Like some ever-present albatross around the neck of the rock scene, the Red Hot Chili Peppers continue to linger, 23 years after their LA inception; a different band. Battling through drug-related deaths, personal differences, drug abuse, inter-band squabbling, drug abuse, motorcycle accidents and drug abuse, it's something of a surprise that the band are still kicking it in 2006, now Kabbalah converts and off the drugs.
Stadium Arcadium is equally omnipresent - the often disastrous rock double album. As The Clash learned with Sandinista! in 1980, there can sometimes be too much of a good thing. Luckily for the listening public, the Chili Peppers at least shelved a purported third discs' worth of songs that could have made this release an operatic-length extravaganza. That said, at two hours and 28 tracks, Stadium Arcadium is already too long.
By now you've already heard "Dani California", and seen the rock history-aping video, and probably aren't surprised at its presence in the top 10 singles for the month. A slice of predictable Chili Peppers rock, it doesn't carve out anything new from the niche they've been consistently exploiting since 1999's Californication. A tad soulless compared to that album, it does show off the guitar skills of musical genius John Frusciante, returning to a Hendrix-esque position as commander in chief of the LA funk rockers.
Stadium Arcadium improves upon its dad-rock predecessor, 2002's By The Way, bringing back what the band promised to be some of their most "retardedly painful funk". While the band have obviously matured from their early days and horny lyrics, the semi-embarrassing "Hump De Bump" really brings out the "retardedly painful" side that Kiedis was referring to. Similarly, Kiedis' lyrical mastery is less than impressive on some tracks, occasionally resorting to childish sound raps to fill space. As is expected, with an album of this length, roughly half the record is hit-or-miss filler at times, often provoking wishes that the band had enough balls to just can the lesser songs.
Stadium Arcadium doesn't really differ from the format set down on the Chili Pepper's previous records, save for the experimental "prog rock" ending of "Death Of A Martian", featuring ill-advised spoken word vocals and an awkward style that doesn't fit the band. Besides obvious missteps, the rest of the album is likeable enough; standard Chili Peppers that doesn't grab your attention despite trying hard, but doesn't really offend enough either.
A guest guitar solo by Omar Rodriguez of The Mars Volta on "Especially In Michigan", no doubt returning the favour from Flea and Frusciante for their appearances on his albums, gives the track a slight edge over the others. Anthony Kiedis has notably made use of the hook as a songwriting device, layering tracks with "ohh-ohhh"s and "hey-oh"s, likely to become crowd favourites and probable singles.
At 2 hours, Stadium Arcadium is somewhat of an effort to listen to in one sitting, and tends to drag during the second disc, as with most double records (seriously; who listens to "Revolution 9" on The White Album?). It's the sound of a band who've clearly worked to produce something epic with finality - how much further can they take their sundrenched California surf funk rock? Sometimes it works ("C'Mon Girl", "Slow Cheetah", "So Much I", "Torture Me"), other times it falls a little flat and feels contrived ("Hump De Bump", "Death Of A Martian").
It's occasionally hard to listen to some of the less subtle alt.rock choruses present here when viewed alongside guitarist John Frusciante's raw and lo-fi solo work, and many tracks fall into the standard Chili Peppers blueprint that many bands would kill to possess. Stadium Arcadium will sell well, satisfy most undemanding fans, and according to the band, go down as their best work, but with too many ideas and not enough economizing, it just doesn't have the staying power to topple their previous, more well-rounded efforts.
