If you are among the many that are disappointed with the latest Red Hot Chili Peppers album, 2011’s I’m With You, here’s the possible explanation, and a potential cure.
Since strongest creative force in the band, guitarist John Frusciante, departed the group, he has been pouring his talents into solo material. This individual work has finally been released, in the form of an EP titled Letur-Lefr, and a longer work, PBX Funicular Intaglio Zone. The album comes with a warning; Frusciante is an imaginative musician who has been looking to give a truly free reign to his talent for some time, so don’t listen to this expecting Blood Sugar Sex Magic 2.
The 11th studio album from Frusciante is a complete departure. He claims the genre as progressive synth-pop. The initially striking thing about the record is the cover art; it looks like it might have been drawn by a four year old—or by Frusciante during the heroin years.
PBX is not as instantly likeable as Letur-Lefr, and the main criticism of the record is in its confusing production. At times it jars, and sounds as though drum and bass beats could have been added to the disturbing vocals from songs off his first two solo albums. It is difficult to get settled as the beats tend not to sit still, but change in a way that can feel discordant.
This being said, there are stellar tracks. The best are ‘Ratiug,’ in which Wu-Tang auxiliary Kinetic 9 makes a brief but smooth appearance; “Mistakes,” with its sweeping keyboard runs; and “Uprane,” which best showcases the span of Frusciante’s voice from delicate to soul crushingly raw.
