Ah, double albums...without double albums, there would be no "Frampton Comes Alive", no "Sign O The Times" and no "Use Your Illusions." There are certain inbred motivations to making a double album: ego, musical experimentation, career capping BIG STATEMENT, ego, or talented people on a creative hot streak. Did I mention ego? The recent Red Hot Chili Peppers double disc set Stadium Arcadium exhibits all of the symptoms listed. It's a career capping BIG STATEMENT where the Peppers mix a few new sounds into their established repitoire of funk rock and soft ballads. It doesn't quite have the "get the funk out" of their early releases nor the somnambulent soft rock of their recent releases. The bands previous release, 2002's By The Way was a snoozer once you got past the punk/funk title track.
Still, if a current band could potentially pull off a double album it would be the Chili Peppers. Stadium Arcadium does the band justice, they play in the pocket with a natural feel that comes from years of playing together. They get buckwild on their funky tunes like the recent hit "Tell Me Baby" or "Warlocks". Grinding funk is delivered on "Storm In A Teacup" and my personal favorite on the disc, "Readymade". Strummy acoustic rock comes in on "Make You Feel Better". Californicatin' balladry comes up on the title track "Stadium Arcadium".
The Peppers experiment a little, such as on the Pink Floydish "Strip My Mind" or the horn warbling "Torture Me". But experimentation is actually kept to a minimum considering this is a double album. But the Chili Pepper's ability to come up with lively riffs and jumpy beats keeps everything flowing nicely.
Where Stadium Arcadium runs into problems is the actual songs. They all sound pleasant when they're on, but there's nothing memorable on either disc. The first single from the album was "Dani California", a fairly blatant Tom Petty rip off with Hendrixian guitar tacked on the end (Great video though). The second song on the disc is the abysmal "Snow ((Hey Oh))". That song Sucked-Oh. As much as I've played this CD since I've gotten it, I'm looking at the song titles right now and only remember half of the songs. 2002's By The Way suffered from the same lack of hooks.
The weak songwriting keeps Stadium Arcadium from being the end all / be all Chili Peppers disc it's meant to be. And that's too bad, because the Peppers can still come up with tasty licks and goofy attitude at a drop of the hat. It doesn't ruin the album, Stadium Arcadium still packs a pretty good punch and any other cliche' I can think of. So I'm giving this a 7 out of 10.
One band that wouldn't know funk if it fell on it is at Number 72:
Yes - 90125 (1983)
I remember the first time I saw this album. My neighbor, who was really into rock music and would let me copy his records (pretend I didn't say that RIAA), brought this record over to my house and said "If you like Asia, you'll love this band. They have two singers." I was skeptical, but I played it. AND IT WAS THE GREATEST THING I EVER HEARD. I couldn't believe a band could take a pop/rock sound and expand it into something bizzarly riddled and intellectually challenging.
The songs had extremely catchy melodies in both the instrumental breaks and the vocals. "It Can Happen" with it's sitar sounding guitar and Supertrampish chorus ("It Can Happen To You / It Can Happen To Me / It Will Happen To Everyone Eventually") amazed me. The repetitious plunking keyboard riff to "Changes" and the hard charging instrumental "Cinema" impressed me with their dazzling interband chemestry and the fretboard fireworks of guitarist Trevor Rabin. The lumbering bass attack and steady drumwork of Chris Squire and Alan White on "Hold On" and "City Of Love" provided muscle to an otherwise light album. High pitched vocalist Jon Anderson shines on the near a capella "Leave It" while his dense, puzzling lyrics left me pondering the meaning of his words for hours (years later, I'm convinced he takes random words and pulls them from a hat because I can't discern any meaning past the Trevor Rabin penned choruses).
But the true highlight is, of course, "Owner Of A Lonely Heart". This song came out of nowhere with its sound fx heavy production, bouncy beat and horn sampled synth breaks. "Owner" became Yes's first and only Number 1 hit. Though the song was largely written by Trevor Rabin (on the toilet, no less) the credit for the success of the tune belongs to producer Trevor Horn. Horn, a former Yes man himself, produces "Owner Of A Lonely Heart" with gusto. The drums sound like collapsing cardboard boxes at the beginning, the catchy bass line is at the forefront of the song and offsets Jon Anderson's high toned voice. Acoustic guitars overdub on top of electric guitars, the instrumental breaks stab in and out and the guitar solo sounds like a buzzsaw. It's fantastic stuff.
This album made me a lifelong Yes fan and I sought out the previous albums of the band. I saw Yes live twice on the 90125 tour (I kept thinking the number was made up of the years of seniority for each member of the group, it's really the Atco catalog number) and was blown away by Trevor Rabin's playing (He plays restrained on record but overshreds live. He sounds great!). After 90125, I considered Yes one of my favorite bands. One of my first college roommates was chosen due to a mutual fanship of Yes.
I was sure they would record another album right away, so I patiently waited for the next set of songs. And I waited, and I waited, and soon it was 1987. Yes finally released Big Generator. I had come full circle, I was starting high school during 90125 and I was in the middle of college for Big Generator. When I heard Big Generator, I was disappointed to learn the magic was gone. There were a handful of good songs, but Generator sounded like a bad ready to quit. Jon Anderson left Yes after the tour to form a band with the old Yes members, Steve Howe, Rick Wakeman and Bill Bruford.
Yes remains one of my favorite bands and I have since learned to enjoy all of the phases of this groups career. But I will always consider 90125 to be a special album.
No comments:
Post a Comment