SotD - Red Hot Chili Peppers, Dark Necessities

AlbieMedia's Song of the Day (SotD) is our choice of a single or album track that we think you need to hear. Today, Nate McKenzie listens to Dark Necessities from the Red Hot Chili Peppers...



It has been quite a while since I have bothered to listen to Red Hot Chili Peppers on purpose but with word of new music coming I have been looking forward to checking out the 2016 version of a band I quite enjoyed in high school.



Dark Necessities is the newly released single off of their upcoming The Getaway (17th June). One listen through and the most significant thing about the song is that it is something new from a band that, to me, hasn't sounded any different in 32 years of playing music. Sure, Anthony Kiedis' unwavering voice and Flea's bass carry the banner as the constant variables in RHCP's traditional sound, but otherwise, Dark Necessities is a crisp contemporary turn for the band.



The bass-line, unsurprisingly, intros the song and drives the beat. As the guitar, drums, and even piano join the flow, along with the punctuating sound of digitized claps, it would be understandable if you forget for a moment that this is a Chili Pepper's song - until Kiedis steps in with that familiar voice. Replete with accentuating 'Ah's towards the end, it's going to be hard to turn on the radio and not hear this well orchestrated track playing all summer long.



It might be off base to say, but Dark Necessities is a more mature, grown-up version of the Red Hot Chili Pepper's that I was raised on. That is, if a band can 'grow up' after 30+ years in the industry. I don't mean that as a slight; rock and roll legends don't need to grow up. That's the entire point of being a rock musician. But when Blink-182 released their new track two weeks ago I wrote about how they sounded just the same as they did in the 90s.



For some fans, that is a positive; but RHCP has retained their staple identity while reaching a new plateau with Dark Necessities. As a whole, Dark Necessities is unusually mellow but not without an edge. I have no doubt that the new album will rock heavy and hard and I look forward to that; I'm just really impressed with what the Chili Pepper's have shown on this featured track.







Image - Amazon