| Product Summary | | Label: WARNER BROS / WEA | | UPC: 00093624999621 | | Release Date: 5/9/2006 | | Buy.com Sku: 202377587 | | Item#: M2W55P | | Buy.com Sales Rank: 25050 | Format:  CD |
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| Song Listing |  |
Disc 1
| | Song Title | Sample | | 1. Dani California ~ Red Hot Chili Peppers |  | | 2. Snow (Hey Oh) ~ Red Hot Chili Peppers | | | 3. Charlie ~ Red Hot Chili Peppers | | | 4. Stadium Arcadium ~ Red Hot Chili Peppers | | | 5. Hump De Bump ~ Red Hot Chili Peppers | | | 6. She's Only 18 ~ Red Hot Chili Peppers | | | 7. Slow Cheetah ~ Red Hot Chili Peppers | | | 8. Torture Me ~ Red Hot Chili Peppers | | | 9. Strip My Mind ~ Red Hot Chili Peppers | | | 10. Especially In Michigan ~ Red Hot Chili Peppers | | | 11. Warlocks ~ Red Hot Chili Peppers | | | 12. C'mon Girl ~ Red Hot Chili Peppers | | | 13. Wet Stand ~ Red Hot Chili Peppers | | | 14. Hey ~ Red Hot Chili Peppers | |
| An ambitious double album, Stadium Arcadiumfinds the Red Hot Chili Peppers building on their more mature, latter-day approach, while also acknowledging their lighthearted, youthful sound. The Los Angeles-based funk-rock quartet's third studio outing since John Frusciante returned to the fold, this 2006 release once again reinforces how crucial the guitarist is to the Peppers' aesthetic, with his mix of swirling, psychedelic leads and heavy riffs providing the perfect foil to Flea's bold bass heroics. (Instrumentally, the record also benefits from guest appearances by Mars Volta guitarist Omar Rodriguez, percussionists Paulinho Da Costa and Lenny Castro, and the legendary Billy Preston on clavinet.)
Remarkably consistent for a two-disc, 28-song offering, Stadium Arcadium kicks off with "Dani California," an energetic track that hints at a Beatles influence, while showcasing vocalist Anthony Kiedis's neo-rap delivery and the tight rhythmic interplay of Flea and drummer Chad Smith. Other highlights of this collection include the emotive "Wet Sand" and the frenetic "Torture Me," which provide nice counterpoints to loose, limber tunes such as the funk workouts "Hump De Bump" and "C'mon Girl." In many ways a culmination of the Chili Peppers' decades-spanning musical evolution, Stadium Arcadium stands as one of the group's most impressive efforts.
"With Stadium, the Chili Peppers take pleasure in leaving destruction behind, and rolling the dice on their beloved California one more time." Josh Kun, Los Angeles Times
"...the most ambitious work of its twenty-three-year career." Rolling Stone
"a mature showcase of concentrated power with riotous groove jams, super-sized hooks and transcendent vocal arrangements." Billboard
"#1 must-have album for 2006." Q Magazine
| | Album Notes and Credits |
Notes & Personnel Info |  | Red Hot Chili Peppers: Flea , John Frusciante, Anthony Kiedis, Chad Smith . | | Personnel: Omar Rodriguez-Lopez (guitar); Richard Dodd (cello); Brad Warnaar (French horn); Michael Bolger (trombone); Billy Preston (tambourine); Paulinho DeCosta, Lenny Castro (percussion). | | Audio Mixers: Andrew Scheps; Ryan Hewitt. | | Recording information: Akademie Mathematique Of Philosophical Research; Little Kicker Sound; The Center For The Cultivation Of The Invisible; The Mansion Of Laurel Canyon. | | Photographers: Michael Muller; Gus Van Sant. | | An ambitious double album, STADIUM ARCADIUM finds the Red Hot Chili Peppers building on their more mature, latter-day approach, while also acknowledging their lighthearted, youthful sound. The Los Angeles-based funk-rock quartet's third studio outing since John Frusciante returned to the fold, this 2006 release once again reinforces how crucial the guitarist is to the Peppers' aesthetic, with his mix of swirling, psychedelic leads and heavy riffs providing the perfect foil to Flea's bold bass heroics. (Instrumentally, the record also benefits from guest appearances by Mars Volta guitarist Omar Rodriguez, percussionists Paulinho Da Costa and Lenny Castro, and the legendary Billy Preston on clavinet.) | | Remarkably consistent for a two-disc, 28-song offering, STADIUM ARCADIUM kicks off with "Dani California," an energetic track that hints at a Beatles influence, while showcasing vocalist Anthony Kiedis's neo-rap delivery and the tight rhythmic interplay of Flea and drummer Chad Smith. Other highlights of this collection include the emotive "Wet Sand" and the frenetic "Torture Me," which provide nice counterpoints to loose, limber tunes such as the funk workouts "Hump De Bump" and "C'mon Girl." In many ways a culmination of the Chili Peppers' decades-spanning musical evolution, STADIUM ARCADIUM stands as one of the group's most impressive efforts. | | Indulgence has long been a way of life for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, yet they resisted the siren's call of the double album until 2006's Stadium Arcadium. Sure, 1991's breakthrough Blood Sugar Sex Magik was as long as a classic double LP, but such distinctions mattered little in the era when vinyl gave way to CD, and they matter less now, as the CD gradually gives way to digital-only releases. In fact, like how Blood Sugar was the tipping point when the LPs ceded ground to CDs, Stadium Arcadium could be seen as the point when albums were seen