Ben Scanlon

Not any where close to their best work. 17 songs was too many for this one, took their focus away from a lot of songs that had a lot of potenial, Smith and Flea will break out into a soild jam, and Kiedis and Frusciante would just find a way to mess it up. I give this two stars one for Flea and Smith each, because you can tell they put work into this. They gave their best shot at an album with this group for the first time in 16 years, and it shows it's been 16 years. They tried bringing that traditional Chili Pepper sound with something new, but just didn't put enough effort into it. I mean, the first song is basically a Californication remake. Frusciante even said they saved their best work for after this album, which makes me believe they just mushed filler songs into this to just get something out while they focus on the top stuff, which I hope. I hope this was an album where they got a feel for each other again and make the next one something incredible.