The Red Hot Chili Peppers are back with
their second album, Return of the Dream Canteen of this year their 13th
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.
