EVERYTHING ZEN
SOCK-CLAD FUNK PHILOSOPHERS INDULGE IN TWO-DISC SET THAT’S FULL OF CONTRASTS
RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS
STADIUM ARCADIUM 000%
WARNER BROS.
RED HOT CHILI Peppers aren’t quite national treasures, but they’ve got all the makings of family jewels: Wellsprings of testosterone, their relentlessly honed funk-core continues to inspire hordes of crotch-clutchers. Nine albums, seven guitarists and 83,000 grams of heroin into their career, though, they’ve become more and more spiritual. This elegant, sporadi-cally surprising double-disc set—which was first envisioned as three separate CDs to be released in six-month intervals—pits the notorious party band against its own thirst for transcen-dence as never before.
There’s happiness in the Peppers’ personal universe these days: intra-group harmony, new babies, new loves. The band are likely grateful to have survived themselves, but the lessons they’ve learned haven’t translated into a new vision, just a load of new songs. Overseen by Zen-like longtime producer Rick Rubin, they devote their legendary chops to judicious grooves sculpted like Bonsai trees, and luxuriate in the sound. Guitar great John Frusciante’s minimalist splashes play perfectly off Flea’s sinuous basslines: this is virile, excited music.
A few songs happen to be very good, whether they’re intended to stoke the pit (riff monster “Readymade”) or sketch celestial realms (jazz-inflected weepie “Snow (Hey Oh)”). But what they all have in common is frontman Anthony Kiedis’s ambivalence about clean, soul-nourishing living. In the punky, incandescent “Torture Me,” Kiedis reins in his poetry, masochistically repeating, “It’s what I know” (torture, that is). It’s a tug-of-war between the hedonist and the herbal-tea enthusiast, and the album’s most exciting moments come when it’s unsure which will win.
NICK CATUCCI
DOWNLOAD: “Dani California,” “Snow (Hey Oh),” “Torture Me”
Anthony Kiedis proved it’s not the size of your horn. it’s how you use it. The Chili Peppers took home awards in four categories for their dope double disc, Stadium Arcadium (from left: John Frusciante. Flea. Kiedis and Chad Smith).
Red Hot Chili Peppers Stadium Arcadium
Current UK Sales: 202,000
The Lowdown: “For people to steal a poor sound quality version because some asshole put it on the internet is sad to me,” griped bassist Flea after the Californian rock behemoths’ ninth album was leaked a week before its release. It didn’t do them any harm —Stadium Arcadium sold almost 70,000 more copies in its first week than its predecessor, 2002’s By The Way. Expect this one to be around for a longtime.
Q Rating: ***** (Reviewed in Q239)
RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS (May)
Again teaming with producer Rick Rubin, the Cali funk-rockers’ Stadium Arcadium builds on the concise maturity of their recent work while reconnecting with the “sprightly, playful energy [of] our first three records,” says frontman Anthony Kiedis. Three months of writing yielded a whopping 38 songs (“It was a little too fruitful…downright fruity”), so they mulled releasing three separate CDs or one long disc before settling on a 25-track double album. “We felt [these songs] should be heard as a group,” says Kiedis. “Even though this is the day and age of bytes, there are a lot of people who need the full director’s cut.” Sans commentary track, of course.
Explain Yourself: Red Hot Chili Peppers
In the new Chili Peppers video, “Dani California,” the group gleefully references bands like the Beatles, Parliament, and the Sex Pistols. Which is entertaining and all…until their nod to a sullen Kurt Cobain—with a candle extinguishing before him—suddenly puts a damper on the festivities. And we weren’t the only ones who noticed. “It was a big concern of [Chili Peppers bassist] Flea’s,” says the clip’s director Tony Kaye (American History X). “Flea asked [ex-Nirvana drummer] Dave Grohl if it was okay. Dave said yeah—Nirvana was about having fun, We wouldn’t call this homage “fun,” but it certainly did strike a chord. —Tim Stack