I’ve been a Red Hot Chili Peppers fan for quite a long time now - about 15 years I think. I’ve always liked their funkier work more than their mid tempo balladry. That is, I listen to ’ Mother’s Milk’ and ’ Blood Sugar Sex Magik’ more than ’ Californication’ and ’ By The Way’, but I’m not slighting those albums either as they both have tracks in my top 50 most listened to. I was intrigued though that the new release " Stadium Arcadium" would be a double album given that that usually sends the signal of a desperate record company realising they don’t have enough for a single decent outing.

I was also wondering whether they were following their previous two (very similar) releases, or whether they’d be trying something else.

I’ve only had the CDs for a couple of days - listening to them in a hotel room in Hong Kong, and on my iPod coming back to Tokyo - and so far my fears don’t hold - both CDs are well worth listening to. RHCP seem to have tried to do a few more funky tracks here, as well as the more soulful recent stylings on this outing, but again the star is the John Frusciante on guitar. It’s more like a compendium of tracks from their whole history stylistically, and although the lyrics are somewhat cleaner than they used to be, some are just as nonsensical.

Pick up a copy - it’s a great summer set.