Red Hot Chili Peppers - I'm With You

Red Hot Chili Peppers - I'm With You

2011, Warner Bros.

Time brings change to the Red Hot Chili Peppers on their latest studio effort, I'm With You. The follow-up to 2006's iconic double album, Stadium Arcadium is the band's most playful and flowing work to date. Armed with a new guitarist and a fresh outlook born of time away and maturity, Red Hot Chili Peppers aim straight for the top of the charts with fresh songs that haven't lost an ounce of edge or pop sensibility.

I'm With You opens with an intriguing mix of edgy guitar and dance beats on "Monarchy Of Roses" before exploding into the alt-pop gold of "Factory Of Faith". This is classic RHCP updated for 2011, and destined to be a chart hit. "Ethiopia" is built on a simple, catchy arrangement and features some of the best guitar work on the album. The Chili’s use their patented talk/sing style to illuminate “Look Around”, a catchy, minimalist arrangement that will stick out in your mind.  Plowing through the exceedingly solid numbers “The Adventures Of Rain Dance Maggie” and “Did I Let You Know”, RHCP digs into “Goodbye Hooray”, an absolutely infectious alternapop number that you’re likely to hear ringing from your radio in the not-too-distant future.  “Police Station” is expansive and dreamy, ethereal in intriguing fashion.  It’s an interesting transitional piece for the band, and works better than you might at first expect. I’m With You winds down slowly, closing out with the mildly catchy “Dance, Dance, Dance”. 

Red Hot Chili Peppers capture some of their old magic on I’m With You, but also struggle at times to find a groove.  The “new sound” isn’t so much new as updated, but some of the creative tension of past works isn’t here.  That may take time to appear, or it may never cement the way it once was, but this remains a highly talented group of musicians who are still very capable of rocking you with a distinct pop intensity.  I’m With You shows growth and change, while maintain some of the zeitgeist of the Red Hot Chili Peppers story.

Rating: 3 Stars (Out of 5)

Learn more about Red Hot Chili Peppers at www.redhotchilipeppers.com or www.myspace.com/redhotchilipeppers. I’m With You is available from Amazon.com as a CD or Download.  The album is also available via iTunes.