Ever since the release of the group’s first album in 1984, the Chili Peppers have churned out an absolutely staggering amount of hits – they have the most top ten songs of any alternative rock group in history.
Credit for the band’s quarter-century consistent success can be attributed to a number of contributors, although producer Rick Rubin may have been the group’s most valuable asset over the years.
So, when it was revealed that the band’s new album, “The Getaway,” would be their first project in over two decades without Rubin on production, fans were rightfully skeptical.
On first listen, however, “The Getaway” sounds like a fairly standard Chili Peppers affair, jam-packed with the infectious melodies that have propelled the band to international fame over the last 30 years.
It’s for this reason that I so often found myself wishing that Anthony Kiedis and company had done much more with the new record.
Surely every member of the band has matured a great deal over such a lengthy career – so why hasn’t their music matured with them? Every track on the new album sounds like it could have been ripped straight off one of the group’s earlier albums, and had these tracks appeared on “Blood Sugar Sex Magik” or “Californication,” I can’t help but feel that many listeners would glance right past them.
The bottom line is this – when an artist somehow manages to stay in the spotlight for as long as this band has, I expect that artist’s music to progress to new and interesting places over time. In this case, the Chili Peppers have remained stagnant.
“The Getaway” does have its standout tracks, although they are few and far between.
The most notable performances appear on the songs “The Longest Wave” and “Sick Love,” though even these tracks offer little in the way of lyricism. Most of the album relies entirely on melodies and the occasional funk breakdown.
“Dark Necessities,” the record’s flagship song, is immensely disappointing for a Red Hot Chili Peppers lead single.
The project has too many of these disappointing moments to mention, though its true downfall comes in tracks like “This Ticonderoga” and “Dreams of a Samurai,” which at times felt unlistenable with their generic, uninspired lyrics and cookie-cutter song structure.
I truly hope that “The Getaway” isn’t the beginning of the end for the Chili Peppers, but they’ll need to deliver much more with their next project in order to maintain their position as the alternative rock gods that we’ve all come to know and love.