Review Summary: The uncanny valley of modern rock music
As of writing, it's been two years and five months since
I'm With You has been released. And what amazes me about latter-day Chili Peopers is how long we have to wait to get a new album from them. In the past 14 years, we've gotten a grand total of four Red Hot Chili Peppers albums. Yet despite that, at least the first three of the post-2000 albums were enjoyable because the band were completely aware of the fact that they didn't need to radically reinvent themselves. Each album sounded pretty different but still sounded somewhat like the Peppers. And even despite Frusciante leaving the band a second time, we still had hope that Peppers would just continue doing what they did best. But it seems our hopes were in vain. It seems like whenever Frusciante leaves, so does the soul of the band. Josh Klinghoffer joining the band has resulted in the sound of a band cleaning, polishing and perfecting everything so much to the point where all the soul and raw emotion is completely drained from their sound. This, my friends, creates an uncanny valley effect, where everything sounds clean and perfect but soulless, artificial, and emotionless.
Maybe they just believed their own hype? I don't know, but based on what
I'm With You has to offer, that certainly seems to be an accurate guess. From the bland and baffling album title and the simplistic album artwork all the way down to its emotionless music, hype definitely seems to be a factor here.
I'm With You shows the band going in at least ten different directions- very few of which are even remotely interesting. There's moments of brilliance and outbursts of shine, but for the most part, this album comes off as pretentious and gimmicky. There's failed attempts at reinvention that would make 30 Seconds to Mars roll their eyes. There's genre mashing that very rarely works. There's a lot to name that's wrong with this album, that I'd probably be spending an entire day typing about, so let's just narrow it down to the main problem here: the album is just plain not interesting.
Sure when the album is good, it's great. The opener, "Monarchy of Roses" shows the band going back to their "funk meets metal" sound from the eighties, displaying how brilliant they can be when they incorporate contrast into the music- the doomy/metallish verses and the funky, disco-esque choruses. It's also worth noting that Kiedis sounds on fine form yet again here. If I could rate this album on vocals alone, it would be an instant 5. I don't think Anthony has sounded this brilliant since
Californication. Flea's funky bass groves are in full force and Chad's drum chops are tasty, it there's one thing that stops this song from becoming a classic- Klinghoffer. Right from this song alone, it's clear how polished and clean he is, and "polished" and "Red Hot Chili Peppers" aren't the best words to use in the same sentence together. His solo is so completely clean that it's artificial. Frusciante was great because his guitar playing was indeed pretty sloppy, but it added charm and rawness- and it was evident from his playing that the spirit of rock n' roll is in his blood. That isn't to say that Klinghoffer's guitar licks aren't completely irredeemable- in fact, there's some moments where he shows how brilliant can be when he's not so focused on "perfecting" everything- namely, the fade-out on "Factory of Faith". Actually, the whole song is great and funky as ever, and his guitar work shows that he isn't afraid to have fun from time to time. The fade-out, though, deserves mention because it's just unreal. It shows him getting raw and fun. Sadly, these moments are far and in between on the album.
But let's not pin it all on Josh- in fact, very few of the songs on here are interesting. "Brendan's Death Song" could be emotional and sad, but it's ruined by repetition and the band telling us
yet again they aren't just capable of writing silly anthems like "Party on Your Pussy", "Get on Top" or even "Sir Psycho Sexy". There's no emotion to it whatsoever, and even the vocal melodies irk me a bit- the beginning, in particular, is grating because Anthony's singing a bit too high for it to really work. "Goodbye Hooray" and "Happiness Loves Company" could be great if they want- attempts at indie rock and Beach Boys-esque pop music- but they fail to elevate to anything other than just experiments. The last few songs though- "Even You Brutus?" with the annoying Anthony tunelessly yelling like he's a fascist dictator over boring music, "Meet Me at the Corner" which is a bland and flavourless ballad, and "Dance Dance Dance" which tries to "lift us up again" but is just loud and screechy, may lead you to question if the band has run their course and should just hang it up. But it's not all hopeless- "Monarchy of Roses" and "Factory of Faith" are pretty good, but the standout track here is "Did I Let You Know", very reminiscent of "Torture Me" but more laid back and chill, with some good backup vocals from Klinghoffer (the kid can sing, no joke!) and a stellar trumpet solo from Flea. In fact, it does somewhat rescue the album.
When the day's over, the only saving grace for
I'm With You is that it is still a Red Hot Chili Peppers album. As polished and soulless as it is, some relics of the Pepper sound are still there. And I hate to lay this all on Josh, but his obsession with perfecting the band's sound has made it seem so reminiscent of the uncanny valley. Let's only hope that the band can release an album in the future that shows the Peppers doing what makes them great- having fun. Because I unfortunately can't say there's any to be found here.
