By Enrico Spinelli
If this discussion were a school topic, the title could be: "I don't understand Red Hot Chili Peppers"
And here's the unfolding:
When I heard that Red Hot would release this new album "Return of the dream canteen" the question I immediately asked myself was "why?" I mean, release a 17-track record, otherwise imperfect - at the end of the day a poor half has stood the test of time at least for me - why bring out another one with as many songs and a "questionable" cover (to be gentlemen)?
Do we want to talk about the title?! If it had come out under the name Genesis era-Gabriel I could have also understood, but here I just don't see the meaning, if not to fool people by deluding them of a return to certain visionary sounds of the early times... and instead? What awaits us in these 80 minutes? I say it immediately, the same defects of the immediate predecessor with a decisive smoothing of the merits. We all know that verbosity has always been the group's Achilles heel, but when the quality of most of the tracklist is superior we can also turn a blind eye to fillers: "Californication" or "Blood Sugar Sex Magic" for example they have so many spectacular pieces that quietly bury the weakest pieces. If already in "Unlimited Love" the best songs offered only a few flashes of light in the confusing darkness, here the result does not change much, since they are moreover songs composed in the same period.
Musically we travel on the same tracks, perhaps with a less marked guitar component, in a mix that embraces the whole stylistic window of the band, a course well highlighted by the single "Tippa My Tongue", a collage of singles already heard and resented, and all in all between the pieces that in the end I have to save. Other pleasant moments are undoubtedly the beautiful "Eddie" (dedicated to the good Eddie Van Halen), the structured "Roulette", "Afterlife", the simil-spoken "Handful" and the more aggressive (in a broad sense) "Bag of Grins"; very good the ending with the trio "Carry Me Home" - "In The Snow" - "The Shape I'm Talkin" (this last bonus track of the limited edition) ... some concessions here and there and we arrive at a dozen songs to be generous, without miracles, in the midst of boring, ordinary or even irritating tracks ("My cigarette" or "Lalalalala" to name two).
The problem is that only a fraction of the valid songs are up to the best songs of "Unlimited Love" so you honestly have to ask one thing: since of two albums of 34 tracks of good there is only half it would not be better to just get one out by making a slightly more accurate selection?! Especially since there are almost 3 hours of music it is already too much if you enjoy an hour and a half!
And don't bother me telling me that the album needs time, I can understand it for bands like Slipknot who have made a more particular record or for Tool, who at least have the good habit to publish one album every 10 years to allow us to understand something in what comes out, but here to force you to slowly digest a new record when you have not yet fully assimilated the previous one sounds like forcing a person to eat the same amount for lunch and dinner as a Christmas lunch in Naples... frankly I don't feel like it.
Yet... and yet wherever I look I read enthusiastic opinions, exaltation and continuous praise, then I come to the conclusion that I don't understand Red Hot Chili Peppers! Lucky whoever understands something.