First Listen: RHCP and I’m With You

More than five years after the release of Stadium Arcadium and the first with new guitarist Josh Klinghoffer, the Red Hot Chili Peppers return next week with their tenth studio album, I’m With You.

What will fans think?  Can Josh adequately replace John Frusciante?  After all, John was much more than a guitarist; he was the guy who stayed in the studio working on arrangements and sounds long after everyone went home.

Let’s find out.  What follows are first impressions on an intial listen.  More nuanced criticism will come with repeated listening.

Well, it’s shorter than Stadium Arcadium.  That’s good, because no one really needs a two-hour Chili Peppers album.  But for whatever reason, the group feels the need to fill almost ever millimetre of space on a CD.  They’ve offered up 14 tracks which come in at around 59:20.  Then again, that’s nine minutes shorter than By the Way (which had way too much filler) and just three minutes longer than Californication.

I like the Damien Hurst minimalist artwork.  Flea’s daughter, Clara (who’s now 22), is the band’s official promotional photographer, too.

And yes, it was produced by Rick Rubin.  They do their best work with him.

1.  Monarchy of Roses (4:13)

The record begins with a cacophony of drum rolls and guitar screeches before Anthony comes in with a mildly distorted vocal that resolves into clarity before a minute rolls by…Bouncy, almost disco-era bassline from Flea (think “Do Ya Think I’m Sexy” from Rod Stewart, but cooler) with a faint keyboard line in the background…Noisy instrumental bridge leads into a Klinghoffer solo that sounds like a dirty Frusciante.  That’s good…This will be a single eventually.

2.  Factory of Faith (4:22)

Funky Flea bassline mates with straight 4/4 Chad Smith beat…Kiedis sing/raps like Deborah Harry in Blondie’s “Rapture.”…”All my life I was swingin’ for the fence/I was lookin’ for the triple/Never playing’ good defence”…It’s amazing how Anthony’s voice has held up given the abuse he’s subjected himself to over the years.  Sure, there’s some studio trickery involved (ever hear the Chili Peppers live?) but his voice still sounds pretty sweet…I like the funkified extro.  Klinghoffer plays it artfully–which is to say, minimally.

3.  Brendan’s Death Song (5:40):

Acoustic guitar from Klinghoffer starts a song that begins like something Bon Iver might do…Intensity picks up a minute in with the full band…At nearly six minutes, this is too long for a single, but a careful edit somewhere between the three- and four-minute and a circumcision at the end will fix that.  If done properly, this could be a monster…I wonder who Brendan is? And is he really dead?…”Like I said/I’m almost dead/You know I’m almost gone.”

4.  Ethiopia (3:51)

Studio noise leads into a mid-tempo angular bassline that wouldn’t sound out of place in a Franz Ferdinand song…Nonsense lyrics from Anthony…Everything smooths out at :57 with the chorus…There’s a narrative here about someone “Lost in Ethiopia”…Flea slaps that bass and he and Chad play the chorus in 7/8 time…Solo from Josh around 2:20 that’s artful by what he doesn’t try to do.  Good boy…I like the keyboard bloops and bleeps.  Nothing fancy, but they add tension…Anthony says this song reflects “the band’s new spirituality”…This is already slated to be a single.

5.  Annie Wants a Baby (3:41)

Flea starts it off with a fairly straightforward bassline before Anthony launches into the story of Annie and her sugar daddy issues…More strong vocals from Anthony…Chad is such a hard hitter, but he restrains himself on this track.  Nice touch.

6.  Look Around (3:28)

This could be John Frusciante on guitar, but it’s not, obviously.  I’m beginning to think the Chili Peppers will get along fine without John…More rap/singing from Anthony…”Hustle me bitch/But you must beware”…Wow, there are a lot of pop hooks on this album.  Warner Brothers must be very happy that they have this to sell this fall.  This record is going to be all over the radio for the next 18 months…This could be a single somewhere down the line.  

7.  The Adventures of Rain Dance Maggie (4:43)

The lead-off single.  The album version runs almost a full minute longer than the radio edit…Mid-tempo bassline thump set against syncopated hi-hat rhythm…Cowbell!…That’s an interesting guitar sound.  It sounds like funky ducks singing in a quacky sort of way…Fuzzy sustain, er, sustains the guitar solo.  Nice…Licks in the background somehow remind me of George Harrison on “While My Guitar Gently Weeps” or maybe “My Sweet Lord”…Anyone find out who Maggie is?  Anthony won’t say, other than there’s “two Maggies.”

8.  Did I Let You Know (4:22)

That’s a cool shuffle-y rhythm, almost tropical (thing salsa)…Gentle guitar, female vocals in chorus…Flea pulls out his trumpet about 90 seconds in–and then here come the timbales and conga drums…More pop hooks.

9.  Goodbye Hooray (3:53)

As in the opposite of Alice Cooper’s “Hello Hooray?”  Doesn’t sound like it.  More like a break-up song…Klinghoffer really lets loose for the first time about a minute in…Cool treated bass solo at around the two-minute mark that could only have come out of an extended jam…Sudden change in pace to a dreamy bridge before kicking back into the chorus…Rock star ending with guitars, drums and bass.  They’ll have fun with this denouement in concert.

10.  Happiness Loves Company (3:33)

Huh?  A piano?  A f*ckin’ piano?  In a Chili Peppers song?…Straight thump/stomp rhythm that gives everything sort of a cabaret feel…Okay, this works, but it’s still jarring to hear Anthony sing along to a piano…Substitute Chris Martin on vocals and this could double as a Coldplay song circa A Rush of Blood to the Head.  Okay, maybe not–but close…

11.  Police Station (5:36)

Fretless bass (I think) under acoustic guitar strums…More piano, but this time in the background.  Gotta give the Peppers for trying something different…Female back-up vocals?  Is that what I’m hearing? Or is that Josh?…Flea at the piano leads the band through the bridge starting at 3:00. The record has definitely shifted gears in the second half…Drowsy guitar solo takes us out over the last sixty seconds.

12.  Even You Brutus? (4:01)

Quiet intro, more cabaret-style piano and shouty vocals with campy stabs that wouldn’t sound out of place somewhere on an Eminem album.  No, really…Has someone been listening to old Queen records?  Not for the vocals, but for arrangement ideas.

13.  Meet Me at the Corner (4:22)

Another quiet intro leads into what can only be described as a ballad…Jazzy noodling from Klinghofferm, a light touch from Chad…Female vocals come in around 1:50.  I don’t know who it is, but the first person I thought of was Body Dalle…I really like how the song feels after the three-minute mark.  I wish they had followed that muse a in a separate song…Countrified ending.  Interesting.

14.  Dance, Dance, Dance (3:46)

Echo-y, distant guitar leads into a dance-y bassline and rhythm that makes me think of the rhythm track to Barry Manilow’s “Copacabana”–not that this is necessarily a bad thing.  That’s just for reference…It toughens up later into something reminiscent of “By the Way.”  Almost…

I’m With You will be out next Monday (August 29).  If you want to hear it before then, check out what’s happening today at the Chili Peppers official website where they’re going to stream it.