Stadium Arcadium

Ooh! Ooh! Me! Me! I want to write my first review of The Red Hot Chili Peppers' METEORIC Stadium Arcadium. First let me preface that I was born in the 80's so I was not hip to the original sound of The Red Hots. That being said once thing album hit me I learned the entire album on guitar and went out and bought their earlier albums. Does that say something about this album? BTW this is me and a humble cover of "Slow Cheetah" and "Torture Me." One of these days I will put up videos of the entire album which takes about 2 hours. http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=leLCpWjYE24 Without 'Further' ado, let me tell you how it all began. A friend of a friend of mine whom I did not know too well at the time (we hung out a couple of times always with good tunes) invited me to a festival. When it comes to road trippin' to a festi, somehow my car is always the one that gets vvolunteered. Shows u how much i love these things... ...so in preparation for this adventure my spider senses were tingling. I felt it was time to 'turn the page' with a fresh start musically so I wandered over to the local public library perusing the meager music collection available for borrow. Pretty much bare bones except for one hidden gem that neatly ambushed me as I gently spun the CD rack. What is this? The Red Hit Chili Peppers in my towns local library? And the album Stadium Arcadium that I've never even heard about before. Well let me tell you that I grew up watching music videos on MTV in the 80's and even though I did not have any albums by the Chili Peppers, I always like listening and watching their videos for Soul to Squeeze Under the Bridge and one of my favorite videos ever "Aeroplane. " I also like video games and arcades and what the heck not only will this double album fill a good chunk of time on the road but the font of the letters the title and the artwork were really drawing me in. Let's just say that I may have judged this album by its cover. I like the cut of its jib so I literally checked it out for 2 weeks. Now...any driver worth their weight in salt will have an excellent range of good music to make the ride enjoyable for their passenger whoever they might be. Driver and Disc Jockey might as well be interchangeable professions. So...that's why I wanted to give Stadium Arcadium a little test drive the week before. You know, make sure it was presentable to these backwater country folk in the mountains. Music might as well be paint. And let me tell you that when you step outside the vehicle after a long trip you might as well be painted with the colors of the music you have been listening to. With our tents chairs sleeping bags cooler full of provisions and of course Max Clover the Siberian Husky taking up the entire back seat (he was my festival friend's dog who could not take care of him anymore so I rescued him) we had no more room left for shields nor armor should the natives become agitated by the sonic booms coming from my stock stereo. Oddly enough, I had a difficult time homing in on the music during those first few days. Fir whatever reason my memory could not draw a bead on recognizing the songs. Maybe I was not driving long enough to catch more than just fragments of lyrics drums guitars and wait, I thought I heard a trumpet in there somewhere...it might also have been the fact that it's a double album. For some reason the lyrics 'Like a Kane and Able' did jump out at me. Whatever the reason I initially had a difficult time wrapping my mind around it. Which is strange because there's nothing out of the ordinary in terms of instrumentation. RHCP are basically a power trio with a vocalist, like like Led Zeppelin or Queen or Ozzy Osborne or Van Halen. And the album was mixed on the hotter side of the peak. Well long story short the three of us (Max ' s masters and the dog...Max Clover with his head out the window) listened to the entire album Stadium Arcadium for like 8 hours on our way to the festival (alternating Jupiter and Mars). I let my buddy drive and I had my head out the window just like my (new dog) with the stereo blasting. It was an incredible feeling, that feeling like we were running on adrenaline, the vanguard racing towards the edge of the earth. This album Stadium Arcadium by the late and very talented band of musicians The Red Hot Chili Peppers is deep. If you are a guitar player like me, and want to analyze Mr. John Frusciante' s style you are in for a rainbow plethora of different techniques. Power chords (5ths), single note lines, double stops, arpeggios, tritones, fingerpicking, 7th chords, 9th chords, hammer ons, 6ths, double picking, use of the blues scale, right handed hammer ons (tapping), pedal tones, counterpoint, and chock full of bending. We are talking Skittles baby, taste the rainbow of techniques. I am always amazed by the rapid pace of the guitar part in "Snow (hey oh)" with a half time back beat on the guitar. This is not easy to play smooth for an extended duration. John must have some incredible stamina to be able to sustain that kind of tempo for the entire song. "Give me your wrist..." And Fleas bass lines are so funky. These guys truly understand the art of counterpoint. I love "Charlie" and "Turn It Again" in particular. I'm not a drummer but I do know that everyone's parts fit well together, with Chad Smith solid on the skins. No one seems to ever overplay, and the songs are so imaginative so different emtionally. Those Chili Peppers are team players in it for the music: The Song. Like I said this was the first album I ever bought (for all of my relatives too; makes a great Christmas present) but since first hearing this in the spring if 2009 I did buy The first few albums including Freaky Stylee Mother's Milk and of course Blood Sugar Sex Magik. Anybody can learn how to play an instrument. Hell, you don't even need to be able to hear if you learn just the mechanical finger movements. This album 'Stadium Arcadium' proves that The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Flea, John Frusciante, Anthony Kiedis, and Chad Smith are more than just players, they are musicians. The Red Hot Chili Peppers are Jedi Knights. They have opened up and spilled their guts "My heart is hurting when I share..." but they have used their ears to create music for the song. There's no question that this album was written with a more mature and experienced point of view "Slow down the road to my back 40..." so if you're skull was not obliterated and heart shattered into a million pieces when this meteor of an album finally hit you like it did to me, I just pulled out my iPod plugged in my guitar and ran through it 2 hours yesterday first time in a couple of months) I urge you to go back and meditate on these songs. Stadium Arcadium is IMHO a masterpiece if the likes seldom seen or heard by musicians in the last 20 years. So go and may the force be with you and pick up another fellow 'musician' Guitar Slash's Apocalyptic Love featuring Miles Kennedy and the Conspirators (2012). Another album masterpiece and favorite of mine: Joy! Thank you, Steve P.S. oh and 'Kentucky' if you happen to be reading this please do give Anthony a call ;) P.P.S. There is no doubt in my mind that Mr. Frusciante will rejoin the Red Hots again sometime in (hopefully near) future when the time is right. If I helped create the music of Jupiter and Mars I think I too would bust the knob off while it was stuck on '10.'

