I'm With You
I have the new Red Hot Chili Peppers album, I’m With You, and I’ve been listening to it on repeat for a week.
Firstly Klinghoffer Vs Frusciante: They are both immensely talented and brilliant guitarist. Frusciante has a long history with the Chili Peppers and arguably has shaped their sound over the years. Klinghoffer has worked with Frusciante on much of his solo material and side projects so really there was no better replacement for John. Having said that Josh doesn’t try to be a copy of Frusciante. He carves his own style out which is subtler and if you can believe more all round than Frusciante’s. For example the guitars are much lower down in the mix than before but you get the sense that Josh is comfortable with this even so much so that it sounds like his decision to lower them. You can also hear some of that Klinghoffer input into the drums and lyrical melody. I get the feeling that Josh’s input plays better to the induvidual styles of the other musicians. For example the track Police Station has an incredible melody that suits Anthony’s voice better than what I would have imagined Frusciante would have made of a similar track.
All this said whilst I love the subtle style of Josh’s guitar he is no Frusciante. I can’t wait to see them live and see how that translates live on stage. From John’s very first Peppers album you can hear that he was an amazing guitarist and all the way through to his last Peppers album you knew he could rip it up and produce the most incredible sounds from his whole being. And incredible live too.
Right that’s it over with the guitarist squabble. In summary both amazing, in different ways.
Tracks I like: Factory Of Faith, Ethiopia, Did I Let You Know, Police Station.
I’m liking the whole album. I must admit it didn’t hit me the way other albums hit me. That’s partly because I am not listening to this type of music much lately but also because I don’t think it is their best. As I alluded to earlier, I don’t think it is not fair to directly compare these albums directly. I like I’m With You but not as much as I remember liking Californication or By They Way when I first heard them. Having said that I hated One Hot Minute when I first heard it but I now think that is one of their finest albums.
I’d say 4 out of 5. Go listen and decide for yourself!