After releasing their first album in six years, ‘Unlimited Love’, earlier this April, ‘Return Of The Dream Canteen’ came as a pleasant surprise to fans.
The single is accompanied by a kaleidoscopic and visually stimulating music video.
If not entirely evident from the title of the song, the artists’ elucidate on the song’s context with the lyrics “Acid landing on my tongue” and the prominent RHCP logo tab placed on frontman Anthony Kiedis’ tongue in the first two seconds of the video. The visuals then take us on a trip through the tab's hallucinogenic effects on the body, enhanced by graphic optics. Subsequently, the band performs the song in a technicolour setting, surrounded by distorted, whimsical visual effects.
The lyrics continue the same fantastic note, making many references to enhanced senses, especially that of smell: “Her perfume smells like gasoline… And now I know you by your scent… It's vociferous and come and get a whiff of this”. The chorus references RHCP’s 1991 documentary, ‘Funky Monks’, with the line: “We’ve only just begun / Funky monks are on the run”.
Even from the first seconds of verse one, the listening experience feels like you’re slipping into an old favourite pair of jeans – the song is an embodiment of the Red Hot Chili Peppers everyone knows and loves. The melody line is memorable, at times chromatic and overall catchy. Antony Kiedis alternates between speech-like and somewhat hypnotic singing in the way he elongates his vowels in certain passages. The minimalist guitar solo is presented to the listener before verse five in the form of artificial sounding waves, resembling whale calls, accompanied by the persistent beat.
Shortly after the release of their first ‘Unlimited Love’ single, Anthony Kiedis sounded optimistic in an interview with NME: “We’re gonna put out music by the handful – literally. Don’t be surprised if another wheelbarrow of songs comes your way in the near future. We have a lot of shit to turn people onto.”
Good news for fans, it looks as if Red Hot Chili Peppers are here to stay.
Evelina Lungu
@evelina.lungu
Image: ‘Return of the Dream Canteen’ Official Album Cover
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