Red Hot Chili Peppers
Stadium Arcadium

THE REVIEW

GENRE: Funk-Rock, Pop-Rock, Alternative Rock, Funk, AOR

After a first listen where I couldn't go beyond a 5, I made an effort to find not only the negatives but also the positives, listening to it about twenty times, and I must say that some noteworthy insights can be found especially by completely forgetting who they were and taking the CD as it is without making uncomfortable comparisons with the past, ultimately arriving at a 6.5.

Track by track commentary:

DANI CALIFORNIA:
positive aspects:
- gritty chorus
- powerful solo
- video
- It's Rock
negative aspects:
- nursery rhyme-like and not very charged verse
- borderline plagiarism (verse between Aerosmith's Dream On and Sweet Home Alabama, Solo of Hendrix's Purple Haze, chords to Petty's Mary Jane’s Last Dance)
- slightly long

SNOW:
positive aspects:
- Intro
- It's a Crescendo
- Not an obvious structure
negative aspects:
- somewhat whiny
- similar to Zephyr Song
- definitely too long

CHARLIE:
positive aspects:
- Offbeat bass-guitar weave à la Zeppelin's The Crunge
- funk vibe
- Flea's backing vocals
negative aspects:
- Anthony's lack of energy in the verse
- lively yet bland chorus
- a bit lost along the way.

STADIUM ARCADIUM
positive aspects:
- nice use of backing vocals
- melody not to be discarded and fairly epic
- atmospheric Floydian solo
- nice orchestration
- It's a bit Californication version 2.0
negative aspects:
- a little whiny
- hard to get to the end
- they could have cut the last minute and a half without changing anything
- first of too many ballads

HUMP DE DUMP
positive aspects:
- nice groove
- hints of rap in the chorus
- drum and Clintonian bass solo
- horn section
negative aspects:
- Anthony sings unconvincingly when he says hump de dump
- horns a bit haphazardly placed
- lacks a guitar riff

SHE's ONLY 18
positive aspects:
- epic chorus
- decent melody
- simple but effective structure
- vocal games in the verse
negative aspects:
- nothing particularly innovative
- something's missing

SLOW CHEETAH:
positive aspects:
- convincing acoustic-relaxed atmosphere
- melody and vocals in the verse
negative aspects:
- chorus too By The Wayish
- experimental but useless last minute
- a bit long

TORTURE ME:
positive aspects:
- Flea's intro
- Finally some energy
- Trumpets that fit perfectly
negative aspects:
- mediocre chorus melody
- really avoidable slow part

STRIP MY MIND
positive aspects:
- not among the longest slow tracks
- basic but decent melody
- would have stood out on BTW
- how many other bands do these ballads in 2006?
negative aspects:
- another ballad
- not very original
- dull and too frusciante-like
- how many other bands do these ballads in 2006?

ESPECIALLY IN MICHIGAN
positive aspects:
- New sound for the peppers
- Omar Rodriguez
- Epic chorus
- Solo
negative aspects:
- too much Edge-sound in the verse
- melody needs revising
- gets lost, structure needs revising

WARLOCKS
positive aspects:
- grooving
- nice verse
negative aspects:
- adds nothing
- melodies and vocals too BTWyane
- repetitive

C'MON GIRL
positive aspects:
- flea's disco bass
- light but nice melody
- Chad and overall explosion in the chorus
negative aspects:
- too repetitive towards the end of the song
- repetitive
- dispersive solo

WET SAND
positive aspects:
- atmospheric
- verse melody
- solo
negative aspects:
- verse melody repeated too much
- too long (cut a minute before and leave the solo, right?)
- comes before another sleepy song

HEY
positive aspects:
- new sounds for the peppers
- cheaper than valium
negative aspects:
- goodnight
- yawn-worthy chorus
- almost 6 minutes of pure whining
- never explodes

DESECRATION SMILE:
positive aspects:
- acoustic intro and accompaniment in general
- incredibly simple chorus but more convincing than the old version.
- there's worse on the album
negative aspects:
- self-plagiarism of the verse (dosed)
- ridiculous lalallalalalala backing vocals
- slightly long
- 3 consecutive slow songs are heavy

TELL ME BABY:
positive aspects:
- John's intro
- rhythm and funky groove shift
- Flea's slap bass
- some guitar bursts
- semi-rap piece
negative aspects:
- Anthony dim and follows the guitar too much in the verse
- nursery rhyme-like chorus repeated too much
- better live
- leaves nothing

HARD TO CONCENTRATE:
positive aspects:
- slight experimentation
- verse a bit lou reed-like
negative aspects:
- melodic passages too by the wayish
- generally a bizarre drag
- lasts less than other mind-numbing tracks

21st CENTURY
positive aspects:
- flea's duck-bass
- good rhythm
- chorus with decent energy and melody
- final solo
negative aspects:
- anthony in the verse is slap-worthy
- lost a lot of power in the chorus compared to live
- gets lost a bit in the slow part followed by the verse.

