Stadium Arcadium

Great album at a good price

Arrived quickly well packaged and excellent condition

I don't know what got me back in to RHCP after ignoring them for years, but here I am and loving it. When I was but a slip of a 20 year-old boy 'Californication' absolutely soundtracked that particular summer. I wasn't very impressed by 'By The Way' at the time - very one note and a friend at the time absolutely played the thing to death around me. This album seemed like an absolute return to form that pulled together the best bits of those two cuts.The CD/digital version however is brickwalled in mastering. Everything is pushed to the red and it can be a fatiguing listen. Not as bad as Californication, but another casualty of the loudness wars.Anyway my resurgent interest in the band has coincided with getting a nascent vinyl collection going. I was dismayed to find that this was apparently out of print and remaining copies were priced stupidly as a result.Then I got to reading about the acclaimed Steve Hoffman remastering of the LPs which supposedly completely unlock the potential of the album. I got to thinking, 'well, you're actually buying 4 LPs really, so is it that bad?' I found a few copies of Ebay for £79.99. I went back the day after (payday!) ready to buy and what do you know? One left, and the seller scalping at now twice the price.Amazon had ONE left at £99.99. I hated myself, but I did it and am on side 3 as I write, and the guitar solo to 'Strip My Mind' is the greatest sounding thing to ever come out of my speakers.This remaster is beyond great. It's stupidly good. Easily my best sounding LP and I'll be very, very pleased if my listening tastes align with work Hoffman has done again.In short, if you like the album and can find this at anything short of £100, I'd buy it if you can afford it, so long as you can be sure it's the Hoffman version (there is another one out there). You may not be able to again. That said, now as I have, my luck dictates that it'll probably be re-pressed at forty quid next month. If so, you're welcome!A quick note on packaging, this comes in a sturdy hard outer sleeve with two gatefold sleeves for 'Jupiter' and 'Mars'. Lyrics are printed on the gatefolds with no inserts. The vinyl is in nice anti static plastic, typically I replace the inners but these are fine to keep.

I guess if you’re buying this on vinyl then you already know about the album. Well, Stadium Arcadium is one of my wife’s favourite albums, and having bought her a record player last year, it was a bit of a no-brainer to pick this up for Christmas.Unfortunately it took 3 weeks to be delivered, but this was due to Royal Mail. I contacted the seller who confirmed that the item was dispatched quickly, and they offered a full refund. However I decided to wait. So, no problems with the seller.Even though it was late, it was worth the wait. The quality is mind-blowing. I’m playing on budget Lenco turntable, through the Audiolab 6000a with B&W speakers, and I’m blown away by the detail. It’s absolutely fantastic.

Red Hot Chilli Peppers have been around before I was eve concieved. I'm 16 and I listen to a lot of old rock music, and tbh I've only just into the Chillis, and boy is it intoxicating. The double album Stadium Arcadium is guarenteed to keep you entertained for quite a while, myself included. With so many songs in no discernible order, you could create your own playlist (ironically, I don't favours playlists on my iPod)but each track has its own delights, whether its some of the catchiest rock out there (Dani California) sophmore sweetness (Snow Hey Oh) or the band's trademark goofyness antics (Hump de Bump) which has been churned over many years and now all bought together in own massive package. If you want rock that can be funny, serious, compelling, and of course, funky, RHCP is where it's most definitelt at, and Stadium Arcadium is one damn fine example of that. Also see there earlier for how it all began for the California kings of Cool!

THE ALBUM:As a chilis fan back in 2006, I was eagerly anticipating this album and bought it straight away. I was disappointed. It felt like a slog to get through and nothing really stood out so I dismissed it as an overindulgent mess and something that should have been chopped down to 12 tracks.I was wrong.Over the years, I've kept going back to this, especially when looking for guitar playing inspiration, and the album really opened up to me. I can find great things about all the songs on this, not to mention some of the now stone cold classics like Snow and Dani California. There are 3 excellent musicians playing at their creative best on this album with a very charismatic lyricist imbuing the songs with his signature vocal style.THE MASTERINGThis is mastered from the analogue master tracks and completely remixed by Steve Hoffman. You will notice better separation between the instruments, more headroom in the dynamic range (your ears won't get tired) and it elevates this great album. The Chilis themselves back in 2006 urged their fans to buy the vinyl, not the CD. That says it all.

Whilst part of me wishes that they had compressed the best songs into one disc this is still a superb album. It has everything that makes the Chilli’s my favourite band. It’s full and attitude and energy, creative and sophisticated song writing and some fantastic guitar work. As well as the singles there are some incredibly underrated songs on here including the bittersweet U2 Sounding Desecration Smile, which along with She’s Only 18 was written about the break up Anthony, was going though at the time.Another favourite is Animal Bar, which is about a isolated town in Northern Australia. Flea’s bass is absolutely killer and the song so melodic and cinematic. Admittedly about a quarter of the songs here are just boring filler however the silly irritating Hump de Bump is the only song here I actively don’t like.Whilst Stadium Aracdium may lack the peaks of Californication, the sheer beauty of By the Way or consistency and variation of The Getaway it is still an absolute blast and one of the best albums of the 00s.