Unlimited Love

Not to be confused with Love Unlimited.

Unlimited Love
File:Red Hot Chili Peppers - Unlimited Love.png
Studio album by Red Hot Chili Peppers
Released	April 1, 2022
Recorded	2021
Studio	Shangri-La (Malibu, California)
Genre	Funk rock alternative rock
Length	73:04
Label	Warner
Producer	Rick Rubin
Red Hot Chili Peppers chronology
Live in Paris (2016) Unlimited Love (2022)
{{{This album}}}
Singles from Unlimited Love

Unlimited Love is the twelfth studio album by the American rock band the Red Hot Chili Peppers, released through Warner Records on April 1, 2022. The album features the return of producer Rick Rubin, who was absent from The Getaway (2016), and guitarist John Frusciante, who left in 2009 and rejoined in 2019, replacing Josh Klinghoffer.

The first single, "Black Summer", was released on February 4, 2022; it became the Chili Peppers' fourteenth number one on the Billboard Alternative Songs chart. "These Are the Ways" followed on March 31, 2022. Unlimited Love received generally positive reviews. A world tour is set to begin in June 2022.

Unlimited Love made its debut at number one in 16 different countries including the United States, giving the band their first number one album in their home country since Stadium Arcadium (2006).

Background

Following the tour for their eleventh album, The Getaway (2016), the Red Hot Chili Peppers began writing their next album with guitarist Josh Klinghoffer. However, singer Anthony Kiedis and bassist Flea were unhappy with their progress. They wondered if they could involve guitarist John Frusciante, who had recorded several albums with the Chili Peppers, but left in 2009 and moved into making electronic music. Frusciante said: "Flea had put the idea [of rejoining] in my head and I was sitting there with the guitar thinking that I hadn't written any rock music in so long. Could I still do that?"

On December 15, 2019, the Chili Peppers announced that, after 10 years, Frusciante had rejoined, replacing Klinghoffer. In an interview, Klinghoffer said there was no animosity: "It's absolutely John's place to be in that band ... I'm happy that he's back with them." Flea said separating from Klinghoffer had been difficult, but that "artistically, in terms of being able to speak the same [musical] language, it was easier working with John. Getting back into a room and starting to play and letting the thing unfold… was really exciting." After reuniting with Frusciante, at his request, the band played through songs from their first three albums. Drummer Chad Smith said Frusciante "wanted to reconnect with the band that he fell in love with”, and Kiedis said the exercise was about getting "back to basics" and playing together without expectations.

On February 8, 2020, Frusciante performed with the Chili Peppers (Stephen Perkins filled in on drums for Chad Smith who was away at an art exhibit) for the first time in 13 years, at a memorial service held by the Tony Hawk Foundation for late film producer Andrew Burkle, son of billionaire Ronald Burkle. Shows were scheduled for three festivals that May, but were cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Production and music

After working with Danger Mouse on The Getaway, the Chili Peppers brought in Rick Rubin who had produced the majority of the most successful Red Hot Chili Peppers albums, beginning with Blood Sugar Sex Magik (1991) to I'm with You (2011). Rubin said seeing their first rehearsal after Frusciante's return made him cry: "It was so thrilling to see that group of people back together because they made such great music for so long and it really hit me in an emotional way."

Rehearsals were halted in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. They resumed in 2021 at Rubin's Shangri-La studio in Malibu, with around 100 new songs to work on. The band described Unlimited Love as "the ride that is the sum of our lives". NME said it shared the "melancholic riffmaking, anthemic choruses and softly-sung melodies" of Frusciante's previous work with the Chili Peppers, but introduced new "grungey" and acoustic elements. According to Kiedis and Frusciante, the band recorded almost 50 tracks; there are tentative plans for a follow-up album, "with a relaxed energy that’s distinct from the intensity of the record that we've made here". Lyrically, Kiedis namedrops acts that the band likes such as Grandmaster Flash and Siouxsie Sioux of Siouxsie and the Banshees for "growin' out of the fertile dirt", in the song "Aquatic Mouth Dance". Genre-wise, professional reviewers have tagged the album as funk rock and alternative rock.

