So, the boys are back in town! Okay yeah, I’m kind of having a burn out with these intros, let’s just jump into it – Red Hot Chili Peppers, you know em, you love em, or not, that’s okay too – either they’ve been around for a while now and over the years have released many many albums, some better than others but overall stayed somewhat consistent until lately, where I’ll admit I have a sneaking suspicion that the band is now more of a quantity over quality type of deal – like this their SECOND album this year alone. „Unlimited Love“ was the first one and that was a real mixed bag if I’ve ever seen one – so can they manage to top themselves with this one? Well sort of.
It’s still nothing ground-breaking but overall I feel like this is the more enjoyable rhcp experience. Let’s take it more track by track, the album starts off with „Tippa My Tongue“ like one of their most goofiest songs PERIOD. I’ll be the first to admit that on release I really couldn’t stand this one – the „YA YA YA YA“s all over the song and the goofy ah lyrics just rubbed me the wrong way but as the time went by I learned to appriciate this one a bit more even though it’s still far from great. However things fortunately do pickup quite significantly after that with „Peace and Love“ with a drum pattern and bassline that are as smooth as it gets – the chorus is also one of the more memorable ones, not much to complain about with this one, just a pretty smooth and solid rhcp song, nothing more nothing less. „Reach Out“ is another one of my favorites, when the electric guitars hit for the first time it transports me into another dimension, it really comes out of nowhere but in a good way. The chorus is pretty good aswell, it’s just another solid tune. Now after that comes „Eddie“ the other single besides „Tippa My Tongue“ released for this thing and innitially I wrote this song off as just a pretty boring and mediocre b-tier Red Hot Chili Peppers song, however as time goes by I’m seeing more and more that this is not only one of the best songs from this album but best rhcp songs period. Like genuinely, the bass and guitar licks are on another level on this song, it’s super nostalgic and ambitious and infectious, eveerything a good rhcp song should be. Now I just can’t get enough of it – and the guitar solo oh my GOD, that solo absolutely solos (get it). Yeah, this is a pretty good one, can’t believe I used to call this one boring. Next up is „Fake as Fu@k“ and MAN the streak of good songs just doesn’t stop here – this is the first song I confidently said I loved from this album, the guitar chords are supper nostlagic and pleasant and the vocal performance really matches the tone – and then whene the rest of the instrumentation hits I get some serious „By The Way“ vibes, it goes super hard. This song is like the musical embodiment of funky, it’s super groovy. And when the guitars come in like a wave crashing towards the end of the song it just makes it all that more complete, great song. After that we have „Bella“ and honestly this song is where I start loosing focus again – it’s not bad at all, but just nothing about it stands out that much, even though out of the less memorable ones I still think it’s one of the more memorable ones. I like some guitar licks in the second half and I like the chorus but I also kinda don’t, I’m not sure, I‘ really conflicted with this one, but I enjoy it in the right mood. After that comes „Roulette“ that I kinda dug in the first 30 seconds or so, but it really fastly overstays it’s welcome and becomes just super unintresting – the guitar ballad-esk chorus doesn’t really do it any justice either. Not great but certainly not the worst this album has to offer. I kinda like the bridge on this one though, it somewhat saves it. Anyways next up we have „My Cigarette“ and yeah… This one’s a bit goofy alright. Yeah it’s not that great – again, not terrible but this time around definetly not good. I get the vibe the song is going for but it just comes of really cheezy and I get sick of it real fast – and once again, the song doesn’t really evolve anywhere to justify it being so long. I usually just skip this one when giving this album a full listen, it’s not offensively bad but just really boring. „Afterlife“ picks up a bit, I really like the chorus on this one and the noisy outro aswell, however it doesn’t have all that much going for it besides that, but after the last song I’ll sure as hell take it. Next is „Shoot Me a Smile“ and I feel like this is perhaps the most underrated song on the album, the chords are just super nice and the chorus is just a total earworm, I really enjoyed this one. And it’s weird because I really don’t see anyone even mentioning this one, like not in a good or even bad sense, for most people this one apparently just sort of exists, but I can’t help but really like this one. Also it’s not five fricking minutes long like every other song on this thing, so it also has that going for it. Anyways next is the song „Handful“ and this one could have worked, I really like the inclussion of horns, they add a nice little charm to the song, but overall the song just basically crawls its way through the 4 minute doing basically nothing. There is this neat little switch up with a guitar solo and all that but it just has no balls, no punch to it. Really kind of a wasted potential of a song. What’s however like the opposite of that is the next song „The Drummer“ an absolute anomally in this subpar middle portion of this album – I’m just gonna go ahead and say it, this song kicks some serious ass. Like it’s just so different but in the best way possible. The horns or whatever it is throughout the whole song sound amazing and the energy of this song is really hard to ignore. Also the chorus?? That will go down as one of the best rhcp choruses ever – and when they start harmonizing the guitars with the singing I just explode with pure musical bliss, that short like 15 second passage is probably the best musical moment on this whole album. It’s short, it’s sweet, it absolutely rules, i love it. And what’s even better is the next song „Bag of Grins“ is another banger! Like I don’t know what happened for the last couple of songs but it feels like you put on this album, it’s really good for the first few songs, then it just switches to a completely different project and then remembers that it’s supposed to be good again. Anyways yes, this is like the upraded version of „Reach Out“, the electric guitars here sound even better than on that song and the electronics aren’t obnoxious at all. The chorus is actually really dark and I get some serious Queens Of the Stone Age vibes from it. The whole song feels like a slow descend to hell. Also the harmonizing around the 3:50 minute mark is super orgasmic, I really like what they did there and when the electronics come back in it all just comes full circle, really pleased with this one. Anyways next is the song „La La La La La La La La“ which is this piano interlude thing that honestly even though I’ve seen a lot of hate on it is just fine – it’s not mind-blowing or anything, but I feel like it’s a nice comedown after the last two songs. However I’ll say that one again it has no business being 4 minutes long, 2 minutes would cut it perfectly. Anyways next up we have „Copperbelly“ on which I really like the guitar plucking, it’s sort of mysterious, I like it. Other than that though the song is just copy and paste of what they’ve been doing this whole album, although I’ll point out that the switch up bridge part whatever you wanna call it is probably like the best of this entire album, I really wish they stretched that part a bit longer, it’s over like as soon as it starts. Good song. Now for the last 2 songs on this album we have the first one which is „Carry Me Home“ which I actually really like, it feels very appropriately placed and very climactic. The guitars are super sharp and elevate the song to new heights, this one’s a banger. However the last song „In the snow“ I’m kind of split on – I think all the attempts at incorporating electronics and effects on this song just fall flat on their face, it sounds super garage band demo-esk. However as a closer I don’t mind it all that much – sure it’s not great and it DEFINETLY shouldn’t be 6 minutes long but as a closer it works, even though that as a song not that much.
So there you go, the new Red Hot Chili Peppers is… Surprisingly solid? Like there are some SERIOUS highlights on here and overall I had more fun with this album them with their last one even though just by a little bit. Kind of excited to see them come more into their own here, I feel like they are more confident here to experiment and to just be themselves, it’s clear that this is the album they wanted to make.
-favorite songs: Peace and Love, Reach Out, Eddie, Fake as Fu@k, Shoot Me a Smile, The Drummer, Bag of Grins, parts of Copperbelly, Carry Me Home
-least favorite songs: Bella, My Cigarette and probably Handul
Light 7/10