14 Reviews for 2014: #9, Red Hot Chili Peppers - I'm With You (2011)

My problems with this album began even before they had finished recording it.  IMHO, there are two types of Red Hot Chili Peppers albums:  the ones with guitarist John Frusciante and the ones without John Frusciante.  I felt he took the band to the next level -- both after replacing the late, great Hillel Slovak and after replacing the not so late, not so great Dave Navarro.  Mother's Milk, Blood Sugar Sex Magic, Californication, and Stadium Arcadium are their best albums, in whatever order you want to put them in, and all feature Frusciante.  

Seeing as Frusciante left the band in 2009, I was not inclined to pick up the album.

However, after seeing two excellent songs from this album as videos on 120 Minutes with Matt Pinfield (which has since gone off the air -- thank you MTV, for eliminating the one music video show worth watching of the 3 hours of music you actually play each week), my fate was sealed.  Against my better judgement, I picked up the album.

The first listen brought up my second problem with the album:  I did not like it one bit.  (In the music listening business, this is a pretty serious problem.)

As I continued to listen, it started to grow on me... this is what I wrote at the time:

First thought:  Hate it.

Second thought:  This will remain in my music collection.  This album definitely focuses on the funk/pop side more -- there are electronica elements present here that you will not find anywhere else in their catalog.

Third thought:  The album is annoying.  It sounds tired.  Or all over the place.  Some good songs, but not a cohesive sound or album.

Sell-back 1

Sometimes that's the way it goes.

Red Hot Chili Peppers - "Look Around"

I did have one other note:  "NEED TO LISTEN AGAIN -- ALL SINGLES."  That was actually the only thing worth keeping from those first ramblings.  Once I thought of the album as a collection of one-off songs as opposed to a one unified, cohesive thought, I did really enjoy it.  It's not their best album, but definitely an enjoyable listen and their best non-Frusciante album.

CD Placement Rating:  Portable CD Case.

- Snilch