Track Listing
1. Dani California
2. Snow
3. Charlie
4. Stadium Arcadium
5. Hump De Bump
6. She's Only 18
7. Slow Cheetah
8. Torture Me
9. Strip My Mind
10. Especially In Michigan
11. Warlocks
12. C'mon Girl
13. Wet Sand
14. Hey
15. Desecration Smile
16. Tell Me Baby
17. Hard To Concentrate
18. 21st Century
19. She Looks To Me
20. Readymade
21. If
22. Make You Feel Better
23. Animal Bar
24. So Much I
25. Storm In A Teacup
26. We Believe
27. Turn It Again
28. Death Of A Martian
Anthony Keidis - Vocals
John Frusciante - Guitars, Vocals
Flea - Bass
Chad Smith - Drums
The year 2006 brought with it one of the best Red Hot Chili Peppers albums to date. The double album Stadium Arcadium, produced by Rick Rubin, is the Peppers' ninth studio album. These twenty-eight songs and two full hours of material prove that the Chili Peppers still have the awesome potential to create hit records. Every album since their 1991 breakthrough, Blood Sugar Sex Magik, has been both a critical and financial success, and this album is no different.
It seems that almost every great band, at some point in their career, decides to release the "epic double-album". The Beatles had the White Album, Hendrix had Electric Ladyland, Led Zeppelin had Physical Graffitti, Pink Floyd had The Wall, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers have Stadium Arcadium. This album easily puts the Red Hots on the same level as these greats.
This album has a lot to offer from it's wide variety of styles and tones. Stadium Arcadium brings listeners to the Peppers classic funk-ska-punk-rock songs, as well as mellow acoustic songs of which are immeasurable in quality. Each song seems to have it's own identity on this album, making it clearly apparant that the Chili's were not trying to repeat themselves in any way. The band puts a lot on the table with this album.
Tracks that really stick out include, but are not limited to the hard rocking "Readymade", the upbeat "Especially in Michigan", the solemn "Desecration Smile", and the funky "Storm in a Teacup". John Frusciante delivers some glorified shredding on the rockers, but easily makes the transition to soulful acoustic wailing when necessary. Flea executes the bass perfectly, as he always does, while proving that he might still be the best bassist of all time. Chad Smith might as well change his name to Chad Bonham when it comes to his drumming on this record. And Anthony Keidis, well he is still managing to keep his vocal melodies fresh and entertaining, yet sorrowful or rocking whenever he wants. The member really put out his all on this album and it really paid off.
The Red Hot Chili Peppers have managed to outdo themselves...again. Each subsequent album seems to be just as good, if not better than the last. This is the ninth time they've done this, and hopefully they will be able to do it again sometime in the near future.
Total Album Rating: 8.9/10
