Album review: Unlimited Love, by Red Hot Chili Peppers

It may not hit the heights of their classic material, but the Red Hot Chili Peppers definitely have rediscovered their groove on Unlimited Love

Red Hot Chili Peppers return with their twelfth studio album, Unlimited Love. 

★★★☆☆

Red Hot Chili Peppers are rolling back the clock in a profound and determined fashion on their 12th studio album and their first since 2016’s The Getaway. 

They’ve reunited, for the third time, with guitarist John Frusciante, whose earnest, intricate licks conjure with the spirit of their '90s glory years and smashes such as 'Under The Bridge' and 'Scar Tissue'.

The Chili Peppers have also joined forces once again with producer Rick Rubin (having worked with Danger Mouse on The Getaway). 

Clearly, it’s the band who are wielding the control, however, and Rubin has been unable to trim their excesses on a 17-track LP that, while containing many magisterial moments, is possibly too over-stuffed for the casual fan.

The question Unlimited Love poses is whether anyone really needs a 70 minute Chili Peppers record in 2022; the answer, for most of us, is no, not particularly. 

And it’s a shame the group didn’t demonstrate greater focus because the best numbers suggest Anthony Kiedis, Flea, and companions have emphatically rediscovered their groove.

The jittery melancholia of 'Under the Bridge' is, for instance, summoned anew on opener 'Black Summer'. 

It’s glazed in the same bittersweet effervescence as their 1991 heroin weepy and reminds us that, when not waggling his crotch or showing off his tattoos, frontman Kiedis is one of the most distinctive vocalists of his generation.

Long, lingering low points

Alas, the low points are long and lingering. The Chili Peppers suck the listener into a jazz-funk hellscape with 'Aquatic Mouth Dance' while droopy power ballad 'Not The One' never gets out of neutral gear. 

However, it’s almost worth enduring these horror shows to get to the good stuff, such as the Californication-adjacent 'She’s A Lover'.

With their fortieth anniversary fast approaching, the Chili Peppers are at that stage in their creative cycle where the best they can hope to achieve is write songs that carry the lingering echoes of the imperial phase.

Unlimited Love pulls off that feat, just about — and as a valentine to the Red Hot Chili Peppers of early 1990s vintage, hits more often than misses.