The Red Hot Chili peppers released their latest “Unlimited Love” on April first and it’s available everywhere.  The entire album is just one big reunion with old friends and should please many generations of RHCP fans. 

Formed in 1983,  the Red Hot Chili peppers are a rock band from Los Angeles that released their debut album in 1984.  The people who founded RHCP are vocalist Anthony Keidis,  bassist Flea (Micheal Balzary), guitarist Hillel Slovak, and drummer Jack Irons. Later in 1989, John Frusciante joined as the guitarist after the drug-related death of Hillel Slovak.  

In 1992, Frusciante left the group for the first time because he was overwhelmed with the sudden success and fell into self-medication with various drugs. Later in the early 2000s, he joined back with RHCP  to make a couple of albums before leaving in 2009 to “keep his ego in check.”  After he left Josh Klinghoffer took over as the guitarist for the band. 10 years later in 2019, Frusciante came back and Klinghoffer was out.  Three years later their new album “Unlimited Love” was released on April 1, 2022. 

This  album has received mixed reviews from critics since its release with some like The Guardian calling the album “bloated and self indulgent,” while others call it their new opus, on par with the 1991 classic “Blood Sugar Sex and Magik.”

The first song in the album, “Blackest Summer” starts off slow with guitar,  bass,  and Keidis singing in his iconic tone. At the beginning of the song, it’s a great mix of Keidis and Flea just sounding fantastic with each other, with Keidis harmonizing perfectly to the bass line. At the fifty-second mark,  Chad Smith gets on the drum kit and starts playing with the same flow as the rest of the band. The slow, relaxed feeling of the song continues through about a quarter of the song and comes back. About two minutes in, we go back to old RHCP feels pop and rock.

The second song, “She’s a lover” is one of the best tracks on the album. The upbeat bassline and tone of the song is a great contrast to the slower opener, as well as the more downbeat songs on the rest of the album. Despite the musical contrast, it fits the mood of the rest of the album. 

Second to last song “The Heavy Wing” sounds like the perfect sequel to “Blackest Summer”. With the same shifting tempo that most of the songs have in this album, it all blends together really well. Throughout the song, Smith is absolutely going off on the kit, leaving no drum untouched.

Overall this album is a great album with only some issues. Some songs are funkier than others, holding true to their old sound but, abandoning the pop/rock sound they’re known for.  I give this album a 7/10 as it isn’t as good as some of their earlier works, but it will already have its place in music as the 12th studio album of the Red Hot Chili Peppers.

7/10