Oh man, I gave this an average rating. There's some really good stuff on here, especially songs like "Wet Sand" (which contains one of my favourite guitar solos ever), "Charlie" (a modern take on the Freaky Styley erm style IMO) and Desecration Smile. Seriously, RHCP are one of my favourite bands of all time, and I know it's only one average release, but I can totally see them slipping into mediocrity/bland radio rock, and I don't like it. I know people will say "they did that in 1999 with Californication" but seriously, that's an awesome album which didn't play it safe with shitty songs like Dani California - even the popular songs like Scar Tissue saw RHCP pushing themselves beyond what they'd really done before.
I think I thought "By The Way" was boring as shit when I first heard it as well, but now I think it's actually really good, and can appreciate it. I don't think that will happen here. At least By The Way showed RHCP trying something new - it's not the mellowing out that I don't like, it's the fact that this album is RHCP - by - numbers. RHCP will probably always be one of my favourite bands - Californication, BloodSugarSexMagik, By The Way and One Hot Minute are all favourites of mine, whilst Freaky Styley and Uplift Mofo Party Plan also hold their own in terms of stuff I listen to. I just hope RHCP don't continue to release stuff like this. |
