I jokingly call this album the playlist breaker, because whenever I'm making a playlist I just skip over this because I might just throw the whole thing in there.
The Red Hot Chili Peppers are a rare type of band. Loved by many, hated by few. No matter what you're into, you like or know at least one RHCP song.
My first Peppers album was in sixth grade when Californication came out, and I loved it. It's without a doubt one of their best and most revered albums. From then on in I looked backwards at them, picking albums like One Hot Minute, and the consensus favorite, Blood Sugar Sex Magik. Each one brought something different to the table, whether it be a new sound or vibe, they kept it fresh.
By the time By The Way came out in 2002 I was more than ready for a new album. And once again it was very different. It was a bit mellow by RHCP standards. Don't get me wrong, it's a great album but it just feels light in comparison, it's not an album you rock out to, and on first listen it seemed like a downer. They seemed to be missing that heavy funk that made them excel and they settled into a slower pace. Coming off an album like Californication into this new sound seemed like a step down I really felt like they slumped.
When the hype machine started reving up for Stadium Arcadium I was in my senior year of high school, and at first I didn't buy in. I hadn't bought an album in a while (sound familiar?) and I was kinda unplugged from the music scene. Then, the video for Dani California came out, and it blew my mind. It was a totally new sound for them. Frusciante's guitar work seemed much more intense, and it gave the song really big feel to it. I immediately thought it was the strongest first single I'd heard from a Peppers album.
I already knew it was a double album before it came out, and that info just fueled my fire... I was pumped. Stadium Arcadium dropped on May 5, around three weeks before my graduation. I was actually the only person in my class who was really pumped about it.
I showed up the next day with my headphones on, ignoring the universe. I still hadn't gone through both discs... A product of the repeat button on most of the songs. I was hooked. It was almost like I was selling the album to people at lunch. SA was just the perfect Peppers album to me. It was like listening to a greatest hits album of all new material. They just took every single style they had played in and revisited it in they're new found musical maturity, and it showed; it was brilliant.
The double album feature also worked in their advantage. They planned the perfect order for the tracks to keep us interested, the split the disks evenly in style and sound making two similar but different disks that would stand alone (Unlike what the Foo Fighters did with In Your Honor).
To this day, I have a hard time skipping songs from that album. It's great in the sense that it's hard to memorize 28 songs; there's always that one that you forget is on there, and it's a pleasant surprise when you hear it. I actually have a friend who has never heard the whole second disk because he's never gotten tired of the first.
Personally, I don't know some of the singles from the record. I wasn't paying enough attention to MTV at the time. I just know there were at least five. Also, I don't want to know. I'd probably be angry that some song was never a single (The title track comes to mind).
As the next Red Hot Chili Peppers album shows it's head on the horizon later this year, I can't help but expect great things. They have a lot to live up to. New guitarist and all, I expect them to try and top themselves. And to me, it's a big role to fill.
I know that to most it's hard to imagine an album that's any better than Blood Sugar, or Californication; but Stadium Arcadium to me seems like the perfection of those albums and what they meant. The Peppers took what they'd done and made it perfect, in one album... One really long enjoyable album. And honestly... No matter what you say... It's a classic to me dammit!
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