Is This What You Want? superstar backing musicians, saying, "they're always talkin' about who's on the album and not the album itself." Writing in "ZigZag" in July 1974, Andy Childs advised the magazine's readers: "it's worth its weight in gold, so if it's absent from your collection, add it to your shopping list of second-hand records." Greenfield and Childs both recognised Harrison's "Sour Milk Sea" as a highlight of the album. Richie Unterberger of AllMusic offers a less favourable opinion of "Is This What You Want?", describing Lomax as "a passable but unarresting singer and songwriter". Unterberger identifies the best moments as the "Beatlesque" songs
What Is This? their tenure as Anthym, guitarist Hillel Slovak became acquainted with an audience member at one of their shows, Anthony Kiedis, who was then brought on as a roadie and "hype-man" for the band. After a while, the band began to find bassist Todd Strassman's musical abilities unsatisfactory, so they considered replacing him. Slovak decided to teach a friend of his at Fairfax, trumpet player Michael “Flea” Balzary, how to play bass, and soon after he replaced Strassman as What Is This?’ bassist. After graduating high school, the band began to play gigs in the Los Angeles area. Flea eventually left