Red Hot Chili Peppers merge their familiar sound with a more mature feel in their newest track.
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It’s been five years since the release of Red Hot Chili Pepper’s last venture, I’m With You. 5th May marks the return of our favourite Californians, and man, they haven’t disappointed.
From the get go, ‘Dark Necessities’ leaves you wondering where the Chilis are going. It’s a shift within their soundscape, with a layered opening including the surprising addition of a piano solo of sorts. Eventually, Flea’s signature bass groove kicks in and, well. The Chilis are back.
‘Dark Necessities’ is definitely a departure from 2011’s I’m With You, but it also seems to hark back to their 2006 release Stadium Arcadium. The melody throughout the song hints at it, but it’s the chorus where a lot of the melodic undertones of Arcadium come to fruition, especially the album’s title track.
Surprisingly, the song isn’t a love song to California; something we’ve come to expect from the Chilis. Instead, it’s a seemingly melancholic track, mainly spoken from the chorus, “You don’t know my mind, you don’t know my kind, dark necessities are part of my design”.
Josh Klinghoffer also shines on this track. I really like how he isn’t trying to copy John Frusciante’s feel/groove (much to some fans behest). You can see how he pours his soul into the post-Frusciante era of the Chilis, to leave his own mark on the band.
The five year wait is over, the Chilis are finally back, and we only have one month to wait for the new album titled The Getaway.
‘Dark Necessities’ is out now via Warner Bros.
