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Red Hot Chili Peppers
Stadium Arcadium
(Warner)
Much ink has been spilled about how The Red Hot Chili Peppers' double-album Stadium Arcadium (in stores Tuesday) supposedly delivers the best of both worlds: The hard-pumping funk-punk lunacy of their early days and the stylish pop-rock of their recent discs. It is, we are told, their most comprehensive, wide-ranging and fan-friendly disc.
Well, maybe yes and maybe no. But here's something indisputable: Stadium Arcadium, their ninth full-length, is certainly their longest album. Recorded with longtime producer Rick Rubin in the same mansion as 1991's BloodSugarSexMagik, this sprawling set has 28 songs on two hour-long CDs. One disc is called Jupiter. The other, Mars. The former is a little poppier and funkier. The second, fittingly, is a little rockier and heavier -- though it's hardly the yin-yang dynamic of Foo Fighters' In Your Honor. After all, this is about integration, not division, right?
And to be fair, while it never reaches all the way back to the group's earliest work, Stadium Arcadium does touch most of their sonic bases. If, She Looks to Me and Snow ((Hey Oh)) renew their pop credentials. Charlie, Hump De Bump, 21st Century and Warlocks up the heavy funk quotient -- bits of Tell Me Baby and Storm in a Teacup come closest to the old sound. Dani California, Readymade, Torture Me and So Much I bring the rock with blistering solos and layers of guitars.
Actually, pretty much every song is layered, loaded and laced with guitars. Slinky guitars. Plinky guitars. Stinging guitars. Ringing guitars. Growling guitars. Howling guitars. Treated guitars. Mistreated guitars. A veritable army of guitars, coming from all sides, wielded by the band's hardest worker, greatest visionary and all-around MVP: John Frusciante. The prodigal guitarist -- still making up for his lost heroin years -- is the star of this show, firing up these songs with his massive riffs, teasing our ears with his intertwined licks, and blowing the doors off with solo after solo. (How he's going to pull it all off live when they're here in September is anybody's guess.)
Not that the rest of the boys are slacking. The rhythm section is in fine form, with Flea's finger-popping basslines percolating along in perfect synchronicity with the kinetic drive of octopus drummer Chad Smith. Singer Anthony Kiedis is also in good voice, having ditched the barking freaky-stylee rap delivery of his youth for the crooning of Californication. Pity his lyrics haven't matured as much. If there's a weak link here, it's the gobbledygook of his words, which were apparently penned with the aid of a Bible ("I'm a Cain and Abel / Gonna run this table"), an atlas ("I turn to Cuba / Then Aruba then the Dominican") and a rhyming dictionary ("Double chins and bowling pins / Unholy Presbyterians"). On the rare times when he cracks his diary -- like on the wedding proposal Hard to Concentrate -- the results are far more moving and memorable.
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More editing and experimentation might have made Stadium Arcadium more memorable overall. As double albums go, it's strong. But as with all double albums, there's a fair share of repetition and lesser tracks. Supposedly, the band cut 38 songs, but whittled this from a triple-disc set to a double. Maybe they should have trimmed another batch and delivered a single CD of all killer and no filler. And nothing against Rubin, but perhaps it's time for them to work with a producer who forces them out of their comfort zone a little more.
Of course, Stadium Arcadium still beats 2002's By the Way, the band's least funky set -- and, according to some reports, one of their least collaborative efforts. So even if it's not the best of both worlds, it's still a nice little trip on its own.
Track Listing:
Disc 1:
1. Dani California
2. Snow (Hey Oh)
3. Charlie
4. Stadium Arcadium
5. Hump De Bump
6. She's Only 18
7. Slow Cheetah
8. Torture Me
9. Strip My Mind
10. Especially In Michigan
11. Warlocks
12. C'mon Girl
13. Wet Sand
14. Hey
Disc 2:
1. Desecration Smile
2. Tell Me Baby
3. Hard to Concentrate
4. 21st Century
5. She Looks To Me
6. Readymade
7. If
8. Make You Feel Better
9. Animal Bar
10. So Much I
11. Storm In A Teacup
12. We Believe
13. Turn It Again
14. Death of a Martian