Red Hot Chili Peppers "Return of the Dream Canteen" (2022)

Return of the Dream Canteen

release 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 ]

Red Hot Chili Peppers "Unlimited Love" (2022)

Unlimited Love

release date: Apr. 1, 2022

format: digital (17 x File, FLAC)

[album rate: 3 / 5] [3,16]

producer: Rick Rubin

label: Warner Bros. - nationality: USA

12th studio album by RHCP following nearly 6 full years after The Getaway (Jun. 2016). Aside from Rubin is back as producer, the biggest news is that this new album welcomes back John Frusciante, who then replaces Josh Klinghofer - the substitute for Frusciante for eleven years but also a guitarist who only contributed to the band's discography on the 2011 album I'm With You and on the 2016 album.

With Frusciante back, the band is reformed in its most potent line-up and Unlimited Love is just one of two full studio albums of the year - and with its 17 tracks and a total of 73 minutes running time, it's not even a short one!

Fans cheer and jump in joy - that's what they do, when their idols release new stuff, right! But it's been awhile since I saw myself as a "real" fan. I really enjoyed I'm With You, but since then, I found they mostly just seemed to lean back in the seats resting on their merits to live their own idolised rock star lives. Granted, it must be difficult to reinvent themselves, but with this it seems they just give it a go - perhaps thinking: "let's be loose, let's jam along and see where it takes us." And yes, a lot of people respond positively to this their certified most laidback album ever. Frusciante adds his neo-psychedelic electric vibes, Flea and Smith provide a punchy rhythm section as back bone, and Kiedis... well he mostly just babbles on, the way only he knows and the end result is solid RHCP. It's just without new strong songs - in fact there's hardly one great tune, but who give a shjite? It's RHCP, and they are entitled to release whatever they feel like. So that's it. Not an immediate favourite. Not in near future. In fact, not ever, but they play well together sounding like a RHCP copy band copying RHCP giving it as RHCP...

[ allmusic.com, Classic Rock 3,5 / 5, Pitchfork 5,4 / 10, Rolling Stone 4 / 5 stars ]

Red Hot Chili Peppers "Blood Sugar Sex Magik" (1991)

Blood Sugar Sex Magik

release date: Sep. 24, 1991

format: 2 lp vinyl (gatefold)

[album rate: 4 / 5] [4,12]

producer: Rick Rubin

label: Warner Bros. - nationality: USA

5th studio album by Red Hot Chili Peppers following two years after Mother's Milk (Aug. 1989) is the band's first after signing with Warner and the second to feature new guitarist John Frusciante and drummer Chad Smith.

Blood Sugar Sex Magik introduces a new sound of the band. Like Mother's Milk was a turn away from the psychedelic and funky acid-rock into something with a stronger heavy rock profile, Blood Sugar Sex Magik is yet again a move in a new direction. On this, they still play as a tight energetic unit, but where the predecessor was in a way more focussing on old school rock with a heavy metal influence, this appears as a conglomorate of psychedelic rock, funk rock, and punk rock with room for other stylistic influences and melody-based compositions but held together in an original soundscape of their very own.

The album was met by critical acclaim, overwhelming sales numbers and it basically sky-rocketed the band from theatre concerts to stadium arenas. Apparently, the success was more than Frusciante had ever wanted and he found it more than difficult to come to terms with the fact that the tight unit he had only just entered now was about to be promoted as a major act. Disillusioned, following the release and still well into a promotion tour, Frusciante eventually left the band in early '92 and was subsequently replaced by Arik Marshall for the rest of the tour.

The album is enlisted in "1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die". In retrospect (as of 2015), Blood Sugar Sex Magik remains the band's best album.

[ allmusic.com, Mojo 5 / 5, Rolling Stone, Q Magazine, Select 4 / 5 stars ]