10 Sophomore Slump Albums By Amazing Bands

If you look at where the Red Hot Chili Peppers were at the very start of their career, they seemed like a completely different band. Before Rick Rubin got involved with them and Anthony Kiedis found out that he could actually sing, most of the band’s material was focused on something more hip hop based, in the vein of acts like RUN-DMC and the Beastie Boys than anything connected with funk rock. While working with a funk legend to get their sound might have been a good idea at the time, Freaky Styley may have been a little too much for the guys.

Recorded with the help of funk master George Clinton behind the board, most of Freaky Styley tends to sound a lot more muted than some of the Peppers’ later records, with everything but Flea’s bass being insanely low in the mix. When you strip away some of the lackluster production though, some of the songs don’t exactly need to stand on their own either, with Catholic School Girls Rule being one of the dumber songs that this band would ever make.

The behind the scenes aspect of this album is also a bit of a mess too, with the band getting messed up on cocaine in the studio and Yertle the Turtle kicking off with one of Clinton’s drug dealers talking on the album. The Peppers definitely had the same maniacal energy as they do today, but they had a lot of work to do before they got to songs like Under the Bridge.