However, the praise was balanced by certain critics. "Blender" considered "By the Way" to be an indistinguishable sequel to "Californication", calling it "Californication 2". It further condemned the Chili Peppers for not varying their style and remaining extremely similar in sound. Jaime Lowe of "The Village Voice" panned Kiedis's lyrics as "absolutely baffling" and commented that "it's as if he picked up a rhyming dictionary and arbitrarily strung some phrases together." The newspaper's Robert Christgau was also critical of his songwriting, writing that "it's not enough for Anthony Kiedis to get all mature—he's supposed to say something interesting about maturity." "Entertainment Weekly" praised "By the Way" for being well refined and a superb collaboration, but criticized the Chili Peppers for playing it safe and keeping the album's energy mild; for being "more fascinating for what it symbolizes than what it is."