Red Hot Chili Peppers Unlimited Love (CD)

Virtually overnight in February, the Red Hot Chili Peppers announced a new record for 2022. Unlimited Love comes more than six years after the previous album, The Getaway, and is now the twelfth studio album from the U.S. funk and alternative rock icons. Moreover, it has long been no secret that for the new songs the group worked again with their old companion and former guitarist John Frusciante, who was instrumental in shaping the RHCP sound and who rejoined them in 2019 after a break of more than ten years, replacing Josh Klinghoffer. Frusciante's last album with the band was the double album Stadium Arcadium in 2006.

Unlimited Love was produced by Rick Rubin, who has been behind the controls of several of their albums. Nevertheless, during the recording sessions they didn't try to reproduce the old sound known from RHCP classics like Blood Sugar Sex Magik and Californication. Drummer Chad Smith commented, "John hasn't been in our group for 10 years; that's a long time. It sounds like the Red Hot Chili Peppers, but it's different and new, and I think that's great."

They revealed what the new Chili Peppers sound like in advance with the single "Black Summer," the first of 17 new songs on Unlimited Love. Each of them is a facet of the band and reflects their view of the universe, according to a press release for the album. "Our only goal is to lose ourselves in the music. We (John, Anthony, Chad and Flea) have collectively and individually spent thousands of hours honing our craft and being there for each other to make the best album we could. Our antennae were aligned with the divine cosmos, and we were just so damn grateful for the opportunity to be in a room together and once again try to get better. We spent days, weeks, and months listening to each other, composing, jamming freely, and arranging the fruits of those jams with great care and intention. The sounds, rhythms, vibes, words and melodies had us under their spell," says the band, which goes some way to explaining the album's title.