siLLy puPPy
After a five year hiatus from their most loathed album of their latter career in the form of “I’m With You,” we at long last are graced with a new RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS album after having a healthy chunk of time to sort out their career after the loss of their mentor, guitarist and main songwriter John Frusciante. Finally in 2016 with much trepidation i picked up their 11th studio album THE GETAWAY only to be pleasantly surprised that the pop funk rock sensibilities of “Californication,” “By The Way” and “Stadium Arcadium” are back in full regalia offering not only the expected half rapped / half sung vocal talents of Anthony Kiedis and Flea’s bass slapping bad boy funk with Chad Smith delivering his expected percussive duties but to find that Josh Klinghoffer has at long last fully embraced his carrying of the torch of Frusciante’s larger than life presence with the band that began with 1989’s funky hard rocker “Mother’s Milk.” While i pretty much wrote the band off as a thing of the past with “I’m With You,” i was most pleasantly surprised at how well this new release comes together. However! despite some incredible good things about this one, i have to admit there are some things that bug me a bit as well.
THE GOOD: while the compositions retain a retro CHILI PEPPERS feel in the songwriting department there are more diverse elements sewn into every segment of every track. The production is off the wall spectacular and there are several guest musicians on board including Elton John on piano and Danger Mouse who not only produced the album (a first after Rick Rubin’s long time standing) but also helped out on mellotron, organ and synthesizers. There are also beautiful string arrangements on several tracks which include violin, cello and viola. Every track has unexpected twists and utmost surprises of some sort. Some being subtle such in instrumentation as in the more single oriented tracks like “Dark Necessities” but some like “Dreams Of A Samurai” actually bringing Pink Floyd greatness to mind from “The Dark Side Of The Moon” with their chord flirtations of the real thing along with the female background singers.
THE BAD: while this is a brilliant album to listen to, there is a lot of, well, sampling going on. I hate to drop the plagiarism bomb but it’s quite obvious that several famous pop and rock tracks from the past have had certain riffs, licks and melodic developments blatantly ripped off or perhaps shared with blessings. Who knows which. And while these borrowings usually serve as an underpinning for the overall feel of the tracks, it keeps me wondering if these were totally ripped off, a subliminal tribute or an unconscious channeling without actually realizing it. As a major fan of not only prog, metal and jazz but also of pop music of the ages, i recognize a, uh huh, sampling, when i hear it. True that many of the tracks on THE GETAWAY are self-plagiarism as well with the bass lines, guitar licks and vocal stylings as with the “Hey Oh’s” by Kiedis and Frusciante inspired guitar licks. Understandable.
There are lots of references to their 2000s output and that’s totally OK, however there are lots of other things going on here that totally rub me the wrong way: — Firstly: “We Turn Red” starts out with the same guitar lick and vocal melody of “Rock On” originally by David Essex but covered a million times. It’s only the intro guitar that recurs but nevertheless is obvious. — Secondly: on “Sick Love” the beginning vocals and melody are lifted from “Bennie And The Jets” by Elton John. True that Sir Elton (contributes piano) and Bernie Taupin were co-writers of this track but it still is too obvious for my tastes, however it’s a great track nonetheless as i can let it go. Not the band’s fault i know but every time i hear the first line i cringe! — Thirdly: “Go Robot” has the same bass line as “Feel Good Inc” by Gorillaz. The rest of the song is sufficiently different but the bass line is unmistakable! — Fourthly: the most horrible rip off is “Feasting On The Flowers” that “borrows” the Jethro Tull guitar riff from the first part of “To Cry You A Song” from their 1970 album “Benefit.” Aaaargh! — Those are the main gripes but there are subtler ones, however somehow despite it all they seem to take these past glories and remold them into present pop splendor. Not bad
When all is said and done i find the RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS not a guilty pleasure, because there is no reason to feel remorse for enjoying any sort of music. I think of their albums more like comfort food. As the decades pass by, the entire rock genre continues to evolve and splinter into more and more bizarre territories often cutting their ties to any traditional means of the past. With RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS i feel a connection to the past glories i wasn’t a part of. They are the thread of continuity that binds the present to previous decades when funk, rock, rap and R&B ruled the music world. Just like other keepers of the old guard such as The Rolling Stones who continue on despite new musical trends, RHCP continue to churn out deliciously addictive feel good tunes that are simply fun to listen to despite a feeling of recycled past glories.
As they have shown, when they try new things such as on 1995’s “One Hot Minute” that things don’t always turn out so well. With their tried and true formula on full display once again, THE GETAWAY proves to be perhaps not a brilliant magnum opus but rather a catchy well crafted slice of pop funk rock at its finest. I’m finding myself listening to this one quite a bit. Great comeback and finally proof that their IS indeed life after Frusciante. Despite samplings in music, i still love hip hop and other derivative types of music for listening pleasure but i simply wanted to point these things out for the record. So why not enjoy it here. Hmmm. I wonder what the legalities are about royalties. That is another matter altogether.