Red Hot Chili Peppers

The Red Hot Chili Peppers flex some arena muscle with Stadium Arcadium, while still blending their familiar funk and punk flavors. The band’s first studio album in four years consists of 28 hopelessly watered-down tracks split between two discs: Jupiter and Mars. Were two discs necessary? Probably not. A recent Rolling Stone review praised the attempt, saying “the band’s ninth studio album is the most ambitious work of its 23-year career—an attempt to consolidate everything that is Chili Peppers.” The best tracks on the album are the mellower and more thoughtful ones—John Frusciante’s mesmerizing guitar riffs make “Slow Cheetah” a refreshing listen after the bubblegum tracks that precede it. But nursery rhyme lyrics like “Any other day I might play / a funeral march for Bonnie Brae / why try and run away,” coupled with throwaways like “Hey Oh (Snow)” and “Hump de Bump” (with lyrics that simply repeat the titles), make it evident that Anthony Kiedis’ creative juices must not have been flowing on this one.