Movies tell us to win them back. Music reminds us why it’s over.
Say Anything… fans, beware. The John Cusack film responsible for popularizing the act of wooing a faded flame with “take me back” tunes blasted overhead from beneath their window debuted in 1989. That same year, another John, a teenage guitarist surnamed Frusciante, first appeared on an album with a hard funk-rapping, drug-crazed outfit named after an equally inedible food item.
Over three decades later, the Red Hot Chili Peppers have offered up an antidote woven in the sad but irrefutable reality; one that, as our headline contends, calls for hopeless romantics to leave all their schemes on the drawing board when they belong there. In 2022, maturity points are earned through recognizing there is another person in the equation besides those that write love songs: the subjects who deserve to write their own stories without someone more artistically-inclined limiting their bounds.
1989 was also, by no coincidence, when the Chili Peppers would first experiment in large with sounds far-opposing their since-discarded early style. Hence, their first contribution to the birth of Alternative Rock. When Anthony Kiedis and his Californian brethren finally had something to say in two years time, it was all over for the hearts and minds of those looking to exclusively escape with rage on stage and undiluted energy under the bridge downtown.
The double whammy of lyrical truth and rhythmic flow, for them, has only been able to thrive with succinct cohesion when the definitive “RHCP” formation – that is, Kiedis (vocals), Flea (bass), Frusciante (lead guitar), and the backwards-capped Chad Smith (drums) – make up their lineup.
Their latest, Unlimited Love, sees the quartet reunite for their first original record together – and, unsurprisingly, their strongest – since 2006’s delightful mammoth, Stadium Arcadium. After some Covid delays, the album was unleashed onto the racks and over virtual streaming platforms at the top of the month on April 1. According to the company line towed throughout their promotional tour, the band has returned to base in cathartic harmony, allowing their best work – made sober, while ever commenting on the heartbreak it takes to get there, and heartbreak in general – to reveal itself twofold.
Flea told NME, “..artistically, in terms of being able to speak the same [musical] language, it was easier working with John [Frusciante].” As opposed to his replacement, Josh Klinghoffer, who amicably stepped aside to pave the way for his lapsed recluse predecessor’s kinetic return.
“The biggest event was John returning to the band. That was the most monumental change in our lives,” said Kiedis.
Currently, “Black Summer” (Messenger-Ranked No. 8) and “These Are the Ways” (Messenger-Ranked No. 7) are the Billboard-topping 17-track album’s only singles. Per the charts, Unlimited Love is the best rock release sales-wise since Paul McCartney’s McCartney III (January 2021).
The following five tracks dominated The Messenger’s rankings; whether or not they will earn commercial success and radio airplay remains to be seen.
1. IT’S ONLY NATURAL
The “She was a London girl” / “He was a Southend Boy” storytelling device is simultaneously vintage Red Hot Chili Peppers and a tamed lover’s “Don’t Stop Believin’.” The album’s supreme track, by our calculations, has its fiercest messaging as well: don’t get swept away in the fantasy, nor be the last to know what’s been going on all along. Whether this means a scorned lover having the foresight to prepare themselves for the punch before it’s dealt, or harkening broader application to anyone out there in need of an alternatively-phrased “everything happens for a reason” pick-me-up.
Best Lyric: “But she can’t go home tonight”
2. VERONICA
Since Unlimited Love is as concept album as you can travel without explicitly declaring it one, you just know if it stands the test of time with a sliver of Green Day’s American Idiot (2004) lasting zeal, that ‘Veronica’ and her respective verse-mates from this number would earn ample character arcs. She is the independent woman repelling those who’d dare sing her into a still-place.
In a Tony-contending “Unlimited Love” musical, she, Nebraska, Maria and the rest would all likely meet up in a neutral zone dive where everyone is an out-of-towner. The song itself could become the anthem for those that want to go where nobody knows their name if we let it. That way, the “stranger in a strange land” can get ahead of it and its meaning before they’re persecuted like they were back where they’ve run from. “Veronica” is for bothered souls who agree human nature is inescapable and are just biding their time before they get back on the confrontational horse.
Best Lyric:
“Please come to my senses
’Cause we all play the same game”
3. NOT THE ONE
A gut-punch. Catchy, but not a future concert mosh-pleaser for obvious reasons. Kiedis seems to be singing from both perspectives; a couple accepting a relationship has run its course, even though one of the parties would honestly prefer to keep it going. If Stadium Arcadium signaled the “Death of a Martian,” thanks to tracks like “Not the One,” Unlimited Love posits an alternate timeline where the fallen can be preserved songfully — even if it’s not the healthiest decision for anyone involved.
Best Lyric: “I’d do it all to get to you”
4. TANGELO
Structurally, this track takes matters linearly from points A to B to C – what the narrator first established with the object of their affection and how their courtship gradually dwindled until it disappeared, to the singer’s chagrin.
If the verses were chaotically rearranged, “Tangelo” would bear a striking resemblance to power romantic dramedies like 500 Days of Summer and Comet; the latter starred Justin Long, who somehow has not played Kiedis in an adaptation of the singer’s acclaimed memoir, Scar Tissue – and with Will Ferrell as Chad Smith – yet. What say you, Netflix?
Best Lyric:
“When I lost you out in that field
My crooked eyes could hardly conceal”
5. THE HEAVY WING
On first listen, even die-hards would need convincing Frusciante’s chorus vocals were not Ozzy Osbourne or Phil Collins in a featured capacity. How did he pursue a solo career in mostly avant-garde and electronica when he’s been sitting on Hall of Fame stylings as melodically prescient as these?
Moving forward, when you think “The Heavy Wing,” think “Dosed” from 2002’s By the Way. Sometimes, even Kiedis needs a break; and who better to throw it to in your stead than the man who often writes the rhythm anyway before Kiedis can then deploy lyrics to color it alive?
Best Lyric: “Oh, I know that it’s only gold”
