Red Hot Chili Peppers' 'The Getaway': EW Review

The Chili Peppers have taken a chill pill. In an effort to break out of business as usual for their 11th studio album, the funk-rock icons worked with Brian Burton, a.k.a. Danger Mouse of Gnarls Barkley fame, instead of producer Rick Rubin, who’s overseen every Peppers album since 1989. With Burton behind the boards, ambiance is in abundance. The most upbeat track, the Prince-inspired “Go Robot,” bops along at the pace of a gentle head nod. At times the production on songs like “The Longest Wave” sounds downright dreamy—new ground for a band whose idea of subtlety once meant wearing nothing but a well-placed tube sock. Yet even major personnel changes—The Getaway is also the second LP with guitarist Josh Klinghoffer, who replaced John Frusciante—aren’t enough to shake the band out of its perceived rut, or at the very least match the most contagious moments of 2011’s I’m With You. Decades into their career, the band can’t help but sound like themselves, even when trying not to—and it’s the ultimate sign of their staying power. B