Still Red Hot

It has taken more than twenty years to fight off their demons and get to their “Higher Ground,” but the Red Hot Chili Peppers, the quintessential California band, has turned a page in rock history with their ninth studio album, Stadium Arcadium .As their self-proclaimed “best volume of work,” the two-disc, 28-track album showcases their evolving talent and sound with a more cohesive mesh between the slow and soulful and the trademark testosterone-fueled rock-raps that made them gods. Moreover, the album makes a valiant return to funk, something sorely missed in 2002’s By the Way .

Album opener “Danni California” proves that they can still conjure up images of days spent on Venice Beach and solidifies the growth of guitar virtuoso John Frusciante with his increasingly Hendrix-reminiscent sound. “Strip My Mind” showcases a real development of range, confidence and feeling in Anthony Keidis’ voice. Flea is as explosive as ever in his overpowering bass lines and inquisitive jazz trumpet, most notably on funk gem “Hump de Bump.”

Their latest offering of songs still dally with sexual connotations, such as when they “straddle the atmosphere” on “Storm in a Tea Cup,” but they seem to be bordering on stability as evidenced in “Hard to Concentrate,” when Keidis sings,“All I want is for you to be happy / and take this woman and make you my family.”

Topping noteworthy albums like Blood, Sugar, Sex Magik and Californication would be a near impossible feat; nevertheless, Stadium Arcadium packs in their old school punch with a real sense of growth and maturity that comes with years of hard living.