4/5
BLACKSUMMERnight.
Under the bridge of Hollywood boulevard, across the Walk Of Fame, a star is laid for the Red Hot Chili Peppers...and we aren't talking about a movie one. It's going to be a 'Black Summer' tonight like a Maxwell trilogy album over the decade, because after all these years the Chili's are back. Now the guys that took Stevie Wonder covers to 'Higher Ground' in the hills of Californication (dream of it) are still flexing at (almost) 60 in a music video that puts the finger to the throat of the competition like a headless horseman. Screw sailing on a censorship. They're still red hot. These songs in the Kiedis of life are exactly what we need right now after the passing of contemporary college days rock forefathers, the Foo Fighters' beloved drummer Taylor Hawkins. One so good on the skins you don't even need the Nirvana of Dave Grohl, less it was your 'Cold Day In The Sun'. And yet all the world is talking about in Hollywood is a slap in the face that truly hit everyone around the world between a Rock (a great friend of this band) and the hard place the former Fresh Prince Of Bel Air now finds himself in. We need this right now like a 'Parallel Universe' in these Doctor Strange days. Re-enter John Frusciante through the doors. Back for the first time since 2006's 'Stadium Arcadium' double for another. Reminding us of that incredible tune were we took the pain from the 'Scar Tissue' of freebasing and turned it into the slow grind of two back-to-back, new millennium classic LP's, 'Californication' and 'By The Way'. A sublime solo artist in his own right (from 'Shadows Collide With People', to 'The Enclosure' and so many, many more albums just as (underground) classic as the ones with his fellow bandsmen). But it's so good to have him back 'Around The World' touring. With all due respect to the gracious and great Josh Klinghoffer who said 'I'm With You' like the Jane's Addiction of Dave Navarro for 'One Hot Minute'. Seamlessly becoming a part of the blend in dear John's stead. Josh's highlight including harmonising with Keidis across the 'Dark Necessities' of 'The Getaway' as a gang of girls skateboarded through the iconic Los Angeles storm drains like a Terminator too, to the tune of a classic video from 'Booksmart' Olivia Wilde. But now with Frusciante back in this shindig, these hot ones can't stop.
No limit like Master P, 'Love Unlimited' is the brand new grand return on the double. Summer is on the horizon...and it could be a black one as Kiedis raps, introducing the lead single and their first in six years, "A lazy rain am I/The skies refuse to cry/Cremation takes its piece of your supply/The night is dressed like noon/A sailor spoke too soon/And China's on the dark side of the moon." Adding "my Greta weighs a tonne" for Thunberg to the poetic lyrics of his own American songbook like no other. With more tangents in the margins that are all tied together across the yellow legal pad lines. All as the shirtless act, hands off cocks, on socks, shred and style in seasoned muscular monuments across videos of these Los Angeles times like that (then) before its time video game video or the flat circles of the highways McConaughey's 'True Detective' hammered home like a crushed beer tin. Tattooed like the broad shoulders of Anthony's native spirit. 'These Are The Ways', "when you come from America/The sights, the sounds, the smells", he sings on the second single released at the same time as the album and movie motel like music video on the run from the law the day they hit the streets of the Hollywood Walk of Fame. After 'Summer' opens things like a 'Dani California' comes the 'Here Ever After' in all its atmospheric feel like the bands Cali' riding aesthetic. Taking us under the bridge again with the poetic beauty to counter the brutality of addiction, "Wet my beak and I give it up to that drugstore nose/So unique and I live it up 'til that liquor store close/In the laundry, queen ballistic/Mangy face with the messed up lipstick/My thing is blacked out loco/Smoke and tears, now take my photo", 'Acid For The Children' memoir writer Flea's bass moving overtime like his namesake on an unwashed dog. Having their day again, trumpet these Chili Peppers that are hot again, no chill, red. It's the kind of 'Aquatic Mouth Dance' to rinse around from one of the greatest American acts like Santa Monica Pier at the end of Route 66 for this drive. "Give me the love and I'll tell you when I want to come/Give me the love and I'll tell you when I want to run", this sets standout sings in a beautiful ballad that shows this raw riff ready act that blends genres like a purple Prince know when to slow it down like the snow of 'Hey, Oh'.
But Imagine Peace like a 'War Is Over' black and white like billboard (if you want) across the world from New York's Times Square to London's Piccadilly Circus, standing with the Ukraine as our 'Poster Child' like a Liverpool Lennon, Keidis sings "you've got the best of my Yoko" on a tacked up track that is similar to his signature style like 'Anchorman' Will Ferrell is to sticksman Chad Smith laying the perfect beat on the skin. Try and take a breath like reading one of these lines in full as you sing along for a man whose moustache is rivalling a Magnum. Feeling lucky like an Eastwood on this Westside, punk! No fools this April 1st release day like King James joking he's done for the season. These Laker superfans who once wrote a 'Salute To Kareem' and a dedication to 'Magic Johnson' are in 'Winning Time' once again, even if their purple and gold brethren are not (we still have hope, no joke). It's still, Showtime like the Apollo somewhere in Hollywoodland as 'The Great Apes' make moviemaking music on this planet. Damn the dirty talk! 'It's Only Natural', like how love and people "will show you how to break it down". Oh and that Frusciante guitar for the red stars like a Rolling Stone logo lick. 'She's A Lover' and this band of brothers who are anything but fighters, perfect the slow jazz rock with a hip-hop flow. 'Whatchu Thinkin'' ("I got these things in mind, you know/South Dakota, show the buffalo/In the Black Hills you could find it all.")? They were done? Nah! Seconds out. These beautiful 'Bastards Of Light' are ready to set the city of angels on fire like the neon of the futuristic skyline. All the way to the 'White Braids and Pillow Chair' of the morning after and a "tangled tiger" that want to "rip it all to shreds." It's the kind of 'One Way Traffic' that's has given these Peppers a taste and sound like no other. And it's the empathetic dedication to 'Veronica' in first-person that really goes deeper as Anthony sings, "My name is Veronica/I come from the South Side of Chicago/Remember my raincoat/We love you the same way, and/My life is a rope swing/Always headin' back to from where I came/Got no need to blame you." It's the kind of devotion that leaves not a dry eye in the house like the late, great Meatloaf once rocked. And 'Let 'Em Cry' does the same, before 'The Heavy Wing' flies with lyrics like, "Death to rise/Subtraction of advice/The criminal ties of my rival/And I'll roll these dice/Cold supply/Scraping to get by/Blatantly flooding the low rise/And I'll throw this knife." But through all this introspective influence, they is a necessity in this time, the classic closer of 'Tangelo' will make sure we're not tangled up in blue like Dylan. Because there's no, no limits. Now that the Red Hot Chili Peppers are back with Frusciante and legendary, prolific producer Rick Rubin behind the boards they really have no ceiling like a Fun Lovin' Criminals 'Love Unlimited' (you know the time Huey Morgan said, "Barry White, saved my life") backwards. After the rollercoaster they've been on from the Beavis and Butthead MTV generation to this Tik Tok one now in father time like 'Bron, it's still all love. TIM DAVID HARVEY.
Playlist Picks: 'Black Summer', 'Not The One', 'These Are The Ways'.
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