Concept
Californication is the seventh studio album by the American rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers, released on June 8, 1999, on Warner Bros. Records. It was produced by Rick Rubin. Along with Blood Sugar Sex Magik, Californication is one of the band’s best selling albums. Californication marked the return of guitarist John Frusciante, who had previously appeared on Mother's Milk and Blood Sugar Sex Magik, and shifted the band's style. The lyrics incorporated the sexual innuendos already associated with the band, but added themes including death, suicide, California, drugs, globalization and travel. Californication is the Chili Peppers' most commercially successful studio release internationally, with over fifteen million copies sold worldwide, and more than six million in the United States alone. As of 2002, the album had sold over four million copies in Europe. The record produced several hits for the band, including "Otherside", "Californication" and the Grammy Award-winning "Scar Tissue". Californication peaked at number three on the US Billboard 200. The record marked a significant change in style for the band: Rolling Stones Greg Tate noted that "while all previous Chili Peppers projects have been highly spirited, Californication dares to be spiritual and epiphanic". Another critic, Billboards Paul Verna, mentioned that the album brought out "the group's softer, melodic side", as opposed to their previous six albums. In 1991, the Red Hot Chili Peppers released their breakthrough album Blood Sugar Sex Magik on Warner Bros. Records. The album sold seven million copies in the United States, and became a seminal component of the alternative rock explosion in the early 1990s. After the release of Blood Sugar Sex Magik, the guitarist John Frusciante left the Red Hot Chili Peppers, as he became overwhelmed by the band's newfound popularity. Dave Navarro was hired as his replacement, and incorporated elements of heavy metal and psychedelic rock on the band's 1995 album One Hot Minute.