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Red Hot Chili Peppers: Stadium Arcadium
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Stadium Arcadium - [Warner Bros. Records]

2006-06-30

The new Red hot chili peppers isn't easy to consume, overbooked with information, more varied then their earlier once, and most of all, somewhat of a test to their fans. You have to love this band on order to like this album.

A double album is always a project that will need a good justification for making, and of course, adding more length is a bigger chance for it to turn for the worse, though, if you do it right victory and taste of accomplish will be sweeter then ever.
Bands who already conquered success are now trying to go up to the next level, trying to create "ambitious efforts" and "great masterpieces" by putting out a double album, something that will hopefully be titled as their “best album yet"; the Foo Fighters have done it about a year ago, with great success, making one album to be the regular ass-kicking rock album and the second as quite an intimate one - in my opinion this is their greatest album to date, with every track being nothing less then perfect.

The new peppers album is not exactly built on the same concept; this one is a double album as well but with no special division between albums, groove Funk anthems are mixed with heart touching soft songs, creating a mixture of 28 (pop) funk rock songs.

"Stadium Arcadium" was meant to be their most ambitious, critically acclaimed album ever, it was meant to be this way since phase one, it was even meant to be a triple album as the peppers felt they were overflowing with ideas, eventually it remained as a double album.

First album is called Jupiter, this is the one the peppers would've released if they had to release only one album, this one sounds just right to be a new chili peppers album. The hit single "Dani California" was taken from this side as well, rumors has it that this song completes a trilogy that started of in the song "Salifornication" and all way through the song "By the way" and gets its closer here on "Dani California". The video clip that was filmed for the track is a tribute to rock music throughout the times, from sixties bands such as The Shadows, through bands like Funkadelik and The misfits, Sex pistols, even the Nirvana (Unplugged) was brought into the mix, this could be placed as a metaphor for where the peppers music stands at this album, the album has songs that sound as if they were picked from different albums that the band has already released, the more flowery style of “By the way” to more funky material that could have easily suited "Blood sugar sex magic". This goes for better and worse, because the peppers give us all their best, but without doing anything actually new, but if you've liked them before, this will really blow your mind.

The second album is the one that justifies “Stadium Arcadium” as a double album, most if not all tracks are beautiful, and more varied then the Red Hot’s usual sound, on this one they focus more on songs that I believe usually would have been left out on the editing room floor, exposing a different side to the peppers, with some nice touching ballads, and some down-beat funk; this is the more mature peppers sound, the one that proves that they know how to do the work in both ways, as eternal teenagers with rough funk sound, as well as a more adult version where you can sit down and just enjoy the music around you.

Since the peppers’ last album, John Frucsiante has been working full time on new music for his own projects, and basically just improved himself more and more, on “Stadium Arcadium” he brings it all back with him to the studio, and upgrades the chili peppers sound up more than a few levels, but brings them to a whole new level with enriched compositions and arrangements, doing heavenly vocal and guitar parts on almost all songs.

The problem with this album is that it's not properly engineered, the tracklist has a week a&r on it, and it gets the album to sometimes sound a bit too long and tiring, also you can't find a "movement" on it, from the point you begin to where you end you don't get the feeling of an experience, you don't feel that you've moved from one point to another but more like remained in the same spot, which for me is a troubled issue; of course when you get to know the songs it gets a lot better, but it does make adjusting to it quite difficult at times, you can just put it on shuffle, and it won't hurt the album’s experience as a whole.

The bottom line – this is a great, mature sounding, Red hot chili peppers album, finding them at their fourties in great shape, showing us the full spectrum of their talents. I can hardly think of a song that could have been left out, 28 songs of enjoyment with some real jewel pearls on it, you just have to find the song that moves you on board.

Roy Povarchik



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