…and then he was back.
This album is all about the return of ‘The Froosh’, or John Frusciante if you will. The mastermind behind the band’s reinvention with the albums Californication, By the Way, and Stadium Arcadium – the latter being his previously last recording with RHCP in 2006. These albums have gone a long way towards making them into one of the bands that have become the most synonymous with the state of California since the Beach Boys, with monster hits like Californication and Dani California especially setting the tone by mentioning the state in their titles.
More than that, the aforementioned albums established a new maturity to their sound. They used to be the band that would take no prisoners. They set out to out-funk everybody else, expended more energy in their performances, partied harder, and lived on the edge. It is a non-sustainable lifestyle. Not everybody in the band made it. Things clearly had to change. The change was gradual, but getting a hit with Under the Bridge was an important catalyst. The band realized that more honest and personal lyrics resonated well universally, and that a more mellow 1970s-inspired sound did not scare fans away. They were open to different musical expressions as well, which they have explored and experimented with ever since.
Unlimited Love, then. I must admit to wondering what it would sound like. Would they pick up where they left off with Stadium Arcadium? That was my hope, as I think that album is their finest work. It was their only album to hit the #1 spot in every major international market (and then some). It is a superfluous horn of ideas with one magnificent performance after another, stylistically nimble, and no noticeable dip in quality – and it’s even a double album.
Is it however realistic to expect the RHCP of 2022 to sound like they did in 2006? Unless you’re AC/DC, a band will change over the course of 16 years.
It is however not like this line-up had the benefit of evolving together for those 16 years. Frusciante announced his departure in 2009, re-joining ten years later in 2019. He spent those ten years on mainly electronic solo works, not playing much rock guitar at all. RHCP released two albums with guitarist Josh Klinghoffer, and while they had started a third with him before the reunion talks, the process was slow moving. Anthony Kiedis (vocals) and Flea (bass) told NME that “it was going slowly and without a real definitive drive to it. It was just sort of meandering.”
The story of how the band reconnected with Frusciante has been told many times over the past few years. The interesting bit was how instantly they clicked, how quickly they fell back into their old groove, and how the music just started flowing effortlessly. The spark and the chemistry was still there.
Unfortunately, no sooner had their sessions started when they had to stop. It was early 2020 and the Covid-19 pandemic was in full bloom. Holed up in their respective homes, each Pepper took the time to pen tunes instead. Ideas were exchanged. Things were taking form. They were using the time well.
When the time finally came to start recording in person one year later, at producer Rick Rubin’s legendary Shangri-La studio in Malibu, they had more than 100 brand new songs to pick from. This gave them a luxury problem, but having far too many songs is a good problem to have. Especially when most of them seemed to be ideas of some potential.
They went to work, honing in on the ideas that were worthwhile, refining and defining them. This was such rewarding work that when they took stock, they found they had ended up with far too many songs for one album. Rather than limiting themselves, they immediately made plans for an additional album to follow the first one, which at this point has already been announced for release later in the year. This reminds us of the situation with Stadium Arcadium, except at that time they opted to go for a double album rather than two separate albums released some months apart.
Black Summer was the first single, and opens the album as well, so for most of us this will have been the first taste of new music from the band in 2022.
The song opens with a few bars of simple, sorrowful guitar licks, over which Kiedis’ starts singing the wistful lyrics in his smooth baritone. It’s a song with a melancholic streak, countered by obvious melodic qualities, making it a happy-sad tune. It has a simple and straightforward form, which befits its single status, but there is a lot of texture to both music and lyrics if you look closer.
A lazy rain am I
The skies refuse to cry
Cremation takes its piece of your supply
The night is dressed like noon
A sailor spoke too soon
And China’s on the dark side of the moon
It’s been a long time since I made a new friend
Waiting on another black summer to end
It’s been a long time and you never know when
Waiting on another black summer to end
The song has a lovely laidback quality, which isn’t totally lost even when the song morphs into a full-on rock song halfway through. The band gets to show several sides of their musical personality here, but what makes it extraordinary is how that initial melancholic streak never quite goes away. On the surface, the song may appear to be a melodic, mellow song for a lovely summer afternoon, but it also contains a deep sadness. The heartbreak of loneliness. A lost relationship or friendship which is making the summer appear rather black, instead of the happy time it could and should have been.
Here Ever After is a simply irresistible track, containing a more urgent delivery from the band with a pounding bass line driving the song forward. The guitar lines add several melodic textures, while Kiedis rap-sings through the song in his inimitable style. This comes with an earworm alert, folks!
Aquatic Moth Dance features yet another strong bass line, while the track itself is almost jazzy as it bops along playfully. The choruses feature horns and female backing vocals, which just reinforce this impression. The song shows a different side of the Chili Peppers without sounding out of place.
Not the One is a rather heartfelt and melodic ballad. The guitar harmonics give it an almost ethereal feel which fits beautifully, while the lyrics are rather more down to earth. They have a gentle form and a sweet delivery by Kiedis, but it really is a “we should not be together any longer”-song. “You see me in a way that makes me want to reinvent / A person I could turn into” he sings in a song that is surprisingly raw for its musical arrangement. A lovely track in every way.
Things get more funky again in Poster Child, although in a mellow, smooth, and slinky way. Like much of the album the track has a distinct retro vibe, having at least one leg firmly planted in the 1970s. The playing is precise yet playful, and Kiedis never loses his perfect diction as he delivers a continual stream of lyrics nearly throughout. It almost has a hypnotic effect, really.
