HI FI Times 1.10
ALBUM REVIEW: Stadium Arcadium | Red Hot Chili Peppers
“I don’t wanta’ have to but I will…”
Red Hot Chili Peppers: Stadium Arcadium
. This is like the K2 of reviews. Difficult and challenging but, hopefully, satisfying.
. This is like the K2 of reviews. Difficult and challenging but, hopefully, satisfying. “My love affair with everywhere was innocent, why do you care…?”
The layers in this recording are gossamer wings to the otherworld like looking through a hummingbird’s wing to see the life through the glass darkly and lightly beyond the sight we know. This is a work of art. Emitting from a bunch of boys who just a few years ago were enjoying a photo shoot naked … with gym socks firmly placed, um, you know, in the right places… It is truly amazing that music this complex could exist…First is Jupiter: Warlocks
might be an overlooked track, however, it has a funky beat you cannot deny and the guitar break is everything you want in a funky distorted guitar break. The sustain guitar is all over the place and just keeps weaving magic so sweet.
might be an overlooked track, however, it has a funky beat you cannot deny and the guitar break is everything you want in a funky distorted guitar break. The sustain guitar is all over the place and just keeps weaving magic so sweet."Lions and tigers come runnin’ just to steal your love…"
Guitars just drip and shine and blow your mind
Layered like a fancy desert in a high priced restaurant
So deep, you want the recipe
But if they gave it to you
It would be in another language
An alien language that no one would understand
Unless you were in the studio
This music has so many layers that it’s nearly impossible to talk about it
Deep like the sea and sand and the shades of the west coast sundown
Then Slow Cheetah
and you hear the scary close in your ear voice whispering, quietly whispering, as if just for you and you alone, “One, two, three…” and the electric orgy turns acoustic…
and you hear the scary close in your ear voice whispering, quietly whispering, as if just for you and you alone, “One, two, three…” and the electric orgy turns acoustic… “I knew a girl that worked in a store
She knew not what her life was for
She barely knew her name…”
And it’s like the Stones
were reborn from the Beggars Banquet
era with Brian Jones still in the band… She's Only 18
is CLASSIC Chili Peps… Funky and groove central. Layers and layers highlight the killer harmonies. Hump De Bump
even MORE classic Peps. Dance everyone… just try not to… this cut will make a dead man groove, a nerd funk and a space man jump. “Stadium Arcadium” some of the best harmonies ever recorded:
were reborn from the Beggars Banquet era with Brian Jones still in the band… She's Only 18 is CLASSIC Chili Peps… Funky and groove central. Layers and layers highlight the killer harmonies. Hump De Bump even MORE classic Peps. Dance everyone… just try not to… this cut will make a dead man groove, a nerd funk and a space man jump. “Stadium Arcadium” some of the best harmonies ever recorded:“I’m Falling, I’m falling in to you…”
Backward guitar and immediate vocals into a huge atmospheric landscape. Guitar from everywhere all over the soundscape like a spaceship in flight. Harmony and harmony and harmony like theByrds. The first thing I’ve ever heard that comes close to the early Byrds harmony, nothing ever reminds me of the Byrds except, of course, the Byrds. Charlie
classic Chili Peps, lots of funk, but still, lots of layers… and some kill guitar. Snow
: guitar picked and picked and picked…
. The first thing I’ve ever heard that comes close to the early Byrds harmony, nothing ever reminds me of the Byrds except, of course, the Byrds. Charlie classic Chili Peps, lots of funk, but still, lots of layers… and some kill guitar. Snow: guitar picked and picked and picked… “When it’s killin’ me, when will I really see all I really need to look inside…”
As the song develops it begins to get harder then backs down with layered vocals and an orchestra of rock and roll and then begins to build and build and build like a freight train on a one way track on a nothing place to the runway that is not of this earth the lord can have you now we are on a track that willlllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll. Dani California
is the song that might be closer to my heart than all…
is the song that might be closer to my heart than all… “She’s a runna’ a rebel and a stunnu…!”
