Sick Love

The "sick love" refers to how many people feel about the relationship between a 50 year old man and a girl around 20.

I particularly like the lyrics "Rivers get connected so much stronger than expected" and "Your heart is stronger than your head". He knows it's far from an ideal relationship, but he can't help it, they've got too strong a connection for them to ignore it.

California Dreamin' seems to be an allusion to the Mama's and Papa's song

Again... like in "The Longest Wave" and "Goodbye Angels", this song is about Helena Vestergaard, 22yo Aussie model Anthony dated for two years. (when will he learn to date someone closer to his age?!?! anyway. lol)

“Lyrically, I’m embarrassed to say, a 2-year relationship that completely fell apart like a nuclear bomb, just left me feeling pretty raw and available to the emotional universe for writing. So even though the relationship was a bit of a disaster, I feel that in some way, I did get something out of it, which was about half the songs on this record.” http://www.alternativenation.net/red-hot-chili-peppers-anthony-kiedis-talks-disastrous-relationship-with-19-year-old-model/

"Openly defective is the lover you elected and A portrait she was bound to portray" Really like those lyrics.

As mentioned this reflects Kiedis' own relationship with the way-too-young Aussie model, but this can definitely be enjoyed on a more abstract and general level. After making it through a stormy online relationship of several years with a mentally ill girl, a lot of these lyrics hit home for me too.

My ears pricked up when I heard this line:

Openly defective is the lover you elected and A portrait she was bound to portray.

because it sounded like a reference to Trump, right? I mean, even his biggest supporters have to admit, he's very defective. That's what they like about him in fact, so please don't deny it (that's the "sick love"). And I think that last line is "born to portray" , and it sure looks like he has been groomed by the media since the 80s to be this crazy character. And then you look at the cover of this album, a little girl with a FOX as her guide and a big (russian) bear as a guard, and go "wow, this really is a Trump reference". B-u-u-u-t this album was recorded probably well before the 2016 primaries were in full swing. like I said, the grooming for the trump presidency started a L-o-o-o-ng time ago.

Not every song is about the singer's girlfriends. Think a little deeper.