We Could All Come Up With Something New

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Stadium Arcadium

Warner, 2006

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Okay, I'm really glad this album came out. But damn it has a stupid title, and even more stupid cover art:

Yeah.
My favorite RHCP album has got to be One Hot Minute, but I think most fans of that album will sort of concede that it doesn't really fit into the Peppers' natural progression. I like Blood Sugar Sex Magik, but it sort of gets bogged down somewhere in all the same-tempo funk/reggae thing that they do on that album. Californication, on the other hand, sort of drags in all of the melodic slow and soft junk that they do so well on that album (which is why I didn't even spend time listening to By The Way ;I'll have to revisit it).

Stadium Arcadium feels like it's somewhere in the midde of these three albums. It's got a lot of melodic softness with some really great hooks and melodies and so on, and the softness is balanced with straight-up rocking, and the rocking is fully loaded with RHCP's trademark funk and even some of that old-style rap that they used to do. Yeah, lots of attitude.

The technicality of (some of) the songs is stepped up a few notches from their usual, which is really cool. Frusciante is all over the guitar with some technical soloing, a lot of effects-driven guitar noise, and some excellent and quicker leads in both soft and loud songs. The drums freaking pound. I wish Flea was a little more free go do his sloppy slap thing; he seems sort of restrained and a bit too perfect.

Of course the lyrics are, as usual, sort of stupid.

I like the whole disc. The soft stuff is catchy and has a surprising amount of variety. The rocking stuff just rocks. Listen to it.