SHE LOOKS TO ME
positive aspects:
- not sure there are any
negative aspects:
- some melodic resemblance to on mercury
- says nothing
- typical by the way song

READYMADE:
positive aspects:
- a bit of energy
- 70s hard rock atmosphere
- RATM-like riff
- Chad in counter time
negative aspects:
- no Zack to sing
- bass plagiarism (mountain song by Jane's Addiction)
- too repetitive and poorly structured
- not their territory and at times it shows

IF:
positive aspects:
- pretty little dittiana-like instrumental part
- short duration
negative aspects:
- replaceable
- pure sleepiness

MADE YOU FEEL BETTER:
positive aspects:
- decent verse
negative aspects:
- first 30 seconds too similar to iggy pop's works (worse)
- another typically By The Wayana song
- forgettable refrain
- chad does practically the same thing throughout the song

ANIMAL BAR:
positive aspects:
- flea's bass as the protagonist
- 80s atmosphere
- aggressive chorus with excellent choral interweaving
negative aspects:
- too long
- somewhat dull verse and filled with unnecessary harmonies
- too much a midpoint between whining and powerful song

SO MUCH I
positive aspects:
- speed and rhythm section
- catchy and earworm of a chorus
- they didn't drag it forever
negative aspects:
- the A-A-A-AAA-AAA-AAA
- when he says Somaccia it's cringe-worthy
- chorus too catchy bordering on Cheap Trick

STORM IN TEACUP:
positive aspects:
- similar to OHM era (One Big Mob, Love Rollercoaster)
- finally some convincing rap
- potential single
- one of the best
negative aspects:
- when anthony indulges in similar rap ending each verse with "som"
- strange structure (intro-verse-chorus and copy-paste x3)

WE BELIEVE:
positive aspects:
- jazz-fusion-like intro and background
- unique verse
negative aspects:
- predictable and dull chorus
- easily avoidable

TURN IT AGAIN
positive aspects:
- funky instrumentation even if slow
- power shift between verse and chorus
- frusciante practically does a solo during the chorus
- very long solo
negative aspects:
- should have been half as long
- somewhat annoying melody
- avoidable central part
- too many harmonies

DEATH OF A MARTIAN
positive aspects:
- kiedis's monologue with apocalyptic atmosphere in the background
- melody not to be discarded
negative aspects:
- third slow consecutive song
- somewhat sluggish
- ghosts of by the way and some b-side resurface in the verse and chorus
- dedicated to a dog

Summary/commentary:

The sound of "By The Way" was hard to shake off, so we are faced with an album that attempts to combine the sounds of the last CD with more "Californication"-like sounds and some vain attempts to dive back into funk, a genre that seems distant from their souls now. Probably this desire (or rather an attempt) to please everyone led to the creation of a double CD with 28 songs, where we find almost all the facets of the peppers' sound, except perhaps that raw and crazy early sound (which is only natural at 40 years old). Here everything is well thought out, clean sounds, melodies between catchy and sophisticated, but the melodies themselves seem to be one of the weaker aspects of the CD when compared to the epic and virtually perfect ones of "Californication". Other issues arise from the excessive length of both the album and some negligible songs and the lack of energy and explosiveness released by the production.

In some songs, we also find hints of experimentation, but barely noticeable, that an untrained ear wouldn't even notice. A slight step forward compared to "By The Way" if only because the 15 best songs of "Stadium Arcadium" overall are better than "By The Way", due to the greater variety and more presence of Flea.

We couldn't expect 28 masterpieces, but surely a bit more energy and an Anthony less focused on singing and more on explosiveness would have made the album much more interesting. It's not an immediate album also because there are 28 songs to absorb and let grow slowly, but they never surpass (except in a few moments) the level of medium-good.

POSITIVE ASPECTS:
-Flea is more present
-More solos and space for instruments than in BTW
-28 songs at the price of one CD
-Some pleasant tracks
-Anthony has learned to sing
-Minimal hints of experimentation
-Grows with listens
-Interesting insights
-3-4 excellent songs

NEGATIVE ASPECTS:
-Anthony has learned to sing
-Anthony lacks grit and energy
- Production needs revising and is a bit bland
- The Funk tracks are not authentic and too melodic in the choruses
- Melodies not always up to par if compared to classic ones
- 4-5 bland and unnecessary ballads too many
- Some negligible songs are too long
- Hard to reach the end without skipping

SCORE: 6.5