And a fiery barrage of guitar hits you like a fire hose in the face.
“I love my baby the best…”
No matter how many times you hear this, it will still put the hurt on you … Like Richard Prior talking about being on fire, this song will get in your head and if you think the guitar has been played out, by the end of this you will know why you kept listening. As if to add an exclamation point, the incendiary guitar goes completely nuke. Next is Mars: Death of a Martian
: Starts out smooth and slow and ends up psychedelic with spoken word and distorto guitar and wild like crazy. Blang – O ! Another winner. Turn it Again
is all funky guitar and tension, pretty at first and then hardcore sustain and major distortion and tension. Then back again like a puppet, the strings pulled and released like a sideshow freak, like a long lost break in your sanity. Hidden distorted feelings with deep repressed reality coming on like a slow blues in the hurricane black night. We Believe
is almost gospel. Or probably as close as they will ever get to gospel anyway… Still the ever-present guitar with an un-earthly tone keeps humming the tune. Silky honey sweet harmonies and layers of guitar prevail and then a fade to what? Storm In a Teacup
is classic Peps… Here is guitar like we always knew it, heavy distortion backing and a killer lead over the top with all the funky hot stuff we are all used to… What a finish…! So Much I
starts out ho hummm then, rips a groove that I wish….
talking about being on fire, this song will get in your head and if you think the guitar has been played out, by the end of this you will know why you kept listening. As if to add an exclamation point, the incendiary guitar goes completely nuke. Next is Mars: Death of a Martian: Starts out smooth and slow and ends up psychedelic with spoken word and distorto guitar and wild like crazy. Blang – O ! Another winner. Turn it Again is all funky guitar and tension, pretty at first and then hardcore sustain and major distortion and tension. Then back again like a puppet, the strings pulled and released like a sideshow freak, like a long lost break in your sanity. Hidden distorted feelings with deep repressed reality coming on like a slow blues in the hurricane black night. We Believe is almost gospel. Or probably as close as they will ever get to gospel anyway… Still the ever-present guitar with an un-earthly tone keeps humming the tune. Silky honey sweet harmonies and layers of guitar prevail and then a fade to what? Storm In a Teacup is classic Peps… Here is guitar like we always knew it, heavy distortion backing and a killer lead over the top with all the funky hot stuff we are all used to… What a finish…! So Much I starts out ho hummm then, rips a groove that I wish…. “Please don’t turn away, again…”
Once again finishes with a heroic and epic guitar flourish…Animal Bar
is one of the hits, however, if you put on the headphones, you will hear much more than you ever thought was possible. No way… You are kidding me…! is what you will say once the headphones are on. Is that a cello, played backwards…? Who knows, just listen and enjoy and enjoy and… more backward dreams…“Make You Fell Better” might be filler for the Peppers, a hit for all the rest of us. I feel better already….“If” has something like a hurdy gurdy greeting us soon joined by a clean slide guitar, so pretty…
is one of the hits, however, if you put on the headphones, you will hear much more than you ever thought was possible. No way… You are kidding me…! is what you will say once the headphones are on. Is that a cello, played backwards…? Who knows, just listen and enjoy and enjoy and… more backward dreams…“Make You Fell Better” might be filler for the Peppers, a hit for all the rest of us. I feel better already….“If” has something like a hurdy gurdy greeting us soon joined by a clean slide guitar, so pretty… “If I had a clue I’d know exactly what to do…”
Readymade
gets us back to the Pepper formula but more intimate and straight ahead like a '73 southern rocker that was transported to 2010 and just started to dig the scene. Classic drums and layered guitars
gets us back to the Pepper formula but more intimate and straight ahead like a '73 southern rocker that was transported to 2010 and just started to dig the scene. Classic drums and layered guitars “She looks to me:
She looks to me…”
Deceptive.
