Return of the Dream Canteenrelease date: Oct. 14, 2022
format: digital (17 x File, FLAC)
[album rate: 3,5 / 5] [3,46]
producer: Rick Rubin
label: Warner Records - nationality: USA
13th studio album by Red Hot Chili Peppers is the band's second full-length studio of the year following only 6 months after Unlimited Love, the band's first with returning guitarist John Frusciante. Both albums are with old associate Rick Rubin in the producer seat and together they have made two distinct RHCP albums with a more laid-back style founded on a great deal of improvisations and on a mutual understanding of "the real" RHCP sound. The first album included 17 tracks running for almost 75 minutes, and this new collection doubles that with its 75 minutes running time and 17 new compositions.
Wow! The scale of these two alone is an impressive achievement. In terms of style and sound they are closely related but it what strikes me is that this latter release seems more elaborated and less founded on free improvs, and since all 34 recordings stem from the same sessions it's likely that they have chosen a smart procedure of releasing the more incoherent collection first - it did come as the first RHCP album in six years and would be a most natural success alone from being the first new recordings for a very long time. This second collection contains several tracks that are more melody-based traditional compositions with A-, B-, and chorus parts, and it comes out as the more accessible collection.
I'm not a big fan of RHCP's improvisations, and in my mind, this new album just is a better album. That said, it's still difficult for a band like this to establish a strong bond to its musical traditions, its very distinct style and sound and still come up with something new. The album - or it basically applies both of the band's two albums of 2022 - is RHCP classic. This is not a band like U2, who all of a sudden comes up with a new sound but a band who has become stars via a certain combo of modern psychedlic rock, which bases its sound on a fusion of funk and alternative rock, and there's no intentions in changing that, which also means that what you get what you expect. No more, no less. And that's probably the weakness of the album - it's simply founded on previous releases, and every once in a while, you end up thinking "ah, this is based on that particular songt from that album", and I guess, there's no intentions in hiding that - it's simply a bunch of new songs building on old material.
[ allmusic.com 3 / 5, Pitchfork 6,3 / 10 stars ]
