And then suddenly Chad Smith is gone, the drummer. Twice even and both times replaced by one of those decidedly original old analogue drum machines from the 80s. There are people who can accurately hear which of the early computers, which for the layperson are very similarly stumbling, is robotizing right there, but these are highly suspicious people who spend a lot of time on YouTube.
Here it can only be guessed semi-foundedly that “My Cigarette” might be a Roland TR-909 – and “In The Snow”, the last song of the new (yes, again) album by the Red Hot Chili Pepperspretty sure it’s an 808. You know their clapper, which is very thick in the base and very stiff in the hips, from many hip-hop productions from the nineties, from Run DMC for example, but particularly exalted by Marvin Gaye’s “Sexual Healing”.
The Red Hot Chili Peppers, who since 1988 have had the world’s (at least) the most accommodating, shuffle-fidel rock drummer in their ranks, aren’t very familiar. Otherwise.
The chili peppers were mostly great, but they’ve only ever been fantastic with frusciante – so far
However, there are a few things that are different on this second new album of 2022. And then again, a lot of things are not at all. Like its predecessor from April, “Return of the Dream Canteen” (Warner) again has 17 songs. Unlike the predecessor, though, a few of those thrive on, well, calling it “experiments” might be a bit of a stretch, but let’s put it this way: there are some neat gimmicks in there. The drum machines are only the most obvious.
There are weed-smoky dub reverb effects and mealy-potted horn sections (“Handful”). Bassist Flea (probably) can finally pursue his great passion (fidgety trumpets) again. There are synth arpeggios under dark, beautiful rock quirks (“Bag of Grins”) and ballads, the idea of which is also from Aha could come from Depeche Mode or any other of those keyboard bands with great haircuts, no guitars, and a slightly uninspired day (“La La La La La La La La”).
What I mean to say is that the new album is more playful, but not significantly more exciting than “Unlimited Love” was, and whatever – the songs come from the same creative process that followed the return of guitarist John Frusciante after ten years. There were huge expectations. The chili peppers, while great most of the time, were fantastic right up until the very last corner of obsession, but only with frusciante. So far.
The band has now recorded a total of 50 songs with him in the current creative process and produced them completely, she says, and if the predecessor was claimed, the Chili Peppers were always what the four egos involved brought in and then some magic, then that’s still true. However, the restriction still applies that the band has currently entered a (life) stage of ego freedom. You obviously listen to each other self-sacrificingly, react, dance around and flatter your colleagues musically – careful with air foil packaging, without edges and all in all really really nice.
Of course, it doesn’t want to come out with really compelling stuff, but with the second album in the series a different effect sets in: Let’s call it “The Great Big Flausch” for lack of a secure epoch term. Everything sounds great, warm, close, carefully sorted – the instruments, voices, melodies are positioned very finely in the sound space. Everything has its place. Everything has enough space, and enough space for everything is something that the world is really lacking right now.
And then suddenly Chad Smith is back. With your own song. So probably. “The Drummer” is the name of a track, but the author of these lines eventually gave up trying to decipher the lyrics of singer Anthony Kiedis where they don’t juggle with metaphors for sex (doesn’t happen often, but it does here). Anyway, the playback of the song: great. Upbeat, up-tempo, feel-good-dad-rock-pop. Synth-carried, choral, downy pads, squeaky bass, wonderfully chirping guitar nuances.
Yes, yes, it is still true that the Chili Peppers are the sum of their individual parts and then something more. Currently, the members are apparently inspired by the bank to the maximum – and then not much more. But heavens, what could be nicer than seeing people genuinely happy? Or at least happy. Even.