By The Way

i bought the new Chili Peppers CD last tuesday, and i’ve been listening to it non-stop. it’s a different sound this time around. less of the signature RHCP funk. less “rapping” and more singing. it’s a bit more mellow than their previous albums. and it works. you could get a little taste of where their sound was headed with their last album, Californication. my hands-down favorite song on that album was “This Velvet Glove”, which would fit in perfectly with BTW. my current favorite song (it changes each time i listen to this CD) on BTW is the last track, “Venice Queen”, which starts off slow and low-key with an infectious guitar riff, and then picks up midway through where the timing changes and the background vocals and harmonies (which were used extensively in this album) kicked in. sweet song. my other favorites include By The Way, Universally Speaking, This Is The Place, The Zephyr Song, Can’t Stop (this song has got a little bit of the funk in it, as does BTW), Midnight, Tear, On Mercury, and Minor Thing. the other songs left out of that list aren’t too far behind. there’s one song that i don’t really care for, Cabron, which sounds strangely out of place in this album. with 15 out of 16 songs being “good ones”, i think we have a winner here. this album should hold me over long enough until November, when the next Pearl Jam album is due to be released. be prepared and pack a lunch for a very long review when that comes out. =)