The album has an overall relaxed vibe, and while The Great Apes also start out this way it provides some more intense and louder moments as well, with the chorus having a solid rock vibe. Frusciante really takes off in the guitar solo, providing the album’s biggest ‘balls to the wall’ moment. The song’s real strengths lies in how it plays up the contrasts between the mellower moments and the rock moments. Every transition feels natural and adds to the song. It makes the rock moments feel awesome when they kick in, and the soft melodic spots are really sweet when they return. A fascinating track.
It’s Only Natural fits in with the overall mood of the album, with yet another well-measured, relaxed track filled with sweet melodies and instrumental flourishes that don’t take the attention away from the song itself. It succeeds a bit more at that than a track like White Braids & Pillow Chair which comes uncomfortably close to lounge rock, although the distorted surf guitars that come in at the halfway point is a masterstroke that may make me change my mind about the track in time.
She’s A Lover provides something different, taking the shape of a soulful jam. It highlights Chad Smith’s overall drumming style on this album well, which is precise and carefully measured. This is really descriptive of the entire band, who on this album add exactly what is needed to the tracks, leaving space for the music and the grooves to breathe. Having said that, Frusciante lets a little loose towards the end of this track, and it’s good to hear him take off with some solid guitar wailing. I am definitely less convinced about the singing ladies on this particular track, though.
These Are the Ways contains some of the purer rock moments on the album. The verses are relaxed and groovy, but the band take off in the pre-chorus, choruses, bridges, and solo sections. It’s good to hear the band go a little bit unhinged at times.
Whatchu Thinkin’ kicks off with another slinky drums-and-bass groove, and just oozes cool. The song has distinct melodic qualities and plenty of hooks, with clear inspiration from decades past. The arrangement is what makes sound like a total RHCP song. It would have been interesting to hear the band perform straightforward acoustic versions of a lot of these songs, without syncopation and with straightforward arrangements. I am sure they would sound like vintage, timeless material.
Kiedis is not a vocalist who often pushes his vocal range far outside of his comfort zone, but there are moments on Bastards of Light where he comes as close as he’s likely to. In addition to the interesting vocal melody, the song contains several strong pop hooks with layers of synth backings over the band sound. Frusciante uses an acoustic guitar for most of the track, although the song also features a noisier section with distorted vocals and noisy, electric guitars. That does not prevent this track from being the pop moment on the album.
One Way Traffic kicks off with some energy, turning out to be an energetic boogie with a hip-hop groove and more scat-style vocals from Kiedis. On this track, he is warning us against getting stuck in a rut and growing stale with age.
Veronica instantly sounds like a striking track, primarily for its immediate and strong melodic qualities as well as its multifaceted musical approaches. It starts with a straight melodic section with effect-laden guitars, moves into an intense slow-burn build, and ends with a very layered outro which (at least to these ears) contains shades of the epic playout section in The Beatles’ I Want You (She’s So Heavy) from their classic Abbey Road album.
Let ‘Em Cry is a groovy track with a very catchy chorus. While it can’t be called an energetic song, at times it has a lot going for it, quietly pushing subtle energy from the inside out. The retro keyboards and horns add discreet and welcome touches, quietly adding to the song’s momentum. A lot of the same qualities can be found in The Heavy Wing, which builds a quiet urgency up until the choruses which gets a lot more ‘oomph’.
The album ends with Tangelo, a lovely and tender ballad. Kiedis is more or less solely accompanied by Frusciante on acoustic guitar in this song, with only some keyboard padding at the mid-point. The song very much has the feel of night time about it, with the hustle and bustle of the day gone and time for reflections. As the album starts with a slice of melancholy, so it ends, with this sad song of perfect love lost, leaving the coming summer to look very black indeed. And with that, the album has come full circle.
Unlimited Love plays well from start to finish. The flow from song to song is effortless and natural. It is a very long album at 17 songs (pretty much a full CD), but it is over before you know it. The album is cohesive and stylistically very together. If you have followed the band over the years, the band will deliver what you’d expect. More than that, this is a well-written batch of high quality material.
The songs are without question cut from the same cloth. This is a relaxed, mellow album, and initially I was mentally readying myself to argue the point that this made the songs sound similar, that there was a lack of variation here. But, in the end, I couldn’t. As I got to know the album, I found it to contain a surprising amount of diversity despite the superficial similarities. The songs have been given different expressions. They have variations in tempo, in light/shade, in overall feel, and in the many different musical approaches. The album is bursting with creativity and ideas without compromising an overall vision of what they want the album to be. I can only praise the work that has gone into this album – on every level.
As mentioned earlier, the recording was so productive that the band has already announced the next album, called Return of the Dream Canteen, scheduled for release on 14 October 2022. This is still some time away at the time of this writing, and it will be interesting to see if that ends up being a “part 2” to Unlimited Love or whether the albums are stylistically or thematically different. The first single Tippa My Tongue has already been released, which has a more extrovert and energetic approach. We’ll see if that is true for the rest of those songs, but in any case, given the quality we have seen from those sessions already, there’s every reason to be excited!
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Time is always the true judge on how well an album sits in a band’s discography. At the end of the day, I am convinced that Unlimited Love will stand up well.
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