RHCP is such a strange band, they gave gone through so many guitarists but they still remain. The core is always going to be Anthony and Flea, they are the band, but their peaks are with Frusciante. He forced the band to think differently and grow. I do like all of their albums from the self-titled to I'm With You. It's a damn shame Hillel died so young, he was immensely talented and to see his evolution would've been incredible.
And Navarro was great too, but the band had to work very hard to produce any music. It just wasn't a natural chemistry like with Hillel/Irons and Frusciante/Smith. They couldn't sustain it, but OHM is still a really good album probably because of that difficulty. Flea really had to step up on the bass for that.
Josh is a great musician and the natural replacement for Frusciante. He's John's protege, collaborator and he toured with the band on their final tour with Frusciante (allowing them to play This Velvet Glove live for the first time, one of their best). He's only had 1 album so far and I'd say it's comparable to Mother's Milk. I look forward to their next one, they have a new producer and probably feel more comfortable with the new chemistry.
