Red Hot Chili Peppers – the cover stars of the new issue of Classic Rock – have released another single from upcoming album Unlimited Love. The new song, Poster Child, is the follow-up to Black Summer, which was released month.
Describing a Chili Peppers song as "funky" might demonstrate a wilful lack of imagination on our part, but Poster Child is certainly so. Not in a taut, disco-stomper way, but in an airy, relaxed, lets-go-to-bed-yeah-but-maybe-later kinda way.
Flea breezily flips his fingers around, John Frusciante is typically understated, Chad Smith lays down a rhythm that's so relaxed the song almost drifts into being, but best of all is the vocal: Anthony Kiedis engages in a half-spoken, half-sung rap that opens with the line "Melle Mel and Richard Hell were dancing at the Taco Bell" and goes on to name-check Robert Plant, Led Zeppelin, Judas Priest, Steve Miller, Motorhead, The MC5 and Van Morrison.
Oh, and the Clash album Sandinista. And Islamabad, the capital of Pakistan.
Unlimited Love is the first RHCP album since guitarist Frusciante returned to the band in late 2019. Production was handled by Rick Rubin, who completed a return to the cast behind the hugely successful Blood Sugar Sex Majik, By The Way, Californication and Stadium Arcadium albums.
“Our only goal is to get lost in the music,” say the band. “We (John, Anthony, Chad and Flea) spent thousands of hours, collectively and individually, honing our craft and showing up for one another, to make the best album we could."
You can read about how Frusciante rejoined the band and how Unlimited Love was made in the new issue of Classic Rock, which is in UK stores now and available to buy online.
