By The Way
by Red Hot Chili Peppers
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Red Hot Chili Peppers bestography
By The Way is ranked 3rd best out of 24 albums by Red Hot Chili Peppers on BestEverAlbums.com.
The best album by Red Hot Chili Peppers is Blood Sugar Sex Magik which is ranked number 184 in the list of all-time albums with a total rank score of 7,959.
(N.B. Bestographies include all albums by an artist (and their variations), but do not include albums ranked outside the top 100,000).
Listen to By The Way on YouTube
By The Way track list
The tracks on this album have an average rating of 82 out of 100 (all tracks have been rated).
Top-rated track as rated by BestEverAlbums.com members.
By The Way rankings
Calculated from aggregate positions across 60,000 charts (2 million album rankings). Click to see how the rankings are calculated (Last updated: 4 hours ago)
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By The Way ratings
Average Rating = (n ÷ (n + m)) × av + (m ÷ (n + m)) × AVwhere:
av = trimmed mean average rating an item has currently received.
n = number of ratings an item has currently received.
m = minimum number of ratings required for an item to appear in a 'top-rated' chart (currently 10).
AV = the site mean average rating.
Showing latest 5 ratings for this album. | Show all 1,095 ratings for this album.
| Rating | Date updated | Member | Album ratings | Avg. album rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ! | 08/07/2026 19:34 | xhitmanx | 1,572 | 74/100 |
| ! | 07/28/2026 10:28 | TroutMaskGreg | 1,806 | 69/100 |
| ! | 07/25/2026 15:12 |  DommeDamian | 7,662 | 48/100 |
| ! | 07/16/2026 12:11 | glebrus | 469 | 81/100 |
| ! | 07/12/2026 17:36 | liquidbottle | 775 | 82/100 |
Rating metrics:
Outliers can be removed when calculating a mean average to dampen the effects of ratings outside the normal distribution. This figure is provided as the trimmed mean. A high standard deviation can be legitimate, but can sometimes indicate 'gaming' is occurring. Consider a simplified example* of an item receiving ratings of 100, 50, & 0. The mean average rating would be 50. However, ratings of 55, 50 & 45 could also result in the same average. The second average might be more trusted because there is more consensus around a particular rating (a lower deviation).
(*In practice, some albums can have several thousand ratings)
This album is rated in the top 4% of all albums on BestEverAlbums.com. This album has a Bayesian average rating of 76.3/100, a mean average of 75.3/100, and a trimmed mean (excluding outliers) of 76.3/100. The standard deviation for this album is 16.2.
By The Way favourites
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By The Way comments
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Pure 2000s alt rock bliss. John led the way but this was probably every member at their best. To me this is where they hit the perfect balance between funk and alt rock. (Edited)
SomethingSpecial 07/01/2025 12:02 | #309817
Their most complete masterpiece, and the brain-child of none other than John Frusciante, featuring timeless classics like the title track, Universally Speaking, Dosed, The Zephyr Song, Can't Stop, and the opus Venice Queen. (Edited)
Brad1770 08/18/2023 05:21 | #298671
I’ve never been the biggest Peppers guy so this has always been my favourite album in their catalogue, mainly because it’s mostly melodic Frusciante and Kiedis and nearly zero annoying over used Flea slap base (Edited)
Probably the most melodic and tender RHCP album. Still has enough songs that have that funk and energy. The first 11 tracks are nearly perfect.
VictorVale 03/23/2023 12:40 | #295343
Inesquecível pra quem viveu experiências nos anos 00's.
Some of the most beautiful and delicate music the Chili Peppers have made is on this album.
First half much stronger than the second half. But so many good tracks. My second favourite Chilis album. The singles are great, but my favourites are Universally Speaking, Dosed and Venice Queen. Weakest tracks are Tear, On Mercury, Warm Tape. (Edited)
A record I really wasn't looking forward to listening to again but it really surprised me and has grown on me a lot. The songs are all a lot of fun and all are experimental and kept me entertained even when the run time was dragging a bit. Furthermore, the album has some of the groups best big songs on it but also has some of their best deep cuts and is definitely worth listening to just to find those. The guitar work is the true star of the show though with some of the best instrumentation the band has released. However, the album is easily criticised by its elongated run time and large amount of filler songs. Also, the tempo seems a bit off on some tracks with them feeling a bit slow. Overall, an album I will look forward to coming back to as it is very enjoyable and has a lot of memorable moments to draw me back in.
The greatest album RHCP has ever released and an excellent and underrated masterpiece of an album.
I just love how mellow and experimental it is and it is definitely way better than Californication and Blood Sugar Sex Magik.
Some good songs. They could of cut about 6 songs off this album to make it much better. Way to long. Way to much filler
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