Ben Mullen Track

Red Hot Chili Peppers' 'I'm With You': Track-By-Track Review

In a nearly 30-year career, Los Angeles poster boys Red Hot Chili Peppers have been christened punk-funk pioneers, genre-bridging party-starters, intricate virtuosos, stadium-ready rockers, introspective balladeers and sunny elder statesmen of rock. Having weathered bandmate departures, massive infighting and the death of founding member Hillel Slovak, the band seemed impervious to failure, functioning on a near-nonstop writing/recording/touring cycle from 1999's "Californication" to the end of the "Stadium Arcadium" tour in 2007. After taking a two-year hiatus to mentally regroup, the band returns with "I'm With You," an album that sounds less like a departure than a distillation of the band's disparate ideas.

Chili Peppers Rock New Songs at Private Club Show

For their tenth album, out now, the Chilis employed a mix of old and new collaborators to flesh out their sound. The band amicably parted ways with on-and-off guitarist John Frusciante, replacing him with "Stadium Arcadium" touring guitarist Josh Klinghoffer. Rick Rubin, who has produced every Chilis album since 1991's "Blood Sugar Sex Magik," returned to the boards, producing more than 70 new tracks and making "I'm With You" the first album specially mastered for iTunes customers.

After nine albums and 50 million records sold, though, it's natural for a band to question what's left to accomplish and how strong is the desire to experiment with new ideas. Following 1995's "One Hot Minute," the band, then in their mid-30s, began to delve into more adult sounds. Lead singer Anthony Kiedis could still be counted on to bound around the stage in a frenzied panic, but sunny melodies and radio-friendly choruses were as much a part of the band's sound as the hard rock, funk and hip-hop that informed much of the band's earlier work. Growing up or selling out? Depends on your perspective. But the band, more than most, was able to make the transition from '90s alternative band to stadium-filling anthem-creators. "I'm With You" is a continuation of this path; an album that doesn't showcase many new sonic directions, but functions more like a victory lap for a veteran band. It may not make the Chilis any new fans, but it should please the countless ones they already have.

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