Release and promotion

The Red Hot Chili Peppers announced Unlimited Love on February 4, 2022. The first single, "Black Summer", was released on February 4, backed by a music video directed by Deborah Chow. It became the Chili Peppers' fourteenth number-one single on the Billboard charts and their 26th top-ten single on the Alternative Songs chart. The band previewed the new album by releasing "Poster Child" as a promotional single on March 4, backed by a music video directed by Julien & Thami, followed by "Not the One" on March 24. "These Are the Ways", the album's second single, was released on March 31 with a music video directed by Malia James. The Chili Peppers performed their first show to promote the album at The Fonda Theatre on April 1. This was followed by performances on Jimmy Kimmel Live! The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,The Howard Stern Show, at Amoeba Music and at the Yaamava' Resort & Casino in Apriland at the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival and Billboard Music Awards in May. SiriusXM launched the Whole Lotta Red Hot channel on April 1. The channel features track-by-track commentary on Unlimited Love and an exclusive concert for subscribers later in the year.

Reception

Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	72/100
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
The A.V. Club	B
Clash	9/10
Classic Rock	3.5/5
Evening Standard
Exclaim!	7/10
NME
Pitchfork	6.2/10
Rolling Stone
Wall of Sound	9/10

Unlimited Love received generally favorable reviews from music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 72 based on 19 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".

Brittany Spanos of Rolling Stone gave the album 4/5, writing: "more than anything, this record feels like a coming home. There's a certain magic that happens with these four musicians, and Frusciante's absence always leaves a piece of the puzzle missing." Ali Shutler of NME gave the album 4/5, writing that "there's a lot to 'Unlimited Love', both in scale and ambition. It’s at once familiar – without being boring – and fresh." Clash rated the album 9/10, with reviewer Isabella Miller describing it as a "celebration of union, friendship, and life, all manifested across 17 tracks." In a glowing review, Paolo Ragusa of Consequence praised the lyrics and musicianship, writing that it is "fascinating to hear a band nearly forty years into their career try to reach their audience in a different way." Wall of Sound's Duane James rated the album 9/10, writing that it "seems like the most organic work they've released in over a decade and is absolutely worth listening to in whole, and on repeat.."

Some critics found the album mediocre; Steve Beebee of Kerrang! wrote that "It's a good record; just not a great one...There are, however, way too many tracks that miss their marks, trying to supplant the old energy with wisdom; the magik with maturity." Sam Sodomsky of Pitchfork gave it 6.2 out of 10, saying the band "[balanced] the risk of self-parody with the need to live up to people's nostalgia, knowing they've already written the music they'll be remembered for but still wanting to keep the ride going".

Mark Richardson of the Wall Street Journal said the album lacked energy and purpose, and that it "features their classic sound but little that's new or exciting". Phil Mongredien of The Guardian described the album as "bloated and self-indulgent ... with barely a memorable melody or thought-provoking lyric among its 17 tracks". Ryan Leas of Stereogum found that, aside from some highlights, "the crime of Unlimited Love, with all its weight within RHCP's narrative and all the excitement some might've felt, is that the bulk of the album is just completely unmemorable".

Commercial performance

The album was a worldwide commercial success, debuting at number-one in 16 different countries including Argentina, Australia, Austria, Canada, Croatia, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Netherlands, New Zealand, Portugal, Scotland, Switzerland, United Kingdom and United States.

In its home country of the United States, Unlimited Love was the band's second number one on the Billboard 200, and the first since 2006's Stadium Arcadium album selling 97,500 equivalent album units. It marked the longest gap ever between number one albums since Celine Dion waited 17 years and nearly eight months between number one albums. Unlimited Love had the largest week, by equivalent album units and album sales, for any rock album in over a year since Paul McCartney's McCartney III album in January 2021. The sales for Unlimited Love were boosted by various vinyl variants and special editions of the album. The album sold 38,500 copies on vinyl which were the largest sales week for an album on vinyl in 2022 and the second largest sales week for a rock album since 1991.

In the United Kingdom, Unlimited Love debuted at number one, becoming the band's first chart-topper in eleven years since 2011's I'm With You. Unlimited Love sold 27,426 units in its first week, 20,989 of which came from physical formats. Digitally, the album sold 2,315 downloads and streamed 4,122 album-equivalent units.

