it was time to get happy all over again.

While By the Way stands more as a placeholder album in between Californication and Stadium Arcadium, the entire mindset behind this record is as pure as they come. Despite their initial idea of balancing out the record with some sharp punk songs, this is the most at ease sounding Peppers record ever recorded, going for some more radio friendly styles. There's pop tunes like Universally Speaking, the bombast of the title track, and they even manage to cross their funk chops with the sound of the Beach Boys on the Zephyr Song.

Though this does feel like a much more relaxed project than any of the last few albums, the energetic moments still don't let up, like when Can't Stop kicks in and Frusciante's solo kicks everything into gear. After all of the turmoil that got them to where they are, it was just nice to hear a Peppers record where you can actually feel them having fun while making it.