That's saying something, considering great classics like Pink Floyd's The Wall and Led Zeppelin's Physical Graffiti. Stadium Arcadium is a great Chili Pepper album, with a whopping 28 songs on it. When there are that many songs, who cares that it came out four years after the last album (By The Way, a softer, more melodic sound that disappointed some Chili Pepper fans) and five years before the next (I'm With You, not yet released)? Not only that, but they're good songs. Yes, a couple of them are a bit like By The Way's songs, but they all come together nicely, with a bright new sound and style. The guitar is everywhere, thanks to John Frusciante's amazing talent. Flea's basslines are top of the line. Chad Smith has impeccable drumming. And Anthony Kiedis has stepped up his lyrics a couple notches, and his singing style has improved even more. It's amazing for somebody who had problems staying on key in Under the Bridge to have come up with these songs and lyrics! I have to say, though, that a lot of the lyrics are kind of cryptic so that you aren't entirely sure what a song's about. No, there aren't a lot of sexual innuendos, both because of the cryptic lyrics making any possible references incredibly obscure and because of where Kiedis is in his life (a healthy, regular old relationship with a woman that he basically proposes to in one song). There are so many songs that I enjoy too much. I really like Stadium Arcadium, very beautiful and Kiedis's singing is very good. Death of a Martian is about Flea's dog, Martian, who died. It's the very last song, and the second half of the song is a poem that is rapped. It ends the entire album on the right note while still is a great song in its own right. Wet Sand is also an amazing song. Tell Me Baby is about people coming to LA to become famous musicians, and how that never happens. Most of the other songs are very good, but there are so many of them. There were a couple that I always seemed to think dragged on, especially on such a long album, mostly Slow Cheetah, Warlocks, and Animal Bar. At first I didn't quite like them compared to other songs and almost always wondered, When is this album going to end? or at least, When is this song going to end? They are good. I wasn't too impressed with Charlie, for some reason, and Hump De Bump took a little while to enjoy. Some of the songs, especially in the middle and end of each CD, don't seem to be as strong as the singles and blend together a little. I feel like the biggest downside to Stadium Arcadium is the double album idea. It's long. To play a double album, you need one and a half or two hours. There are a lot of songs that blend together a little and are easy to forget. And to play all twenty eight, you have to change CDs, which breaks up the ideas of an entire album, played start to finish. Still, this album has shown how far the Chili Peppers have come since their debut self-titled album in 1984. It's a great new sound for the band, which is why these nearly fifty-year-old guys are still so impressive. They have learned how to change for the better and come out with new ideas.

