CD reviews

Red Hot Chili Peppers, James Hunter, Pretty Girls Make Graves

Chili Peppers' 'Stadium' is mostly filler

Monday, May 22, 2006

Red Hot Chili Peppers

'Stadium Arcadium'

(Warner Bros.)

The Peppers' career has survived three stages, mostly defined by who's playing guitar and how bad that guitarist's junk habit is.

There's the "punk funk" years, when they were the druggy, thuggy doofs from L.A. who loved the Germs and George Clinton in equal measure. Guitarist Hillel Slovak died of a heroin overdose in 1988.

Then there were the alt-rock years with guitarist John Frusciante, during which they became one of the world's biggest bands. Then Frusciante quit to pursue his own junk habit in '92. Not a good look.

Since 1999's weirdly compelling "Californication," with a cleaned-up Frusciante back in the band, the Peppers are now alt-rock's elder statesmen, penning endless variations — thematic and musical — on "Under the Bridge." Some are moving (the songs "Californication," "Scar Tissue"), some are just retreads (pretty much everything else).

But that's no excuse for a two-hour, 28-song double CD; there's never any excuse for a double CD. Produced by musical-enabler-to-the-stars Rick Rubin, "Stadium Arcadium" is an exhausting slog through the Peppers' late-era skill set — funk, ballads, the sort of whanging guitar doodles that Fruciante should keep to solo albums, bassist Flea's always-deft low end, rock-solid drumming from Chad Smith and Anthony Kiedis' shirtless croon. There are high points — "Dani California," the mildly trippy title track, the furious "Torture Me," even the acoustic "If" ain't bad — but finding them is exhausting. — Joe Gross

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James Hunter

'People Gonna Talk'

(Rounder)

"Now don't you know how hard I'm trying," Brit James Hunter sings on his stateside breakout album "People Gonna Talk." Then he adds, "It's so much easier said than done."

The same could be said for Hunter's attempt to resurrect the ghosts of Sam Cooke, Ray Charles and Jackie Wilson. His voice is to Cooke's what vinyl is to leather and yet Hunter ultimately succeeds with consistently catchy songwriting and smooth arrangements, peppered by a pair of flighty saxophones and a "bounce-anova" beat. Play this at a party and everyone will ask you who it is. Hunter could end up becoming the Norah Jones of vintage soul.

The 43-year-old former Van Morrison backup singer is at his best when he's not channeling R&B legends and instead trying to make his own classics, with "Talking 'Bout My Love" and "It's Easy To Say" sporting '60s sock dance grooves without sounding like copies. On too many other tracks he sounds about as convincing as all those former punk rockers who started singing Sinatra during the swing craze.

"People Gonna Talk," recorded live at London's Toerag analog studio, with nary a headphone in sight, is most of all a calling card for what promises to be an incredible live show. What a coincidence; Hunter and his band are playing Antone's Thursday. — Michael Corcoran

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Pretty Girls Make Graves

'Elan Vital'

(Matador)

How you feel about "Elan" depends on whether you were into Pretty Girls for their early, punky panic rock, or were bored by it. For me, they have has slowly evolved from slightly gothy, post-hardcore ranters into something groovier, more ambitious and more compelling. Andrea Zollo's big, sharp voice is still the band's charismatic focus, but the addition of keyboard player Leona Mars and bigger production suits them. Wiry guitars still flicker and dart, but are never for their own sake. The real keeper is "Parade," one of the catchiest songs about labor since the Depression, which puts in a good word for striking workers over spare, rolling drums, a tight harmony and a wonderfully barely there melody. There are so few post-punky bands right now who remember post-punk band Gang of Four is not a genre — Pretty Girls have been there and done that.

(Pretty Girls play Thursday, May 25 at Emo's.) — J.G.