"28 songs and it doesn't suck. The Red Hot Chili Peppers come full circle with a mammoth double disk". rolling stone
I agree completely. The Red Hots seemed to have pigeon-holed themselves as the godfathers of the extremely boring rap-rock movement of early 00's, think LimkB, 'nuff said, and this was an important record for them after 2 really fine efforts on more traditional pop - rock: californication and by the way.
With Stadium Arcadium, they distanced themselves from the 'alternative' pack in a magnanomous way and I've recently heard radio DJ's call them 'classic rock' because this record incorporates more Hendricks as usual, but it also has moments of Sabbath and dare I say it the Bee Gees. This IS also their third decade together as a band so I do agree, 'classic' is a perfect word for the record.
While I think the individual members are very talented in their own rights, their x-factor is John Frusciante, a student of music history and a genuine songwriter of immense simplicity.
That in itself is where most artists lose it. The one that comes to mind is yngwie malmsteen. His schtick is to play faster than any other artist out there and his music sounds stale, over anaylized and forced because of it.
John Frusciante takes his sweet time to build each song with the simplest of melodies and he knows his way around dynamics. Sometimes its just a 3 note lick to accentuate the vocals or bass while other times he can blister you ears with his knowlege of theory in a Randy Rhoads kind of way. Regardless, this kid knows where to place his notes and as Mozart did over 200 years ago, he places them in the perfect spot.