Thank God -- after 15 years, the Chili Peppers returned to Rick Rubin's Laurel Canyon house and recorded the stunning sequel to Blood Sugar Sex Magic -- Stadium Arcadium, a flat-out tour de force which ends up surpassing it to become the Chilis' defining musical achievement. When I first heard BSSM, I didn't get it. Beyond a couple of cuts with easily accessible hooks, most of it sounded noisy, harsh, flat, tinny. Based largely on the rave reviews here at Amazon, I played BSSM twice a day, in its entirety, while commuting to a distant project. After perhaps 20 times, I finally perceived the musical genius, the thematic unity, the fierce beauty and complexity concealed beneath the simplistic surface. BSSM became one of my favorite albums of all time. Likewise, Stadium Arcadium has more to it than meets the ear -- much more. It is an album that can keep growing on you through dozens of listenings. All of the signature Chili Peppers touches are here: the crosstalk between Flea's bass and John Frusciante's lead; the vocal lead of Anthony Kiedis backed by John Frusciante's high harmony; the deft exclamation points of Chad Smith's drums; and the almost preternatural entwining of John's guitar passages with Anthony's vocals, which deserves further comment. What John Frusciante has done on Stadium Arcadium borders on miraculous. He paints soundscapes of negative aural space for Anthony to fill with vocals; his guitar returns after a line of verse to offer commentary on it -- ironic, mirthful, mournful, as the case may be. Other times, it joins in as a wordless vocal accompaniment. Quite simply, Stadium Arcadium establishes John Frusciante's status as a guitar superstar. Perhaps four cuts on the double album -- Dani California, Snow and Stadium Arcadium (Tracks 1, 2 and 4 on Disc 1) and Animal Bar (Track 9 on Disc 2) might be described as lightweight -- pleasant enough, though perhaps not fully developed. What remains is 24 songs -- over 100 minutes -- of pure living water from the Chili Peppers. Fittingly, the summit occurs at dead center -- C'mon Girl, Wet Sand, Hey (the last three songs on Disc 1); plus Desecration Smile and Tell Me Baby (the first two tracks on Disc 2), are 25 minutes of the Chili Peppers at full cry, grooving in a white heat of aural perfection on a runaway train that won't stop. Yet, as always, in the midst of passages that may start out strident or bombastic, the Chilis will stop you in your tracks with a melodic interlude so sweet and unexpected as to bring tears to your eyes. Jupiter and Mars, as names of the discs, invoke the sometimes otherworldly sound of the Chili Peppers. It's as if drawn from a distant corner of the galaxy, which has scales and chords unknown here, and wrought on instruments not made by hands. I've spent more than half a lifetime searching for the essential music to be my companion for the remaining days. Stadium Arcadium, along with BSSM and the superb Off the Map live DVD, is most assuredly part of the canon. An incantatory triumph, resplendent with howls and hoedowns, elegies and anthems, Stadium Arcadium interposes verses of words with music that can't be expressed in words. It is most surely one of the finest things I have ever heard.

