Mother's Milk

Released August 16, 1989 via EMI, Mother's Milk rebuilt the Red Hot Chili Peppers after Slovak's overdose and Jack Irons' departure. Frusciante and Smith stepped in, and producer Michael Beinhorn pushed for a heavy, layered guitar wall that Frusciante fought as too "macho." The result is funk metal at full stretch. "Higher Ground" slams Stevie Wonder's original into a slap-bass stampede and became their first real hit, "Taste the Pain" brings in Flea on trumpet and Fishbone's Fish on drums, and "Fire" keeps a Hendrix cover cut with Slovak and Irons before the losses.

"Knock Me Down" is the heart of it, a song that looks straight at Slovak's death and the drugs that caused it. Christgau thought the band didn't yet have the chops for the guitar layering, AllMusic called it pivotal, and both are audible: this is the band that made Blood Sugar Sex Magik learning to walk. It reached No. 52 on the Billboard 200, became their first Gold album and has since gone Platinum, and "Higher Ground" reached No. 11 on Modern Rock Tracks.

CD album, graded Near Mint, unsealed.