Red Hot Chili Peppers: Ranking Their Albums From Worst To Best

7. Freaky Styley

Before recording their second album in 1985, RHCP made a wise decision producer-wise - out went Andy Gill (who didn't particularly seem to "get" the band) and in came legendary Parliament-Funkadelic frontman George Clinton.

In addition, founding guitarist Hillel Slovak returned to the fold following Jack Sherman's departure. If the debut release was a false start, Freaky Styley was another chance to translate the band's undoubtable energy into a decent record. Fortunately, they succeeded. Freaky Styley is basically an unabashed love-letter to the late 60s/early 70s funk that the likes of Sly Stone, James Brown and Clinton himself cultivated. Hell, they even throw in covers of Stone and The Meters with If You Want Me To Stay and Hollywood (Africa) respectively. White LA boys doing old-school funk - it shouldn't work, but it does.

Like the self-titled record, Flea's bass is again the show-stealer - yet this time round he has the psychedelic, fluid guitar of Slovak to work with, and the interplay between the two gives the songs much greater musical depth and replay value than the debut. Incidentally, it turns out Flea is also a dab hand with a trumpet, and his playing on American Ghost Dance and Yertle The Turtle adds to the funkiness. True, it's not perfect. The punchier tracks like Battle Ship and Sex Rap feel decidedly out of place compared to the laid-back funk that makes up the rest of the album, like unwelcome hangovers from the debut release.

But they don't change the fact that this is a fun album that occupies a unique place in the RHCP catalog (being the closest to straight funk they ever got) and is a cool snapshot of a band doing whatever the hell they wanted and having a good time doing it.