Stadium Arcadium

Description

Anthony Kiedis of the Red Hot Chili Peppers calls the
band’s first new album in four years, Stadium Arcadium, the most-anticipated
album of the spring, “the best thing that we’ve ever done….There’s this
weird kind of sublime, subliminal undercurrent that is suggestive, in a
spirited way, of our earliest records.” Exuding all the passion, energy, and
funked-up rock that have made the Red Hot Chili Peppers one of the most
popular bands in history, the 2-CD Stadium Arcadium, simply put, will knock
your socks off. Four-year career hiatuses followed by sprawling
double-albums could spell trouble for a band of the Chili Peppers’ stature:
consider they’d originally recorded enough for three discs. The restless,
trouble-plagued outfit that helped break alternative rock into the mainstream
with a potent fusion of punk ‘n’ funk in the ’80s finds itself two decades on
almost completely devoid of the former’s energetic abandon, while the latter’s
effusive rhythms are considerably subdued over the course of this two-hour,
28-track collection. It’s not so much that the Peppers have lost their
muscular, often uber-macho edge as they have willfully tamed it in service of
mature reinvention here. The mellower, often introspective, if no less potent
pop ethos that characterized the crossover hit “Under the Bridge” blossoms
fully here on tracks like disc one’s “Snow,” “Wet Sand,” and the jazz-cool of
“Hey.” The title track, “Desecration Smile,” and “She Looks To Me” finds them
venturing further into laid back pop ballad territory, while the tricky
rhythms of “Dani California,” “Charlie,” and “So Much I” eventually kick into
familiar top gear on the pop-savvy “Tell Me Baby” and hip-hop seasoned “Storm
in a Teacup.” It’s not that there’s a paucity of musical adventure here (“If”
and “Animal Bar” finds them wafting into Floydish neo-psychedelia while “Make
You Feel Better” seems to channel no less than Joe Jackson) but that it’s
delivered with a subtlety–and dare we say it?–tasteful musical restraint
that’s a stark contrast to the band’s early, overly overt nature. There’s
perhaps too much mid-tempo simmering and reflection going on; like most
double-albums it could be focused into a much more compelling single disc. But
that seems largely beside the Peppers’ hooks-over-histrionics point here: an
unlikely record to kick back to, and one that both challenges assumptions and
eases the band into middle age with an oft languorous, if undeniably savory
groove. –Jerry McCulley

Features:

Product Details:

• Is Discontinued By Manufacturer ‏ : ‎ No
• Language ‏ : ‎ English
• Product Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.59 x 4.92 x 0.39 inches; 4.16 Ounces
• Manufacturer ‏ : ‎ Warner Records
• Item model number ‏ : ‎ 2031805
• Original Release Date ‏ : ‎ 2006
• SPARS Code ‏ : ‎ DDD
• Date First Available ‏ : ‎ July 25, 2006
• Label ‏ : ‎ Warner Records