It sounds a bit different and at the same time familiar on the new Red Hot Chili Peppers album. You hear it right away on the single “Black Summer,” which opens their new long-player, “Ultimate Love.”
String magician John Frusciante is back in the band after 15 years – and with him this very special guitar sound that shaped classics like “Blood Sugar Sex Magic” or “Californication”. Star producer Rick Rubin, with whom the Red Hot Chili Peppers celebrated their greatest successes, is also back on board.
View in 10,000 directions
The Californians don’t take a trip into the past after their reunion. On “Ultimate Love”, the first studio album since “The Getaway” from 2016, they are musically versatile as always. “I really didn’t want to tell the same old story that we’ve been hearing in rock music for 50 years,” said frontman Anthony Kiedis in an interview with British “NME”. “I wanted to look 10,000 directions and see what’s out there.”
The song “Aquatic Mouth Dance” surprises with jazz elements, closely followed by the gentle, sad piano ballad “Not The One”, which Frusciante enriches with beautiful atmospheric guitar sounds, as you would rather hear from prog rock giants like David Gilmour from Pink Floyd or Steve Rothery from Marillion – lovely! The easy-listening trumpets on “Let ‘Em Cry” are also a little stroke of genius.
The radio-ready “Veronica” begins with an almost psychedelic intro. The smart refrain sticks in your head after the first listen. In general, “Unlimited Love” is rich in strong melodies, which Kiedis intones as usual softly. The Chilis frontman could easily sing songs by Burt Bacharach with his timbre. Kiedis, who will be 60 in November, rarely sings his typical rap in the 17 tracks, most prominently on “Poster Girl” and “Here Ever After”.
With Frusciante’s successor and now predecessor Josh Klinghoffer, who was also involved as a songwriter at the time, the Red Hot Chili Peppers delivered two excellent and refreshing albums. But when work on new songs began in 2019, according to Kiedis, there was a problem. “It went slowly and without real drive,” says the frontman. “It kind of meandered along.”
Comeback des Frusciante-Sounds
Bassist Flea and he then independently felt it was time to involve their ex-colleague Frusciante. The separation from Klinghoffer was reportedly without animosity.
After his second exit from the Red Hot Chili Peppers in 2009 – he wasn’t there from 1992 to 1998 due to drug problems – John Frusciante said he had lost interest in rock music. After concentrating on electronic music for the last decade, the desire has apparently been rekindled. “I had the feeling that there was something in the air,” said Frusciante, who at 52 is a little younger than Kiedis, bassist Flea (59) and drummer Chad Smith (60), in the “NME” interview.
“I sat there with my guitar and I thought: I haven’t written any rock music for so long. Can I still do that?” He can. “Unlimited Love” isn’t a riff-heavy work full of rock bangers. “These Are The Ways” and “Heavy Wing” are rather the exceptions with their slight grunge touch, otherwise it’s rather relaxed, melancholic and funky. But if the previous two works were too polished for you, you’ll be pleased with the comeback of the Frusciante sound on this versatile, high-quality album.
Fans will probably not have to wait another six years for new music from the Red Hot Chili Peppers after “Unlimited Love”. According to returnee Frusciante, the band has recorded far more songs than the 17 numbers that have now been released. This was also confirmed by Anthony Kiedis. “Don’t be surprised if there’s another batch of songs coming your way in the near future.” (dpa)