That cover is like Roger Dean meets Salvador Dalí on a bad day.

A group I'm in on FB says this is the tracklist:

1. Tippa My Tongue
2. Peace and Love
3. Never Forget You
4 The Great Divide
5. Ready or Not
6. Looking for a Star
7. No More Cloudy Days
8. Better Than Forever
9. Afterlife
10. Shoot Me a Smile
11. Handful
12. The Drummer
13. Bag of Grins
14. Floating in Space
15. Caught in the Undertow
16. A Little Less Sixteen Candles
17. Red Light Special

The most recent album disappeared quickly.

Was it any good?

The reaction seemed to be pretty mixed among overall. Rolling Stone gave it four stars while the Irish Times gave it just one (in a very angry review, lol) --

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/musi ... e-1330017/

https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/musi ... -1.4838008

I think it's a good, solid album but nothing spectacular -- some fun songs but probably their weakest album overall with Frusciante as guitarist. That seems to be the general consensus among both fans and critics.

The Irish Times review is hilarious.

Thinking of changing my signature to this:

And I like the Chili Peppers!

I read a handful of reviews of a recent album for the first time in ages and have always wondered -- why are music critics so obsessed with lyrics? It's one of the main reasons I mostly stopped reading music reviews -- lyrics almost never impact how much I enjoy music but so much of many reviews really focuses on them.

For me, it's easily the least important part of an album (generally speaking). The hook and rhythm section is usually most important and even with vocals, the melody-writing and voice quality of the singer is what matters. Freddy Mercury can sing so well he can do a song about how much he loves to ride his bike and I love it. I'm not saying great lyrics don't elevate a song, but there's no shortage of classic songs with either very basic lyrics or even nonsensical lyrics. Meanwhile, the most profound lyrics aren't going to save mediocre music.

The cynic in me says it's because they don't really know anything about musical theory or arrangements or technical aspects of musicianship (neither do I, but I'm not presenting myself as a music expert), so they can't really speak to that stuff in depth. But they are writers, so they can zero in on the writing of the lyrics, since those are words and they do have expertise there.

The more charitable part of me says... I don't know. It's part of the music and should be reviewed, but why it takes up such a disproportionate part of so many reviews is a mystery to me. Maybe the primary audience for music reviews are into them?

It's a great line... but that said, who's Nick Cave?

My only qualm with that review is when the reviewer says the Chili Peppers are "(so-called) alternative" -- uh, is there even a single other band that sounds like them? They basically are their own genre at this point. That doesn't count as alternative?

And when they hit the scene and bands like Def Lepperd, Bon Jovi, and Van Halen were the mainstream, they were most certainly alternative rock.

That aside, I love when critics, music critics in particular, get incredibly butthurt that a band they dislike is successful. You can also see the spit flying out of that critics mouth as he lambasts this evil, evil band that only very bad people would like.

I think that is why.
I rarely pay any attention to lyrics anymore. I don't expect the artists to be brilliant poets (mastering music is already a good enough skill to me!) and if the music isn't compelling on its own, I really don't have much desire to listen.

Careful...might get slapped with a Red Right Hand...

I haven't loved a RHCP album since 2003's By The Way. I'm open to sampling this one...but I'm not holding out hope.

I wouldn't bother then -- it's not as good as Stadium Arcadium or I'm With You, IMO. It's a fine album for what it is, but they're not doing anything radically different from what they've been doing, even with a change in guitarist.

I finally decided to look him up and this is kinda comical, almost a parody of the "sensitive but overly serious artist"....

I assumed you knew who Nick Cave was and were joking!

No, I listen to music all the time but don't really follow it anymore. The only way I know Nick Cave is through that quote.

He's been releasing music since 1980. A lot of his stuff finds its way into soundtracks.

I am a fan of RHCP, but have not followed for a while, as their releases are a bit more of the same...that said, IMO in their glory they are not worthy of Nick Cave (who is a very good reason to listen to lyrics).

Hey, rock on. Jam on the stuff you like, no judgement on my end. Too many haters (like Nick Cave) out there.

I guess Nick Cave buried the hatchet with them. Here he is with Flea and Warren Ellis.

I guess Flea accepted his criticism and grew as a musician.
(Just joking, Flea's great!) That song's a bit of a slog, though. Flea livened it up a bit at the six minute mark.
Ellis has played with Cave since 1994, but I still always think of the (now disgraced) comic writer of the same name every time I see his name!