Review: Red Hot Chili Peppers – The Getaway

The Getaway is the eleventh studio album that the Red Hot Chili Peppers have released. The Chili Peppers have been given many genre titles from funk to punk, psychedelic to jam band. Whatever it’s called, the method of their madness has been working for over 30 years now. Notable achievements include Californication’s inclusion on Rolling Stone’s list of 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, taking home six Grammy Awards and selling more than 80 million records worldwide. Not bad for a band whose debut album sold only 300,000 copies. In 2012 they were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Bass player Flea described the honor as “The one that was the most emotional for us.” At the ceremony their newest band member, guitarist Josh Klinghoffer, also became the youngest person ever inducted.

Flea says the band has “always just done what we wanted, from the very beginning. We do what makes us happy. We do what makes us laugh. It’s important for us to be ourselves.” Founded in 1983, the band’s current line-up consists of original members Anthony Kiedis (lead vocals) and Flea (bass), as well as Chad Smith (drums) who joined the band in 1988 and Josh Klinghoffer (guitar) who joined in 2010. Kiedis says, “We are a team and we all provide our own energy. Without any one of us it would be a little flat. We need everyone’s element to make it work.”

Production for The Getaway began in 2014 but was delayed eight months when Flea broke his arm snowboarding. That delay was fate knocking. It was during that recovery period that Brian Burton, aka Danger Mouse, signed onto the project as producer. Danger Mouse breathed not only new life into the sound but into their process as well. Flea explains, “Danger Mouse suggested using the recording studio not just as a place to document our music but as an instrument itself.”

On this album everyone had an opinion about the break-out song. The label chose Danger Mouse’s favorite, Dark Necessities, but it was The Getaway that the band favored while the label itself preferred Go Robot. Chad Smith said his favorite song is We Turn Red. I’m with him.

One of the cool things about music is, if you listen carefully, you can almost hear the playlist the band was listening to while making an album. According to Josh Klinghoffer, the reason Elton John was asked onto Sick Love was because they too heard the connection to Bennie And The Jets. Though the band recognized that musical connection apparently they missed Joan Jett’s inspiration on We Turn Red, which has I Hate Myself For Loving You overtones. I find it hard to imagine that their nod to The Beatles’ Strawberry Fields Forever in The Hunter, the only track Flea hands bass duties over to Klinghoffer on, and where Smith comments that he sounds like Paul McCartney, is an oversight any more than This Ticonderoga is not an outright homage to Heart’s Barracuda. Flea does mention that Go Robot is inspired by Prince’s Controversy.

This album is also a dedication to their own team as well as the band’s body of work. Feasting On The Flowers sounds like a tribute to deceased guitarist Hillel Slovak and This Ticonderoga lyrics directly mention Flea. Three minutes into Goodbye Angels you’ll get “This life is more than just a read through” from Can’t Stop stuck in your head and the title track The Getaway is just Californication rebirthed with a 70s backdrop and 80s vocal beat. In other words: classic Red Hot Chili Peppers. Go Robot is Chili Peppers through and through. Only they could write this and make it a hit. With the lyric, “I don’t think it’s so personal, I don’t think it’s irreversible anymore.” It’s a great, healing-half of a breakup, song as well.

Like any good lyricist, Anthony Kiedis has included shadows of ghosts, information the listener will never understand because the context is missing. However, the writing, more so in this album than ever before, is riddled with takeaway greats like “We are all just soldiers in love and no one that I know has ever really done it right” (This Ticonderoga) or “Walked away from mom and dad to find a love you never had” (Encore) and “Every night before we go to bed I walk while the others pray” (We Turn Red). Each allow for a broader, deeper audience appeal.

The album is lyrically strong. It is also Chili Peppers, just a kicked-up version. Danger Mouse is really showing his stuff as a producer. He’s breathed new life into the band’s sound with the in-studio process. He keeps the band enhancing who they are, working to grow their sound, while maintaining the quality fans have come to expect. There are no standout hits on the album and the weakness in the musicality is definitely the guitar. An example is the Dark Necessities solo where Josh Klinghoffer relies on effects more than artistry, but even that works. That’s punk rock and funk and precisely what makes the Red Hot Chili Peppers who they are. This album will have less commercial success than Californication, but in a good way.

 
Written by Sam Gilman

Sam I. Gilman is a music journalist who has been involved with the industry as a DJ, voice-over talent and on-air host for radio and TV stations around the globe. www.gilmansays.com

 
Author’s rating for The Getaway

Pop Magazine’s official rating for The Getaway

Rating key
MASTERPIECE a must-have
SUPERB for heavy rotation
EXCELLENT a great achievement
VERY GOOD a respectable result
GOOD worth checking out
FAIR an average outcome
WEAK not convincing stuff
BAD an underwhelming effort
VERY BAD quite a waste
FAIL a total failure