Stadium Arcadium [Explicit Lyrics]

I was a huge Chilis fan before the release of Stadium Arcadium, although none of their albums ever felt truly strong all the way through. Stadium Arcadium seems to leave behind everything bad about these four Californians and keep only the good stuff. Textures range from thin (On the beautiful 'If') to extremely thick (John Frusciante's solo on 'Turn It Again'). Flea's basslines are addictive and beautiful for the whole album - he seems to have finally mastered lying neatly behind Frusciante whilst also showing off his immense technical prowess. Chad Smith's drumming is what it is - faultless; Frusciante's guitar work is not as technically bewildering as Steve Vai's or Joe Satriani's, but it is effortlessly easy to see beyond that into his genius. Finally, Anthony Kiedis' lyrics are occasionally dubious, frequently baffling, but perfect throughout.

If you have every other Chili's album, buy this.

If you have never heard the Chili's, buy this.

If you have never bought an album before, this is as good a place to start as any.

The more you play it the better it gets. John Frusciante is just mind blowing these days, is there a better guitarist around today? Flea and Chad Smith rock as well as ever, and Anthony Keidis is a good singer at last!! Stand out tracks for me so far are the excellent Dani California, Hump De Bump which is toe tappingly fun, She's Only 18, Snow and Hard To Concentrate. Great stuff, can't wait to see them live again, Frusciante is king!!

Ok, well it's a double album and of course theres always going to be problems with that. Having that many tracks theres always going to be stand-out songs and songs that you don't like very much. However out of the 28 songs on the album, all of them do sound very good.. so I think they've managed to pull it off!

Having this many songs has allowed them to really roam free with the amount of different styles of music on the album. Listen to all the songs and you'll find so many different influnces everywhere. Some songs sound like the old Chili's of the Mothers Milk era and others sound more like the modern chilis and some sound like something completely different entirely! And John has really gone to town on the guitar on this album. His more minimalistic style of guitar playing ont he last 2 albums (similar to his solo work) is still present but there is now some absolutely fantastic guitar solos!

I'll start with the 1st CD. Theres the obviously excelllent Dani California. This is then immediately followed up with the pop-tastic Snow (Hey Ho) which has a wonderful little guitar part by John and a very catchy chorus. Straight after this is the much more funky Charlie that really does sound a bit more like old chilis with a more modern poppy chorus and some more wonderful guitar work by John... and what an excellent song it is! Then theres Stadium Arcadium which is most likely going to be a new single.. very similar to the Otherside/Californication style of song. Other highlights on the 1st CD include Slow Cheetah, Especially In Michigan (wonderful guitar!) and the EXCELLENT C'Mon Girl with an excellent bassline from Flea (one of my favourites).

CD2 I would say from first impressions is better than the first.. I'd say this really only because Tell Me Baby is possibly one of the best RHCP songs I've heard.. and this is followed by my other most favourite track on the album Hard To Concentrate. This CD also has Storm in a Teacup which is EXTREMELY funky.. older fans will love this. Also worth spotting is John's 3 minute solo in Turn It Again.. which really is worth just putting on repeat!

Verdict: Amazing album, and theres probably something on this album for every chilis fan.. new and old!