Some people will beg to differ, but I think this might be the second or third best chili peppers album after Californication and By the Way...oh wait, maybe not By the Way, but it's close. :-) The awesome thing about this album is that it is big. It is a two CD set, and interestingly enough, they named the two CDs "Jupiter" and "Mars." The two CDs are purple/silver and red/silver so you can easily tell them apart. There are 28 songs in total on this album, so buying the whole album is really good value! This album has all of the stuff that The Chili peppers do well. The distinctive, emotional singing voice of Anthony Kiedis is excellent, and definitely has the voice that is rough enough that you believe him when he sings about sadness and hardships. There are definitely the funk mixed with pop sounds that are liked by many Chili Peppers fans. Probably the most popular song on this album is Dani California. This song is certainly excellent, and it has much of the same musical style that everyone liked so well in Californication and By The Way, but I'm sure some people are a little tired of it by now, as it go a tremendous amount of radio play time when it came out. For those of you looking to find other nice songs on this album that were perhaps not as widely played and obsessed about by the general populace, check out the following (in no particular order): Especially in Michigan - showcases some really good singing, spacey guitar riffs with a lot of different pedal settings, and beautiful lyrical moments Snow (Hey Oh) - a romantic song that might be appropriate for wedding or party slow dances Hump de Bump - sounds like older Chili Peppers material from their albums before Californication It is entirely possible that other listeners would like other songs than I have. The awesome thing about the Chili Peppers is that their albums feature very few songs that are duds. They seem to put their efforts into the whole album. There is interesting guitar riffs, unusual spacey lyrics, and funky guitar sounds on just about every song.

The Stadium Arcadium vinyl record is a Christmas gift for my 13 year old son. He's a collector of vinyl, he's a big fan of 90's music, and the Chili Peppers are currently his favorite band (yes, we done a great job raising him lol). He has killer taste in music! Anyway, I only opened the cardboard box that the album was shipped in to make sure i had received the correct item. I won't be able to say much else about it until Christmas. It arrived very quickly. The price seems ridiculously high to me, but i guess it's pretty standard for vinyl. As long as it's good quality and it makes my kid happy on Christmas, it earns 5 stars from me.

Very good cd from band

I finally purchased this Chili Peppers cd a couple weeks ago and it is awesome. Way better than I expected! I was hesitant due to the price and the fact I have not been a big fan of the band in the past. I have never bought a RHCP cd but I would always borrow my friends and listen to them. Still I couldn't really get into much of their music. Just a few songs stood out. But after listening to this Stadium Arcadium cd I can't get enough of it. This band in my opinion has evolved, matured and have written one of the best cd's I've heard in a LONG time. What I think is great is the fact they run the entire gamut of sounds on this double cd. They held true to their style with some really cool funky sounding tracks like Charlie, Warlocks, 21st Century and Storm in a Teacup which are all great songs. But they have some great ballads that are beautifully written such as Hard to Concentrate and IF. Then they kick it up on a few tracks as well. A couple examples that are my favorites are Readymade and Torture me. And of course there are the popular ones like Dani California, Snow, and another favorite of mine, Tell me baby. I have bought a ton of cd's in the past from other bands that have on average 12-13 tracks with only 2 or 3 great songs on it. There are 28 songs on this double cd and I can honestly say that most of them (90%) are outstanding with some great bass playing, guitar licks and lyrics. With that said, the Red Hot Chili Peppers have served their fans (and new fans like myself) with an outstanding cd that's well worth the money! And let's face it, do they not have some of the best music video's as well? They know how to make a great video that's a bunch of fun to watch! Don't hesitate like I did, go buy Stadium Arcadium and enjoy it!

This and Blood Sugar Sex Magic are my desert island albums. I’m 52 and been a RHCP fan since John joined the band. In my opinion without John they aren’t

Having this recording on CD from the day it was released, but have only heard it a few times, as the sound is just terrible. Now having it on vinyl is just a dream come true as the full dynamics has been restored. You can now hear Fleas excellent excursions on the bass and Frusicantes guitar swirling around the room. Masterpiece. It's just a must have.

