Stadium Arcadium (album review)

Taking Back Sunday has signed with Warner Brothers on Louder Now, their new album. What do you think? I haven’t listened to it, but I would guess that their debut on Victory Records Tell All Your Friends is relatively better—as far as pop-punk goes. Speaking of Warner Brothers...

Red Hot Chili Peppers - Stadium Arcadium
(Warner Brothers, 2006)

Another band on the Warner Brothers label is the enduring Red Hot Chili Peppers. They have matured significantly since the 80s, a time when their psychedelic funk and slap bass mirrored their chaotic lifestyles as performers in the LA alternative scene. They sang, or rather shouted, lyrics that were risqué, and often played only wearing socks. Now, lead singer Anthony Kiedis, bassist Michael "Flea" Balzary, and the rest of the Chili Peppers are idols of mainstream rock. Their certified gold albums can be found in any respectable person’s CD collection between Radiohead and REM.
Originally, the band intended to release their most recent studio material as a trio of mini-albums. Possibly to prevent their song set from becoming fragmented, they decided against the mini-albums, instead publishing it as the two-disc set Stadium Arcadium. The album was produced by Rick Rubin, the same producer for all their previous studio albums starting with Blood Sugar Sex Magik (1992). Having the same producer, Stadium Arcadium retains the signature Chili Pepper sound, especially the subdued, innocuous sound of the two previous albums.

The first disk, titled Jupiter, begins with the radio single “Dani California”, a forgivable song about a girl named Dani. She is the fictional character who also appears in their 1999 anti-globalism song “Californication” as the “teenage guide with a baby inside”. The latter single remains the better of two.
After this first track, the disk proceeds to showcase Flea’s ingenious basslines with tracks like “Charlie” in which Kiedis unleashes a carefree mixture of spoken verse and rambling melody. Guitarist John Frusciante capably responds to Kiedis, outdoing the vocals with a torrent of funky, textured chords. Frusciante’s guitar abilities continue to excel on the song “Slow Cheetah”, in which the band undertakes a more bluesy approach. A finger-picked acoustic guitar introduction leads into the ballad that contains cryptic lines like “They tried to tell her she’d never be happy as a girl in a magazine/She bought it with her faith”.
After the hour long Juipiter, the listener’s ears easily begin to tire. The second disk, titled Mars, proceeds with no apparent distinction from the first disk, save that the bulk of its tracks are less memorable than the tracks on the first. Even with jaded ears, however, the listener will readily enjoy Frusciante’s Hendrix-esque fret magic on “Turn It Again”. This vibrant song creates an atmosphere reminiscent of the sun-drenched scenery along Huntington Beach on a spring morning. Most dazzling is this song’s culminating guitar solo that smolders like the noon sun.
“Animal Bar” as well deserves attention with its expansive sophistication. It elicits a hopeful serenity, a delicate cultivation of the Chili Pepper’s original bacchanalian muse. The song is mature without sounding artificial and over-produced, unlike most of the other songs on Mars and Jupiter that drip with processed studio charm

At risk of sounding blasphemous to the Almighty Beatles, the lengthy Stadium Arcadium with its 28 tracks could be the Chili Pepper’s equivalent to the Beatles’ White Album. Like the White Album, Stadium Arcadium exhibits an immediately distinguishable music style as created by the band. Still, the album is disappointingly unadventurous and bloated, though it has hints of experimentation that are appropriately subtle. Luckily, it preserves Kiedis’s signature voice, and Flea’s distinctive bass lead. Perhaps its familiar, distinctive sound is its strength. With this album, the band celebrates their own sound that has been skillfully developed from their madcap endeavor to blend pop with old-school punk and psychedelic funk.

Note: After what Lost Highway did to those Ryan Adams fans, I will wait to post songs until after the album is released in stores 9 May. Check back then.

Lately, I have been interested in discovering new creative musical talent from across the Atlantic that didn’t involve cheesy Eurovision jingles that are mostly in broken English. The recently discovered album Nothing's Lost by Styrofoam from the the German indie label Morr Music is now my favorite album of the week:

Styrofoam – Nothing’s Lost
(Morr Music, 2004)

     Many would say that Jack Kerouac was one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century. His famous book On the Road, a semi-biographical and semi-confused frenzy of cross-country self-realization, gave him the title “King of the Beat Generation” and inspired a generation of post-modern writers and musicians, who in turn propagate his muse to the present.
     One of the many songs that pay homage to Kerouac is found on the album Nothing’s Lost by Belgian electronic artist Arne Van Petegem under his nom de plume Styrofoam. The endearing song “Couches In Alleys (ft. Ben Gibbard)” describes the identification that the speaker has with the symbolic escape the Road offers from the dreary, monochromatic routines of life. But upon reaching the end of the road, the speaker has to return home, where he comes to the realization that “I hadn't gone anywhere/And the problems I'd left were couches in alleys, that no one would ever claim.” The speaker asks for Jack’s advice with his dilemma—he is torn between the reveling in the enticing unknown of the Road, and resolving his problems that refuse to disappear on their own. As many beatniks wondered, forced to betray their naïve idealism for financial prosperity in the suburban sprawl, so the speaker wonders, why does the road end?

     Nothing’s Lost, of course, is more than one song’s tribute to a 20th century literary work. It is an expertly and carefully constructed blend of wistful daydreams and fuzzy melodic beats accented by playful sounds and blips reminiscent of squeaky styrofoam (the white stuff). The cohesiveness of the assorted musical styles is courtesy the brilliant mind of Styrofoam who rivals stateside experimental electronic artists. In this endeavor, Styrofoam enlists the talents of a number of prominent electronic artists including American ones. The first track “Misguided” is a duet that features Lali Puna’s Valerie Trebeljahr and the progressive hip-hop act Alias. It blends the ambient, otherworldly voice of Trebeljahr with the staccato commentary of Alias.
     Andrew Kenny from American Analog Set lends his voice to “Front To Back” which is probably the most prominent song on the record, despite not being created live in a studio, but rather being assembled through audio files exchanged electronically between the United States and Belgium. Andrew Kenny’s gentle voice gives the track an organic, intimate feel that makes one imagine encountering a park complete with a sapphire lake ringed with pines hidden away amidst the crowded streets of a cheerless city.
     Besides other collaborative tracks, like the memorable duet “Anything” between Das Pop’s Bent Van Looy and Japanese singer Miki, Petegem contributes not only the production and arrangements but also his own breathy vocals to complete this solidly produced album, currently his most accomplished work.