“Lost in the valley without my horses…”
This is a deceptively deep song that you can hear on the radio and never know its depth. The guitar wash and ethereal mix is intoxicating. 21St Century
: nothing here. Hard to Concentrate
is beautiful from the first note…
: nothing here. Hard to Concentrate is beautiful from the first note… “All I want is to make you happy…”
The interplay of the guitar and bass is almost like a hymn, light as a feather, untouchable cloudless black sky stars.
Glittering
Tell Me Baby
finally, here it is, the Peppers doing the Peppers… reprising the whole thing like the rappin’ rockin’ freaks that started it all so long ago and are hell bent on finishing this style. Hell, you rode in on this horse, you might as well ride out on it…! Desecration Smile
is all Beatle
like harmonies… doubled guitar… acoustic guitar… acoustic splendor… some Beatle like lead to usher us out to the place that is now… the place that is without this music…Goodbye to the LP that would have probably been a 4 LP set back in the day… Somewhere in the blue backed and floating breezy cloud filled puffy white cotton clouded space is a place that we all go to hide. But you cannot hide from this music. If you want to hide then steer clear of this album, however, if you want to rock and roll 21st century style, then spin this wax over and over again.
finally, here it is, the Peppers doing the Peppers… reprising the whole thing like the rappin’ rockin’ freaks that started it all so long ago and are hell bent on finishing this style. Hell, you rode in on this horse, you might as well ride out on it…! Desecration Smile is all Beatle like harmonies… doubled guitar… acoustic guitar… acoustic splendor… some Beatle like lead to usher us out to the place that is now… the place that is without this music…Goodbye to the LP that would have probably been a 4 LP set back in the day… Somewhere in the blue backed and floating breezy cloud filled puffy white cotton clouded space is a place that we all go to hide. But you cannot hide from this music. If you want to hide then steer clear of this album, however, if you want to rock and roll 21st century style, then spin this wax over and over again. Catch you on the flip boys and girls. -mke
. His definition is beyond description. He is in a world unto himself, much like, um, himself.
I mean, really, who would name a song that? And then you realize, the whole LP is named that…. But when you listen to it…. Everything seems to make sense. Followed up by 
and we slip deep into the sexy swamp groove that makes you want to dance like a snake, a really bad snake. A slippery and smooth snake… and then, 
hits the phones and he takes you ever deeper into the swamp… leading you in like a native, like a happy guy with no thought of tomorrow, no feeling of remembering how to get out. And you are lost in a foamy fog that embraces you, a happy camper in happy land.
hits you like a freight train from hell. Luckily your singer is telling the devil he can go strait back where he came from, because if he wasn’t I think we would all be in trouble. Finishing it all off is, 
an up tempo groove. Happy go lucky my friends. Way to send us all off on a good note Doc!
” that makes me understand the song for the first time “
” is done up-tempo and hard fucking core, not all slow and maudlin. Never saw it coming. Beauty is reflected in the reading of “
” and we fall into a slow and soft place that we believe will never end. Harp, piano, organ and steel guitar…
is comprised of two LP’s and a bonus disk aptly named “Apple Jam” that completes a box set. So, you say, THREE LP’s? Most of us would scoff at a two LP set and say that the band just couldn’t make the tough decisions that make for good editing. In many cases this might be true, brutally true. However in this case, I wish it were a 30 disc set, as the music here can never be equaled or duplicated. It was a magic time and he is the only one that could have captured the moment with this kind of vibrant immediacy. As music lovers, we are so glad he did it, and in retrospect, wonder how he did it. A band comprised of the likes of 
, 
, 
, 
, 
, and 
, the list goes on, but you get the idea. This is a time capsule, send it into space for the aliens to hear material.
and
…
” followed by “
” and we haven’t even heard the hit single yet, you know something special is going on. Of course by the “hit single” we are talking about “
” second only to “
” as the most oft covered song in the white bread religious campfire circuit. But we have only just begun and the beauty is only beginning to show as “Hear Me Lord,” “
” “Let It Down” all unwind and cast the magic further into your head.
.” Watch out now… Listen to this more than once and you will never be the same again.