Tour

Main article: Red Hot Chili Peppers 2022 Global Stadium Tour

On June 4, the Red Hot Chili Peppers are due to begin a stadium tour of 32 cities, starting in Seville, Spain. The shows will be supported by acts including the Strokes, Beck, Haim, St. Vincent, Anderson .Paak, Thundercat and King Princess.

Track listing

All songs written and composed by Anthony Kiedis, Flea, John Frusciante and Chad Smith. 

Unlimited Love track listing
No.	Title	Length
1.	"Black Summer"	3:52
2.	"Here Ever After"	3:50
3.	"Aquatic Mouth Dance"	4:20
4.	"Not the One"	4:26
5.	"Poster Child"	5:16
6.	"The Great Apes"	5:03
7.	"It's Only Natural"	5:34
8.	"She's a Lover"	3:41
9.	"These Are the Ways"	3:56
10.	"Whatchu Thinkin'"	3:40
11.	"Bastards of Light"	3:38
12.	"White Braids & Pillow Chair"	3:40
13.	"One Way Traffic"	4:10
14.	"Veronica"	4:28
15.	"Let 'Em Cry"	4:23
16.	"The Heavy Wing"	5:31
17.	"Tangelo"	3:27
Total length:		73:04

Japanese CD bonus track
No.	Title	Length
18.	"Nerve Flip"	3:06

Personnel

Red Hot Chili Peppers

• Anthony Kiedis – lead vocals
• Flea – bass (all tracks), piano (track 4), trumpet (3, 15)
• John Frusciante – electric guitar (1–16), backing vocals (1, 3 5–9, 11-12, 14–15), co-lead vocals (16) synthesizer (2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 12, 14, 16, 17), Mellotron (5), acoustic guitar (11, 14, 17)
• Chad Smith – drums (1–16), percussion (1, 2), tambourine (1, 4), bass (2), shaker (5, 7, 15)

Additional Musicians

• Cory Henry - organ (5, 15)
• Lenny Castro – percussion (5)
• Mauro Refosco - percussion (3, 8, 10, 11, 13)
• Nate Walcott - trumpet (3)
• Josh Johnson - saxophone (3)
• Vikram Devasthali - trombone (3)
• Mathew Tollings - piano (1, 6)
• Aura T-09 - backing vocals (4)

Production

• Rick Rubin – production
• Ryan Hewitt – mixing, recording
• Bernie Grundman – mastering
• Bo Bodnar – engineering
• Dylan Neustadter – engineering
• Ethan Mates – engineering
• Jason Lader – engineering
• Phillip Broussard Jr. – engineering
• Jeremy Lubsey – assistant mastering
• Gage Freeman – co-ordinator production
• Eric Lynn – co-originator production
• Chris Warren – technician
• Lawrence Malchose – studio technician
• Charlie Bolois – studio technician
• Henry Trejo – studio technician
• Sami Bañuelos – band assistant

Charts

Chart performance for Unlimited Love

Chart (2022)	Peak position
Argentine Albums (CAPIF)	1
Australian Albums (ARIA)	1
Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)	1
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)	2
Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)	2
Canadian Albums (Billboard)	1
Croatian International Albums (HDU)	1
Czech Albums (ČNS IFPI)	3
Danish Albums (Hitlisten)	4
Dutch Albums (MegaCharts)	1
Finnish Albums (Suomen virallinen lista)	3
French Albums (SNEP)	1
German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)	1
Greek Albums (IFPI Greece)	17
Hungarian Albums (MAHASZ)	1
1
Italian Albums (FIMI)	2
Japanese Albums (Oricon)	9
Japanese Hot Albums (Billboard Japan)	7
Lithuanian Albums (AGATA)	7
New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)	1
Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)	9
Polish Albums (ZPAV)	4
Portuguese Albums (AFP)	1
Scottish Albums (OCC)	1
Spanish Albums (PROMUSICAE)	2
Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)	2
Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)	1
UK Albums (OCC)	1
US Billboard 200	1
US Top Alternative Albums (Billboard)	1
US Top Rock Albums (Billboard)	1