The Red Hot Chili Peppers – ‘The Getaway’ [Review]

UPDATE: TMMP has been reborn! This video has the full story:

Click here to subscribe for free on YouTube!

Over the past thirty-two years, the Red Hot Chili Peppers have carved a singular swathe through the musical jungle, strutting and preening like one of a kind wildlife. Unlike the majority of musicians so desperate to give off an air of idiosyncrasy, studiously cultivating an image in line with the trends of the times, the Chilis more than look the part. They walk the walk –and that is an undeniable fact.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers are also renowned for their ability to consistently reinvent themselves without kowtowing to the powers that be or watering their art down into a supermarket-own-brand shadow of what it’s sounded like in the past. This is a band who’ve made it on their own terms, and have earned every last sliver of respect afforded them. On The Getaway, the Red Hot Chili Peppers continue their evolution as only they can.

The Getaway sees the Chilis exploring lush, laid-back territory, a landscape of graceful piano, largely clean guitars, lilting funk, and low-key synths. Occasionally, proceedings take a turn for the cathartic, but even then there’s enough restraint to prevent the Chilis’ widely admired chops from overpowering the song, wrestling it to the ground, and ruining the whole thing. Goodbye Angels is a case in point, catching Anthony Keidis lamenting a lost one amid a tormented tropical storm of dark lyrics, heavily effected guitars, and seething synth lines; that tune climaxes with a solid outpouring of energy, but it’s anger balanced equally with love rather than a one-sided rush through Hell.

Largely gone are the rock-oriented tracks that drove so many past Chilis albums. When rock-inclined songs do surface (Detroit; This Ticonderoga) they prove weak points; it pains me to say it, but This Ticonderoga is actually skippable. The Getaway as a whole makes it clear that the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ comfort zone has unarguably shifted into the mellow section of the spectrum – but that’s no bad thing.

Regardless of how you might choose to pigeonhole the Chilis, their personalities are so strong both individually and collectively that every song on this album is unmistakably them. Anthony Keidis remains one of the world’s greatest lyricists; Josh Kinghoffer continues to solidify his reputation as a twenty-first-century Hendrix; Flea is…well…Flea, a bassist so formidable that the mere mention of his name sends four-stringers into rapture; and barely anybody in the world can match Chad Smith’s skin-beating skills, apart perhaps from Will Ferrell. Whatever they choose to turn their hands to, the Red Hot Chili Peppers never fail to mutate it just so, filling every moment with gorgeous details galore.

In terms of highlights, for me it’s all about final tunes The Hunter and Dreams Of A Samurai. The former is a Beatles-influenced ballad, absolutely perfect in terms of arrangement and orchestration; the latter veers into 10/8, making an odd time signature choice flow as naturally as 4/4 while Josh Kinghoffer waxes virtuosic over a groove drenched in top-class cool. But honestly, bar Detroit and This Ticonderoga, The Getaway lands as close to perfection as any Chilis fan could hope for.

Whether employing stiff-limbed rhythms and deadpan humour on Go Robot, opening the whole album with perfectly captured Californian vibes via gentle delay on title track The Getaway, digging into rolling riffs on We Turn Red, or ruminating elegantly over overdrive on Feasting On The Flowers, the Red Hot Chili Peppers are definitively back and just as badass as ever, regardless of how heavy they decide to go. As an album, The Getaway embodies escapism, providing listeners with an oasis amid the aridity of everyday life. I recommend you seek shelter there immediately.

TMMP RATING: 98% (Essential Listening!)

What do you think of The Getaway? Subscribe for free to my YouTube channel, leave a comment, and let me know!

You can also find me on Twitter by clicking here.

See you in the next video!

Posted on 17 June 2016