Its been 5 years since their last album Stadium Arcadium. There is both intense anticipation and huge expectation from the band to deliver. Frequently referred to as their high point of their career, Stadium Arcadium intricately intregrated various aspects of RHCP musical styles from their 4 decade existance. It went on to win 5 Grammys and debuted #1 on the Billboard 200.
But a lot has changed in these last 5 years and plenty of old-time bands have undergone severe metamorphisis. Very few guitar based bands have tasted any real commercial success, and surprisingly, for the first time in a long time, no Rock Band has made it to the top 15 in terms of sales.
Neil McCormic of The Telegraph has made a scathing study of the present scenario. Among his several astute observations, Neil did not miss the fact that fewer and fewer bands are guitar-based these days. He says “This summer, a few rock heavyweights return to the fray, and we will find out if we are witnessing the end of the rock era, or just another blip on the pop cycle”.He goes on to say “Radiohead came back earlier this year, but apparently left their guitars behind. REM returned but kept it quiet, declining to perform or do much to promote a critically acclaimed but backward looking album. Four fifths of Oasis returned as Beady Eye but only the already converted were enthused about their latest attempt to reheat the Beatles one more time. U2 and Coldplay headline Glastonbury and both are threatening new albums this year, though U2 ran into commercial and critical flak with their last outing, 2009’s No Line On The Horizon, and failed to score a hit single. The jury is still out on whether Coldplay should be considered a rock group at all, with the jingly Celtic yelp of their new single Waterfall sounding like a Haircut 100 having a highland fling.”
However, we like him, believe RHCP has the best potential and chance to come up with a mind-blowing album predominently featuring guitar based rock.There is plenty riding on the return of RHCP this year.
