I'm With You

About

“This is a new band,” said Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith in 2011. “We have the same name, but it’s a new band.” On the group’s 10th album, <i>I’m With You</i>, the veteran funk-rockers emerged from a brief respite with something of a creative rebirth. After a chart-dominating run of heavily melodic hits—1999’s <i>Californication</i>, 2002’s <i>By the Way</i>, and 2006’s <i>Stadium Arcadium</i>—guitarist John Frusciante quit the band for a second time. The Peppers recruited young multi-instrumentalist Josh Klinghoffer, a guitarist prone to wild fits of feedback and swirls of unique texture. Bassist Flea, meanwhile, returned with a new set of musical skills he’d picked up in the intervening year, during which time he learned the piano, studied music theory at the University of Southern California, and played with Radiohead’s Thom Yorke. The resulting album finds the bandmates opening up their tried-and-true stomp style, and embracing disco, post-punk, Afrobeat, and electronic music. Same Pepper, new heat. All 14 <i>I’m With You</i> tracks feature layers of syncopation provided by storied session percussionist Lenny Castro and Brazilian percussionist Mauro Refosco, resulting in the most rhythmically sophisticated album of the group’s career. “Ethiopia” has a tricky 7/4 meter, while “Did I Let You Know” lets the Peppers slide into their version of a slinky Afrobeat groove. And the single “Monarchy of Roses”—which at one point had been titled “Disco Sabbath”—has a tom-tom-heavy, noise-metal verse that explodes into a chorus full of Chic-style, four-on-the-floor abandon. .

via Apple Music

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