as a collection of digital playlists. Yes, it's pressed up as a two-disc set -- including an extravagant but pointless special edition housed in a clunky box that includes a make-yer-own-spinning-top -- but this is an album that's designed for you to mix and match, create your own playlist, rip and burn on your own. It's designed for you to sequence its 28 songs in some kind of cohesive manner, since the band sure didn't take the time to do that here; it's the first major album by a major band that makes as much sense on random as it does in its proper sequencing. Well, that's not entirely true: the official 28-song album does begin with "Dani California," the clearest single here, the one thing that truly grabs attention upon first listen and worms its way into your subconscious, where it just won't let go, as so much of Anthony Kiedis' catchiest melodies do. After that, it's a long, winding path of alternately spacey and sunny pop, ballads, and the occasional funk workout that used to be the Chili Peppers' signature but now functions as a way to break up the monotony. And there needs to be something to break up the monotony, not because the music is bad but because it all exists at the same level and is given a flat, colorless production that has become the signature of Rick Rubin as of late. | | Rubin may be able to create the right atmosphere for Flea and John Frusciante to run wild creatively -- an opportunity that they seize here, which is indeed a pleasure to hear -- but he does nothing to encourage them to brighten the finished recording up with some different textures, or even a greater variety of guitar tones. As such, the bare-bone production combined with the relentless march of songs gives Stadium Arcadium the undeniable feel of wading through the demos for a promising project instead of a sprawling statement of purpose; there's not enough purpose here for it to be a statement. That fault is down to the band not forming the raw material into something palatable for the listener, but there's also the problem that as a lyricist Anthony Kiedis just isn't that deep or clever enough to provide cohesive themes for an album of this length; he tackles no new themes here, nor does he provide new insight to familiar topics. To his credit, he does display a greater versatility as a vocalist, cutting back on the hambone rapping that used to be his signature and crooning throughout the bulk of this album, usually on key. That said, he still has enough goofy tics to undercut his attempts at sincerity, and he tends to be a bit of a liability to the band as a whole; with a different singer, who could help shape and deliver these songs, this album might not seem as formless and gormless. But there is a fair amount of pleasures here, all down to the interplay between Flea and Frusciante. While drummer Chad Smith does prove himself quite versatile here, gracefully following the eccentric turns and meanderings of the bassist and guitarist, the string instruments are the reason to listen to Stadium Arcadium. That's always been the case to a certain extent with the Chili Peppers, but here it's especially true, as they push and pull, rave and rumble, lie back and rock out -- pretty much spit out anything they can do on their instruments over the course of 28 songs. As good as much of this is, there is a little bit of monotony here, since they're working variations on their signature themes, and they haven't found a way to make these variations either transcendent or new; they're just very good renditions on familiar themes. These tracks rarely betray their origins as studio jams -- more than ever, it's possible to hear that the track came first, then the song -- and while that can result in some good listening, it all does kind of drift together. That said, there are no bad tracks here -- it's all of a relatively high quality -- but there are no standouts either, so it takes a very dedicated fan to start sorting out the subtleties between the tracks (not the wheat from the chaff, since it's all wheat). And while those hardcore fans may certainly enjoy the make-your-own-adventure spirit of Stadium Arcadium, it's hard not to feel that it's the band's responsibility to take this very good repetitive album and mold it into something sharper and more effective. So call it the rock version of Peter Jackson's King Kong: there's something pretty great and lean buried beneath the excess, but it's so indulgent, it's a work that only a fanboy could truly love. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine |
Producer: Rick Rubin; Rick Rubin |
Engineer: Chris Holmes; Mark Linette; Dana Nielsen; Andrew Scheps; Ryan Hewitt; Jason Lader |
| | Compilation Appearances |
| | Associated Artists and Works |
| | Technical Info | | Release Date : 05/09/2006 | | Original Release Date : 2006 | | Catalog ID : 49996 | | Label : Warner Bros. Records (Record Label) | | Number of Discs : 2 | | Studio/Live : Studio | | Mono/Stereo : Stereo | | SPAR Code : n/a | | UPC : 00093624999621 |
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| | Professional Reviews | | Rolling Stone (pp.225-226)
- 4 stars out of 5 -- "[Flea] finally cuts loose again here, reasserting himself as the best non-hip-hop reason to buy a subwoofer."Rolling Stone (p.102)