Un excelente producto y calidad acorde a lo deseado

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The Chili's return with new album "Stadium Arcadum" four year's after the masterpiece "By The Way". WOW! Every song is unique and special in it's own way! Their are no bad or throwaway tracks! At an age of 43 year's (except Fruciante , age 36) you would expect them to tone down their music! NO WAY! THEY ROCK AS HARD AS THEY EVER DID AND THEY MIX IN ALOT OF FUNK! Sure their are a ton of ballad's and melodic tune's but that's the great thing! They mix all their sound's in one 28 song package! If I Had To Split The Album In Half (14 song's) This Is How I Would Do It : 1) "Tell Me Baby" - Amazing! A mix of their funk , rap and melodic pretty side! GREAT! Very , Very possible second single! 2) "Charlie" - Funky and bring's you back to the BloodSugarSexMagik day's with a mix of their new sound! Very well written! Lyric's are questionable at time's ("Get The message on Flea's fist/Move Around like a scientist/Lay down...Get Kissedd") but that's O.K. it's allway's fun to her the Pepper's goof off once in awile! 3) "Desceration Smile" - Very "By The Way"/"Californication" sounding! Great ballad with nice vocal's by Anthony! Better then "Slow Cheetah" as a ballad in my mind. 4) "Hump de Bump" - Very , Very Funky! Amazing a band at this age can still do what they did 21 year's ago! Sound's alot like "American Ghost Dance" on "Freaky Syley"! 5) "Turn It Again" - WOW! GO Fruciante! He rip's his guitar up on this one and boy dou's he give us one hell of a solo! Wait until the 4:20 mark in the song and you will know what I mean! Very Spacey Sounding! The chorus with Anthony singing is awsome to! 6) "Hard To Concentrate" - Absolutly Beutifull! Kieds give's an amazing vocal performance and the African drum beat's blend in well! Perfect for a wedding! Q magizene (a popular music mag) said it was the best song on the album! 7) "21 st Century" - Funky but not overly Funky! Good blend and is extremly catchey! Great base work by Flea! Alot of people right this one off , but it IS very good! 8) "If" - Short folkey song. I love it! It is so relaxing! Most people wont pay attention to this one but they should! Flea wrote it and is better then his last atempt "Pea" off "One Hot Minute"! (Nothing against "Pea" On "One Hot Minute" , I still stand by my case that "One Hot Minute" Is Underated) 9) "Dani California" - Ehh. How do you not pick it? It's not the most brilliant original song on the album but it's catchey and fun and make's a great single! Nice ending solo. 10) "Storm In A Teacup" - Rap! Metal! Funk! What dous that remind you of? BloodSugar baby! Awsome! Again not a brilliantly written track , BUT YOU GOT TO HAVE IT ON THEIR! 11) "Animal Bar" - Very unique! Not a rocker but it's so different and special! Another that wont get commercial sucess but deserves to! It is also cathey. That's the cool thing about the Chili's , they can be experimental but make it catchey. 12) "She's Only 18" - Beatle's sounding rocker! Mind blowing solo by Johnny! Anthony (the singer) said it was his Favorite solo on the album! (you can see track by track interview's if you get the Special Edition versian) 13) "Snow (Hey Oh)" - A little long but an awsome pop song! Catchey and very , very catchey hook's! Vintage Californication! Again the only problem I have is it being so long! It should have been a 3:00 song. But it's so good it can't be left off my Top 14! 14) "Slow Cheetah" - An accoustic balad. VERY "By The Way" sounding , but that's a good thing! Very catchey but DON'T skip it just because it take's a while to kick in. At about the 1:09 mark the chorus lift's the song up! Awsome! Not as good as "Desecration Smile" but very close! If The whole album turned out 14 song's like that it probally would be more succesfull but the whole album is awsome! It's Not BloodSugarSexMagik but who care's? I think this is much better then BloodSugerSexMagik , Musically and lyricly! Every song , AWSOME! Even the one's I didn't pick in my Top 14! Other fave's are , "C'mon Girl" , "Wet Sand" , "She Look's To Me" , "Readymade" , "Strip My Mind" and "Especially In Michigan". Their is not a bad sound from the opening beat's of "Dani California" to the errie ending note's of "Death Of A Martian"! This is also not "Dark Side Of The Moon" as some people say but why cant it be "The Dark Side Of The Moon" for are generation? Anyway's thank's for another awsome one boy's and buy it if you have a mind to! (How are they possibly going to relese another album? They have relesed Six flawless album's in a row , I don't know how they have any idea's left! Oh Well they will find a way! They allway's do!) CHEERS!

Album génialissime. Je l'écoute en boucle et je ne m'en lasse pas ! TOUS les morceaux sont géniaux.