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Album Details
- Artist: Red Hot Chili Peppers
- Album: Stadium Arcadium
- Label: Warner
- Year of Release: 2006
- ME Rating:
- Reviewed by: MusicCritic on 2011-03-21
RecommendThe more things change, the more they stay the same. A cliche? Yes. But it could also be the mission statement behind Red Hot Chili Peppers epic ninth album, Stadium Arcadium. Over a sprawling 28 tracks, RHCP have never been better. Borrowing the best elements from BloodSugarSexMagik and By The Way, they've simply created their most complete album to date.
Flea and Chad Smith are predictably great as the rhythm section, and Anthony Kiedis experiments with his new found vocal range throughout the album, but the bona fide star of the album is John Frusciante, whose guitar heroics see to it that the album never bores. Leaping all over the map from the band's patented funk ('Charlie,' 'Tell Me Baby') to the more melodic ballads ('Snow,' 'Hard to Concentrate'), the band sounds firmly comfortable with either style.
You can search all you want for the expected filler that would come on a double album, but there's none to be found on Arcadium. In fact, much of the album's best material is buried at the end of the second disc. 'Storm in a Teacup' is their best funk song since 'Suck My Kiss,' and 'Make You Feel Better' might just be their best song ever. When the Peppers announced that they had too many good ideas to only release one album, they were right.
Each of the Chili Peppers are well into their 40s, and they've been a band for almost a quarter century. On Stadium Arcadium though, the band sounds anything but old.
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on 2011-03-21 CharlesMartel Said:
By rights, I should not own this album. I have never liked Anthony Kiedis' voice and the tendency for the band to launch into funk-rock rap is something which should drive me to reach for the nearest Chameleons album. The Red Hot Chili Peppers have, over the years, issued the occasional track which interested me, but there was never anything, album-wise, substantive enough to capture and hold my attention. Yet, in my quest for something new to listen to (and to fill up my wishlist with something to buy) this album was something which ended up on the list.
To start with, let me tell you how that worked. I have got into the habit of testing out albums before I buy them, something I try, not always successfully, to keep to. I therefore downloaded six tracks off the album and listened to them. I then decided whether I would like to buy the album or not, deleting the downloads once I had made up my mind. In the case of those six tracks I liked what I was hearing sufficiently to buy the album. And so, "Stadium Arcadium" ended up on the list and in my collection.
The sad truth is, the six tracks I downloaded were the six best tracks on the album. In fact, there are only four tracks on this album really - the remaining twenty-four tracks are just one of those four tracks repeated with slightly different variations (or so it seems). This may be unfair in some people's eyes, but for an album of this length, if there is insufficient variety in the style of the music, then it becomes difficult to listen to the whole album. And I have listened to this album, all the way through, many times. After a while I just becomes unutterably dull and boring.
" Dani California" and "Snow (Hey Oh)" are the two best tracks. They also lead the album. Is that a coincidence? I think not. "Readymade " is OK once it gets going, and then there is another quite likeable track about two thirds of the way in (or maybe that is " Readymade" , I can't tell). And that is it really. With those tracks you have summed up the album completely.
The rest of the tracks just blur together, nothing outstanding, nothing to really grip you and nothing which forces you to listen. On the way into work I decided to sit and listen (I mean really listen) to the album. I wasn't going to read the paper or allow my mind to wander, I was going to listen properly all the way through. Truth is, my mind wandered off and I never really got through more than about six tracks before it all just seemed to become largely indistinguishable. Before long I was longing for a copy of a newspaper or a puzzle book to give my mind something to do.
Don't get me wrong, this album isn't a bad album in many ways. The songs are well played. Kiedis' voice is not as irritating as it can sometimes be and the lyrics, well some of them are pretty silly at times, but if you slagged off every band with silly lyrics you'd have a limited range of music to choose from. No the problem with this album is that it is too formulaic to last for 28 songs. Had the band sorted through this and ditched about half the tracks and released what was left as a single album, it would have been better. As it is, what you end up with a couple of good tracks fronting what is essentially an album of elevator music.
Rating: 5/10
