I'm With You [180 Gram]

Children are born, but a friend dies. A new guitarist arrives as the old one leaves. And a band is reborn after an overdue break. Beginnings and endings. That's I'm With You, truly the beginning of an era for the Red Hot Chili Peppers. The 10th album of the Los Angeles band's singular career sees the band refreshed, renewed, once again working with producer Rick Rubin (their fifth partnership, including the last album, 2006's monster Stadium Arcadium two-CD tour de force). It expands the same combination of funk and finesse, intensity and tenderness that's made the Peppers sine qua non in modern rock, but with a new set of life experiences from the intervening years that coalesced into a dynamically fresh start.