Return of the Dream Canteen-Red Hot Chili Peppers Album Review:

 

The Red Hot Chili Peppers are back with their second album, Return of the Dream Canteen of this year their 13^th album. It was produced Rick Rubin and recorded during the same sessions like the other album this year (Unlimited Love). The band initially intended for 40 of the tracks to be released as one album, spread over seven physical discs but the band's label, Warner Bros. Records, resisted this release strategy, with a "compromise" being reached where the band split thirty-four songs across two separate studio albums.  The band sequenced both Unlimited Love and Return of the Dream Canteen to become distinct listening experiences from one another: "We thought, 'These [songs] go together here and these go together there and, look, we’ve got two things, both great.”

This album has 17 songs and is almost an hour and twenty minutes which is better than most of artists nowadays that barely put 8 songs on an album or most songs are less than three minutes as most on this are four minutes or longer. There are a few a songs that definitely rock out but is ruined when lead singer Anthony Kiedis talks fast/raps or even narrates during the track in “Tippa of my Tongue” (number one single on rock & Alt airplay charts), “Bella” (has their old school sound to it), “Afterlife” and “In the snow” (one of the synthesizer tracks sounds like 80s music). The weirdest song is “My Cigarette” is the dumbest song but has some nice vocals (another synthesizer track) and ends with a nice jazz blend.

Tracks “Reach out” and “Fake as F**K” each rock out but then have quieter paces to it as the latter is good at mixing the paces well while the former is one of the better songs on the album.  With songs like “Eddie” which has a really long solo, “Shoot me a smile” which is one of the better songs, “The Drummer” despite being about a drummer has keyboard heavily featured, “Bag of grins” and “Copperbelly” all are fast paced and rock out.

Songs like “Carry me home” which really rocks out, “La La x6” has a really good keyboard sound to it (one of the best songs on the album), “Roulette” which has a funky sound to it, and “Peace & Love” one of the slower paced songs which has a beautiful sound to it (one of the best songs on the album) all are some of the most emotional songs on this album. Lastly, the track “Handful” has a very interesting sound to it/the vocals are really interesting and rocks out like most songs do.

Overall it is nice that a rock band actually made a rock album that rocks out unlike other rock bands who claim they came out with a rock album but then it is not. They seem to be back in a groove of making consistent albums instead of trading off good and bad albums with the last three albums. My only issue is that is it is actually has too many songs due to how long each one is and some seem to go on for too long sometimes and some could have been left on the cutting floor as well. Thank you Red Hot Chili Peppers for coming out with two good albums in one year to add their quality discography as they have indeed returned.