This one was produced by Rick Rubin (natch), who has a production discography that looks suspiciously like an alternative rock conveyor belt. The cover artwork is by Damien Hirst (Kiedis said of it, in one of his more discerning moments: “It's an image. It's art. Iconic. We didn’t give it its meaning but it's clearly open to interpretation.” The wikipedia page for the album is full of great quotes like this, the sort of things that actors are forced to come out with when they're promoting some shitty cash cow of a movie, like "it was a real pleasure working with Michael Bay, he's a real artist" or whatever):
The promo artwork is by Mr. Brainwash, "protégé" of Banksy, who, if he is real, seems to be a lot like Nathan Barley. It isn't even that good:
So why do I care? Well it strikes me that this album will probably be extremely commercially successful, as most of their albums are, and yet I just heard it being played on 6 Music, a well known home of alternative rock and indie. My point is, really, why does anyone care anymore? Who is this album aimed at? It isn't in any way interesting to anyone other than RHCP obsessives, who will undoubtedly lap it up, and yet I'm sure thousands of other music fans will probably buy it anyway, out of some vague feeling that they might be missing out if they don't, or that it's an important cultural document. It sets a bad example for young people getting in to an underground music scene to put RHCP on the playlist of 6 Music, because it holds RHCP up as, at best, a great band, or, at least, a band who used to be great who are still rocking it and showing how you can be successful and artistically credible in the music industry. They aren't either.
The people involved seem to be some of the biggest names in music and art; surely that should be reason for excitement. But it just isn't. It isn't "underground" or "street art" to have Banksy's "protégé" go around slapping stickers on bins to promote the album (or more accurately, to tell somehow else how to design the stickers; a conversation which must have consisted of "do a robot and the RHCP symbol", and then have a street team, who work for free, go around slapping them on), and it isn't "avante-garde" or "alternative" to have Damien Hirst to do the cover; these people are now at the very core of the art mainstream.
Of course it's well documented that the "alternative" music scene of MTV and MTV2 and the like is just another angle for record companies; they are selling this "scene" just like any other. It just strikes me that people should surely be over that by now, that it's time for something new, particularly when RHCP seem to have so blatantly phoned in on this latest "effort".
