By the Way by Red Hot Chili Peppers

By the Way, Red Hot Chili Peppers' eighth album, came out on Warner Bros. on July 9, 2002, and it's the sound of a funk-rock band quietly putting the slap bass back in its case. Rick Rubin produced, but the real architect was John Frusciante, who is credited with most of the tunes, the guitar parts, the bass lines and the way the backing voices are stacked, and steered the whole thing toward warm, understated guitar and sweet, doo-wop harmonies. He has called making it one of the happiest times of his life, and you can hear it.

Anthony Kiedis, for his part, got more candid and reflective in his lyrics, and the songs glow with a gentle, sun-bleached melancholy. The title track is the exception that proves the rule, lurching from a dreamy croon into a punky sprint; "The Zephyr Song" floats like a summer breeze, "Can't Stop" is a taut, jittery funk workout, "Universally Speaking" swoons, "Dosed" layers voices into a lullaby, and "Cabron" has a flamenco flicker to it.

Upward of 286,000 copies went out the door in week one, it climbed to number two on the Billboard 200 and went on to top eight million sales worldwide. Critics cheered the change of direction, and plenty of fans rank it among the band's best.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.