Review Summary: An absolutely, utterly pointless collection of the scrapings from the bottom of RHCP's creative barrel, existing for no reason other than to jerk more cash from the fans' wallets.
I know I'm at risk of sounding completely and totally ignorant with what I'm about to say, especially as my oncoming complaint is about something that happens with nearly every album nowadays, but I really don't get this idea of writing at least 50 songs and hand picking a number of them for an album. I say that, because it seems to be the cause of a lot of today's albums feeling not so much like albums but rather compilations. Ultimately, that was part of why
I'm With You failed to be interesting nowadays; because it shows the band going in at least 14 different directions and not many of them being interesting. And so here we are, just over two years after that album's release, Record Store Day 2013, a cavalcade of releases on vinyl for us collectors, and one of them being a collection of tracks that were somehow more boring than
I'm With You.
That's right,
I'm BESIDE You. One reason this release was a bad idea in the first place is because most fans already had these tracks in some form; all the tracks were available on iTunes and in 45 RPM 7's, and free, even. So right there, there's already no reason to have to shell out $45 for this collection of filler tracks. And then there's the real reason this album is mostly pointless- that the majority of these tracks are just plain boring, with little to no entertainment value. There's maybe two tracks on this entire collection that are salvageable- "Pink as Floyd" and "Never is a Long Time". "Pink as Floyd" is a nice, slower tune that has some nice singing by Anthony Kiedis, and some bluesy guitar work by Josh Klinghoffer. For slower Peppers, I guess it isn't bad. "Never Is a Long Time" is a fantastic song that I guarantee would have been better than some of the more yawn inducing tracks from
I'm With You like "Police Station" or "Meet Me at the Corner". It's pretty upbeat and the verses sound like a rockier version of a 50s pop tune, with rocking choruses and hell, even Klinghoffer isn't that bad on it.
Otherwise, there really isn't anything here worth the time, and there's probably a good reason the majority of these tracks were left off the album. Quite a few of them tease you with the notion that they're going to really take off, but then just end. Perhaps the worst offender is "Love of Your Life", which has an interesting bluesy sound to it that perhaps Frusciante would not have been to repulsed by, but it rarely goes away from there and just plays things safe. Much of the tracks go in one ear and out the other, failing to leave much of an impression. There really isn't much to say, because the majority of the songs really just feel as if the band are going through the motions. It's hard to sit through much of these tracks on their own, but to sit through a behemoth 73 minutes is even more difficult. If you're a hardcore fan that must own everything Peppers, then sure, go ahead and buy this record, but everyone else, stay away, and perhaps try to find more coveted RSD releases like that gorgeous 2013 remaster of Nirvana's
In utero, or even the rerelease of Ghost's
Opus Eponymous. As for this, Avoid.
