mendax.org

The Red Hot Chili Peppers, long revered as masters of music have finally proven themselves in their newest album, By the Way. Surely you’ve heard the first song on their new album By the Way on your local radio station. It seems as though this album is either loved or hated. It brings out a more sensitive side to the Peppers, and it proves that they can indeed sing, and that they have obviously mastered their instruments.

The album begins with a song of the same name, By the Way. It has a sound similar to the Peppers’ most beloved album, Californication. Upbeat rock blends with emotion, lending great hooks throughout the song. If you liked the Peppers before, be happy; if you don’t, get ready to rethink your position, because this is their best work thus far. Song number two, Universally Speaking, also has a typical Peppers’ sound: a good beat making for good cruising music. Although slower, it is still the same genre of music. If you are into touching guitar leads, the guitar riff that ends this piece is magnificent, and if you can play the guitar, it may be one of the first things you try to replicate.

By the fourth song on this album I was fairly impressed. In fact, I hadn’t been this impressed by a band since Weezer. The Sixth song, however, topped it off for me; the Zephyr Song, a song that many Peppers fans hate because of its mellow feel and mind absorbing lyrics. It seems to have mixed the best chorus from the 80s with the best of rock in the 90s. The Zephyr Song, recently used to introduce half time in the Super Bowl (only the opening guitar of the song I realized), is in my opinion one of the best works by the Peppers thus far. They also utilize the middle eighth better than most bands today, with an impressive guitar riff blending flawlessly with the rest of the song.

The album continues to entice its audience to keep listening for the next few songs; the later songs seem to attempt new styles of music. What stands out the most is the seemingly Latin inspired Cabron, which albeit strange is appealing and catchy nonetheless.

Ending with a series of good songs, the album at first feels almost drawn out, but skipping through the first few songs and listening to the later ones will give as much enjoyment as any Peppers’ song from previous albums.

With sixteen tracks, this well-sized collection of brand new songs is great for the Red Hot Chili Peppers. It has the potential to bring their music to a whole new audience, and to influence countless new bands trying to make it in this highly competitive music market. It has a ton of great songs you’ll enjoy listening to over and over again, and is the type of music that will keep you alert on the road, and trying your hardest to sing along. Although you may dislike the last couple songs, it’s a small price to pay for the number of great songs on the album, an uncommon trait of many big name CDs.

Ratatosk’s Album Rating: 9.2 out of 10

Included is the complete tab of the guitar portion of The Zephyr song. The Chorus part is mostly played with bass, and the guitar chords listed are played only once every lyric, as you can hear if you listen closely to the song. I will try to get a bass guitar and tab the bass part as well, but this is all I have at the moment. Most tabs include extra chords for when you are playing the song on your own - I haven’t included them because I feel the best way to play the song is in a band. Go out and join a band, it will be good for the music industry.

Tab Encoded with Power Tab, freeware from www.power-tab.net. Once they implement Adobe transfer it will be much easier to post tabs. If you view the tab with this software, you can also play it via MIDI, this way you will get an idea of what it sounds like as well.

Note this is all my own work, and as such is my interpretation of the song. So please only use it for private use and don’t redistribute it as your work. That wouldn’t be cool.

Popularity: 3% [?]