The Red Hot Chili Peppers have announced the name and release date of their upcoming 12th studio album, Unlimited Love, which will drop on April 1. The long-running Cali-pop/funk band also unleashed the globe-spanning video for the 17-track project’s first single, the meditative “Black Summer.”
The upcoming Rick Rubin-produced collection — the follow-up to 2016’s The Getaway — marks their studio reunion with former guitarist John Frusciante, who they last recorded with on 2006’s Stadium Arcadium. Frusciante rejoined the group in 2019 after first taking his place alongside singer Anthony Kiedis, bassist Flea and drummer Chad Smith in 1988, then leaving in 1992, re-rejoining in 1998 and splitting again in 2009.
His elegant playing is in full force on “Summer,” perfectly matching the trip-around-the-planet visual directed by Deborah Chow, in which the mustache-and-mullet-rocking Kiedis practices Tai Chi-like moves at sunset, while Frusciante plays tasty licks over images of glaciers and nighttime traffic and Flea pops his bass in the clouds.
“It’s been a long time since I made a new friеnd/ Waitin’ on another black summer to end/ It’s been a long timе and you never know when/ Waitin’ on another black summer to end,” Kiedis sings on the mid-tempo song’s wistful chorus.
“Our only goal is to get lost in the music. We spent thousands fitness of hours, collectively and individually, honing our craft and showing up for one another, to make the best album we could,” the band said in a statement. Our antennae attuned to the divine cosmos, we were just so damn grateful for the opportunity to be in a room together, and, once again, try to get better. Days, weeks and months spent listening to each other, composing, jamming freely, and arranging the fruit of those jams with great care and purpose. The sounds, rhythms, vibrations, words and melodies had us enrapt.
“We yearn to shine a light in the world, to uplift, connect, and bring people together. Each of the songs on our new album ‘Unlimited Love’ is a facet of us, reflecting our view of the universe. This is our life’s mission. We work, focus, and prepare, so that when the biggest wave comes, we are ready to ride it. The ocean has gifted us a mighty wave and this record is the ride that is the sum of our lives. Thank you for listening, we hope you enjoy it.”
The lengthy statement also notes that when the four friends started jamming and writing material for the collection they listened to songs by such legends as Johnny “Guitar” Watson, The Kinks, New York Dolls and Richard Barrett, according to Frusciante. “The feeling of effortless fun we had when we were playing songs by other people, stayed with us the whole time we were writing. For me, this record represents our love for, and faith in each other,” he said.
Dates for the band’s upcoming global stadium summer tour were announced earlier this year, with the North American string of dates slated to kick off on July 23 in Denver at Empower Field at Mile High, running through a Sept. 18 gig in Arlington, Texas at Globe Life Field. The Strokes, A$AP Rocky, Beck, Haim, St. Vincent, Anderson .Paak & the Free Nationals, Thundercat and King Princess will serve as special guests on the tour.
Watch the “Black Summer” video and the album track list below.
Unlimited Love track list:
- “Black Summer”
- “Here Ever After”
- “Aquatic Mouth Dance”
- “Not the One”
- “Poster Child”
- “The Great Apes”
- “It’s Only Natural”
- She’s a Lover”
- “These Are the Ways”
- “Watchu Thinkin’”
- “Bastards of Light”
- “White Braids & Pillow Chair”
- “One Way Traffic”
- “Veronica”
- “Let ‘Em Cry”
- “The Heavy Wing”
- “Tangelo”
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