Red Hot Chili Peppers – Californication

I love this pressing. It sounds amazing even being pressed on colored vinyl. This album and the pearl colored vinyl pressing of Sunny Day Real Estate's Diary are the only two albums that I've listened to that sound fantastic on colored vinyl. Very little surface noise and much better dynamics compared to the original CD and cassette tape. The only thing they added that wasn't in the original master was the echo of the verse "Holding a hand" throughout the last minute of the song Savior. It doesn't bug me too much because that's a cool way to add something that's not in the original rather than completely changing it. I'm glad they left the title track alone because in other later renditions of the song, the chorus would repeat four times after the first verse compared to just two times in the original master. Besides the song Savior, none of the other songs were modified and that makes me happy. This album still suffers from the loudness wars, but I'm glad that it got mastered the way it did for this pressing. For $36, it does not disappoint.

This is better compared to the CD (I got rid of the album because I'm but a huge fan of it anyway), but I still don't like the overall recording quality of the album because it just suffers from the loudness wars in general. Still a great enough album where I'll keep this cassette.

The absolute worst record I own. Skips constantly and basically unusable.

It is what it is. Unfortunately the vinyl doesn’t sound much better than the CD. Maybe a little less distortion…Never liked the mix and the vocal recording but ya nice having it on vinyl. Recommended

Any information about this edition? Is it similar to another edition?

GUTTED.

This is not a good sounding cut. I hoped the samples on Juno were just a bad rip but indeed its a dogs dinner of a flat hash of a sound as is heard on almost every digital and vinyl issue of this album. This is no revelation whatsoever.

Think its time to just admit its poorly recorded and is never going to sound as good as some of their other records. If you think this is getting close to Stadium Arcadium 4xLP set, KEEP DREAMING lol.

Even at £20 let alone £40, i just cant justify this over the CD ive got which for mastering just sounds about the damn same to me.

Truly gutted.

I also own the 2012 Californication , which was also cut by Mr Bellman.
The first thing i noted doing a visual comparison between 25th anniversary and the 2012 reissue is that the latter has a tad less free deadwax on side A, which is sign of a lightly louder cut.

That said, while writing these words i'm listening Scar Tissue from 25th anniversary with an AT-VMN95 Shibata cartridge: sure it remains a LOUD album, yet i hear some decent dynamics and some instrument separation on the background.

Too early to say i like it, but not even disappointed.

How's this one sound? Similar to other pressings? Also does it have the extra harmonies on easily?

After the Walmart version arrived on Yellow and Purple vinyl im glad its been reissued with more suitable colours lol.

My copy is flat and silent. No pops or whatsoever. CB in the runouts - I guess it’s a repress of Europe’s reissue from 2023.
Since I don’t have any previous pressing I can’t tell how this one holds up against those but aside from it sounding a little "flat" it’s a good listen imo.
Still I’m no fan of two-disc-releases being stored in a single sleeve.