- Ranked #2 in Rolling Stone's "The Top 50 Albums Of 2006" -- "[A] confessional and creative triumph." Entertainment Weekly (p.79)
- "John Frusciante lays down his sledgehammer riffs, Kiedis begins to actually sing the elegiac chorus, the golden harmonies of the bridge kick in, and by the end, you're blindsided by how great it all sounds." -- Grade: B Q (p.126)
- Ranked #4 in Q Magazine's "100 Greatest Albums of 2006" -- "[With] funk-rock rhythms, Californian harmonies and bittersweet themes." Kerrang (Magazine)
(p.47)
- "There are hidden depths here, melodies that become more insistent and subtleties that reveal themselves from where they sit modestly beneath the surface." Q (Magazine)
(p.106)
- 5 stars out of 5 -- "[Frusciante] has brought a sense of experimentation to a band not renowned for dabbling with the unorthodox. It's testament to his new-found vocabulary that no two songs sound the same." Mojo (Publisher)
(p.110)
- 4 stars out of 5 -- "It's the sound of a band on a roll....The unbridled creativity here is a cause for celebration." Rolling Stone 8 of 10
Stadium Arcadium has too many midtempo tracks and, in the manner of U2's All That You Can't Leave Behind, is more of a summation of the Peppers' career than a step forward. But the band is still capable of surprises, as on one of the discs' many potential singles: the bouncy, four-chord "Make You Feel Better," a Sixties-influenced pop tune with Fifth Dimension harmonies and a Ringo Starr beat. A few songs later, Kiedis seems to confess some fears about the project at hand: "The risk, is it worth it?/The disc, is it perfect?" Perfect? Nah. But close enough.
- Brian Hiatt
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| | Bio | | | Red Hot Chili Peppers
After a conflict nearly tore them apart, Red Hot Chili Peppers return with an insanely ambitious double album. Here’s how they managed to turn over a new leaf.
Two years ago, Red Hot Chili Peppers went to Europe to play in front of the largest crowds of their 20-plus-year career. After surviving numerous personnel changes, drug problems, erratic recordings, relationship dramas, and assorted crises that have broken up countless bands, the Peppers had released back-to-back multiplatinum albums -- 1999’s Californication and 2002’s By the Way. Against all odds, they had reached genuine superstar status, and this jaunt saw them headlining three nights at London’s massive Hyde Park. But for Flea -- from day one, the bass-playing yin to singer Anthony Kiedis’ yang -- these looked like the last shows he would ever perform with the group.
"To tell you the truth, I really didn’t think I’d be here right now doing this," he says, sprawled barefoot on the floor of a sun-dappled practice room -- lined with books and classic punk-rock photos and posters -- in his idyllic, rambling Malibu home. "A multitude of things had built up, and it just wasn’t a comfortable time. The band had always been a sanctuary for me -- no matter what was going on in my life, the band was a place where I could just be myself and rock. All of a sudden it didn’t feel like that, and I just thought it was time for me to not do it anymore."
Flea, born Michael Balzary in Australia 43 years ago, is truly the pivot point of the Chili Peppers. With guitarist John Frusciante, he forges the riffs that are the basis of their songs. Alongside drummer Chad Smith, they make up one of rock’s most versatile and powerful rhythm sections, the backbone of the band even at its lowest points. And with his high school friend Kiedis, Flea gives the Chili Peppers a style and soul that has come to symbolize the spirit of latter-day Los Angeles. So while the band has persevered through lineup changes that resemble a game of rock’n’roll musical chairs, Flea's departure would be serious business indeed.
Eventually, that cloud lifted, the Chili Peppers got back to work, and the result is their ninth studio album, Stadium Arcadium -- a 28-song, double-disc set that adds up to some of the best work of their career. Working once again with longtime producer Rick Rubin, the band returned to the Hollywood house where they recorded their 1991 breakthrough, BloodSugarSexMagik, and emerged with a record that mixes old-school Chili Peppers funk with mature melodicism -- plus a supersize dose of Frusciante's flamethrower guitar. From the Zeppelin-esque crunch of "Readymade" to the delicate slink of "Hey," it’s a powerhouse statement of purpose, an album that Flea describes as "the sum of everything that we are as a band."
The making of Stadium Arcadium was as notable as the outcome. During the almost yearlong recording process, this notoriously fractious gang of four were able to put aside their differences, their competitiveness, and cohere better than ever. "This time," says Kiedis, "those egos -- and when I say 'those egos,' I mean all of us -- were feeling decent and confident, respectful, as excited about the other guys' stuff as we were about our own. If someone came in with a great chord change for a song or a great rhythm or a great groove, by the time it was finished, everybody had jizzed all over it, and it had become a real community piece of property."
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